"Az orosz óvónő leugrik az órához."
Translation:The Russian kindergarten teacher jumps down to the clock.
38 Comments
I think here leugrik has a more colloquial meaning. the kindergarten teacher did not literally jump down to a clock. My mental image was that she was upstairs and the clock was downstairs so she went down to check the time. Hungarians do say "Leugrik a boltba" meaning "He/she (quickly) goes to the store"
True! My Hungarian boyfriend tends to say "I will jump down to the shop". Makes perfect sense now :). Thanks!
I agree - this makes more sense than anything else I've come up with to explain this sentence! Thank you!
This doesn't make any sense in English anyway - jumps down to the clock?? What is that?
Like there's a Russian kindergarten teacher in a helicopter above the Big Ben and skydives down onto the top of it? I don't know either. Some of these sentences don't make much sense in a funny kind of way (see also 40% of all the Dutch sentences), and then others...
1432
Only Hungarian teachers can fly!-) Plus, Russians have lots of decommissioned choppers...
Let's not make it hard. The óvónő flew up to the top of the clock tower and then jumped down to the clock. Perfectly natural for a flighty pedant.
- 652
It makes me sad how many people consider this sentence nonsensical in English. I'm not sure what the exact problem is - if the English translation is bad (/awkward /ungramatical) or there is another (interlingual) problem... (perhaps it has something to do with differences between linguistic areas / Sprachbunds?) For me - as a native speaker of Czech - it's quite easy to understand what this Hungarian sentence mean (or at least it's easy for me to believe I do understand it - maybe I got it wrong :D). But of course, in Czech (unlike English) we have cases and endings and verbal aspect and just one present tense, one past tense and one future tense...
In English, the sentence isn't nonsense, it just seems bizarre without any real context.
- 652
I'm not sure my command of English is sufficient to explain (or my knowledge of Hungarian sufficient to understand the sentence right, as I've already mentioned), but I'll try. As I wrote in my first comment here: Maybe her (= the kindergarten teacher's) watch fell down into a pit? That was one of the first ideas that occured to me upon reading the Hungarian sentence.
"az orosz óvónő" (I agree that the sentence is a little bit unusual) aside, there's "leugrik" which is "ugrik" (to jump) with the verbal prefix "le". "le" usually signifies direction downwards - leszáll, leül... Then there is "az órához". As I understand it, -hoz/hez means "towards (something)" or "in the direction of (smthg)". It's like directional (as opposed to positional, statical) version of -nál/nél - which sometimes translates to the preposition "at" (a nagymamámnál - at my grandma's (place) etc.). Only in Hungarian it can be used with objects/things as well.
So, an intent to sum up: The Russian kindergarten teacher finds herself in some higher place or position from which she jumps to a place situated lower where the watch / clock is.
Hopefully it'd be of some help.
I agree that these nonsense sentences are awful and i hate them. But I have this question: is there an idea in language teaching that by using nonsensical content you focus on the linguistic principles being studied, and actually facilitate learning?
That would be true if there were not so many mistakes and frustrating rejections of acceptable answers. Here "is jumping" instead of "jumps" rejected, while in other places it is the reverse. This means that you have to repeat the exercise until you remember what the system exactly wants, or until it is eventually corrected.
- 652
There was an answer relating to this in the comments section of another sentence (unfortunately, I don't remember which one). I think they wrote there that it has something to do with the verbal aspect in Hungarian - that verbs with prefixes are perfective and therefore the answers containing present tense continuous in English are not accepted.
- 103
I think that the answer to that would be no; although learning a language as an adult does require conscious attention to so called linguistic principals, it also in parallel must be nurtured as a method of communication. My non-scientific observation would be that you remember sentences better if they convey something meaningful to you. That allows you to compare sentences and thus construct your some of your own based on the patterns you recognize.
I think fanciful but natural sentences can be useful: ones that create a vivid, clear image that wouldn't happen in real life, but would be perfectly and unambiguously understood in a fantasy story or some such. This one seems to miss that mark a touch.
- 1432
I totally agree regarding the usefulness of "silly" sentences. There are different methods of learning and/or memorization. Memorization by rote repetition is one method. Memorization by vivid association is a well understood and practiced method. Check out a totally different/unknown language to you in Memrise and you will be shocked to see how "silly" images, volunteered by people around the globe, become very useful and relevant. Chinese, one of the oldest languages around, still uses the visual association. I find that fact very educational. A useful article on the subject can be found at the URL provided below. If nothing else, I try to appreciate the humor of the volunteering authors of the course OR even the Sci-Fi aspects of it! Regards.
http://www.memory-improvement-tips.com/memory-association.html
I asked that q 3 weeks ago. Since then my experience leads me to agree entirely. It makes no sense and impedes learning. Also, I now think that there's betas and there's betas. This one is very bad. Today will be my first day of not doing this any more. I will wait until it is out of beta. and use other resources in the meantime.
My understanding is that óra can mean either clock or watch. In the context of this sentence, could it mean watch? That was my first answer, course said it was wrong.
Should "watch" be accepted? thx
The proper name for "watch" is karóra ("arm-clock"). For this reason I'm not sure if it should be accepted on Duo or not. In real life, of course, it's perfectly fine to simply call it "óra".
I learned it as "wristwatch". Yet, no course I have tried has ever accepted it. Anyway, yes, any general timepiece can be an "óra" and should be accepted.
That might be the case, but it still doesn't make sense. What does it mean to jump down to a watch?
I thought that órá could be translated as "class" (as in kindergarten class). Is this incorrect? If not, the kindergarten teacher jumping down to the class makes a certain degree more sense.
'óra' can mean class if you are talking about math class, English class etc.. But if you want to refer to the students as a class, then the word for that is 'osztály'.
One dictionary I checked with gave a possible meaning of óra as "a lesson" probably idiomatic I think like "period" for class in Australia. If you use this meaning along with leugrik being idiomatic for "hurry down to" it makes sense.
I like it that so many sentences doesn't make any sense. I can focus more on grammar rather on context.
- 1409
I look at these nonsensical sentences much like the phrase "how now brown cow", just practice on using the words, grammar a syntax of the Hungarian language.. Yes, there is frustration when I say "to" and the response demand "into" and vice versa but then again, that could be the rote memory part others have mentioned.
Thank god there were no short trees in the way. Also her hovercraft is full of eels...
