"I do not see any children."
Translation:Én nem látok gyereket.
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Yes, it's correct.
"Nem látok gyereket" is the neutral word order.
"Gyereket nem látok": there are other things/people you see, but no children.
Is gyereket both singular and plural in Hungarian as a direct object? The sentence is "I do not see any children," not "I do not see any child."
No, it is not. But in these kind of sentences, with a general object, Hungarian tends to use the singular noun.
If it were a definite object, the Hungarian would also be in the plural:
"I do not see the children" - "Nem látom a gyerekeket"
Maybe I am not correct in my explanation, even though the result is similar....
So, let's say that in a negative sentence, especially with "any", the Hungarian version will frequently use a singular noun. But it still stands that it refers to general objects:
I do not see any children/child - Nem látok gyereket.
I do not want any apples - Nem kérek almát
Thanks for your examples. Just dropped you a Lingot. Is it supposed to sound like I don't want apple, as to say I don't want any apples?
I am not sure what you mean by your question. The normal way of saying it in English is "I don't want (any) apples". In the plural, with countable objects.
So when you say it in English, it's plural (apples), what is it like in Hungarian that you say it in singular form and it means plural?
Just like I said in my earlier comment:
I do not want any apples - Nem kérek almát
Still I don't understand. Is the almát here a plural? Or just I don't want apple?
Would "Nem látok gyerekeket." still be a possible translation for "I do not see any children", even if a less common one?
As far as I know, semmi "nichts, nothing" is the negative of valami "etwas, something", so I think that *Nem látok semmi gyereket" makes as much sense as "Ich sehe nichts Kinder" or "I see nothing children".
