"The railway stations are where the hotels are."

Translation: A pályaudvarok ott vannak, ahol a szállodák.

[Andrew359786]

I've seen this construction a few times, with the "ott" that disappears from the English translation, and I still don't understand how it works. Can I translate the Hungarian as "the railway stations are there, where the hotels are"? There's no problem with this as an English sentence.

Conversely, how would i translate my English sentence into Hungarian? It does have a different flavour to duo's sentence; theirs is a general statement that wherever the hotels are, the stations are there too, whereas mine specifies that I know the location and I'm pointing it out. But it seems I can't do that in Hungarian as "ott" is already in the sentence that apparently DOESN'T indicate the "there"...

Am I over thinking this? :-)

[mizinamo]

Your English sentence has two interpretations.

The one I had at first means pretty much exactly the same as Duo's.

But from your description I think you mean what I would punctuate as "The railway stations are there -- where the hotels are."

That is, "where the hotels are" could be a restrictive relative clause that identifies the "there" (my interpretation) or a non-restrictive relative clause which merely provides additional information but plays no part in identifying "there" (what I understand to be your interpretation).

I wonder whether Hungarian can make a distinction.

German, for example, also doesn't make a distinction between "The students who are smart will succeed" (restrictive) and "The students, who are smart, will succeed" (non-restrictive), always requiring the commas.

[Shamarth]

Hungarian works like German here: "A diákok, akik okosak, sikeresek lesznek." -- the commas are always necessary.

And we don't make a distinction in this sentence about the railway stations either. With this structure both translations are correct.

[mizinamo]

Wouldn't Hungarian make a distinction between A diákok, akik okosak, sikeresek lesznek (non-restrictive, just additional information) and Azok a diákok, akik okosak, sikeresek lesznek (restrictive, identifying which students you mean)?

Because Duo always uses azok a ..., akik/amelyek ... for its (restrictive) relative sentences.

Is that merely common but not really necessary?

[Shamarth]

Yes, it's common (and preferable) to use that as distinction, but it can also be understood as "Those students will succeed. By the way, they're smart", so that's why I didn't include it in my comment.

[mizinamo]

Ah, that makes sense - thank you!

[_paranoia_]

Would it be correct with a "vannak" after the comma? (Since one is indicating existence.)

[Shamarth]

"A pályaudvarok ott vannak, ahol a szállodák vannak."

This is a grammatically correct sentence, which should be accepted, but the second "vannak" is redundant.

[balpers]

I take it that the "ott" needs to come before the verb? What is the word order rule here?

[jzsuzsi]

Yes, in ott ahol constructions, put ott before the verb. (most of the time)

Ott is in the focus here, since the main information is: where are the train stations?