"Zsuzsa egy jó könyvet keres és nem talál."
Translation:Zsuzsa is looking for a good book and she cannot find any.
15 Comments
Would another possible translation be "Zsuzsa is looking for a good book and she can't find one"? It seems like the "any" or the "one" is just implied.
I put and cannot find it but it was rejected. They just seem to want and cannot find so I will try that
the word talál is indefinite conjugation which means that Zsuzsa is looking for any good book, and can't find any. If Zsuzsa is looking for a specific book, then you would use the definite form találja.
They have put the number one 1 instead of the word one. I don't think we would do that in English except for perhaps texting someone
I think not, for the reason JimLeonard0 gave above. (“It” would mean she can’t find a particular book, and then the definite conjugation would have been used for talál.)
I think it's bizarre because in English the sentence clearly represents a contrast, so naturally, or at least that's what i think, there should be "but" instead of the "and"
Can i thus figure that the "és" in Hungarian is somehow just a sort of coordinate conjunction and can be used if the two parts are positive, negative or even both?
No. The conjunction és really is a close equivalent in English and Hungarian. "Looks and doesn't find" is an acceptable idea and a normal construction in English.
the answer is Zsuzsa is looking for a good book and she cannot find one. OR Zsuzsa is looking for good bookS and she cannot find any.
What makes this incorrect: "Zsuzsa is looking for and cannot find a good book"?
A literal translation might require a form of "tud + infinitive" or "nem lehet + infinitive" in the Hungarian, but a less strict English translation would accept my example. Indeed, the translation is quite loose.
It's a fine English sentence but you need commas to separate the clause "and cannot find" from the main clause.
