"Az idős emberek ülnek a buszon, a diákok pedig állnak."
Translation:The old people are sitting on the bus, and the students are standing.
32 Comments
Does Hungarian, like English "on the bus", use buszon to mean "inside the bus", or only "on the roof of the bus"?
Also, in general, would it be correct to translate -on not only as "on" but also as "on top of", e.g. az asztalakon as "on top of the table"?
Yes, we say buszon, villamoson, vonaton, repülőgépen to mean inside, similarly to English. (But in the car is autóban in Hungarian as well.)
Yes again, "-on" works for "on top of" as well. Another possibility is the postposition tetején (lit. "on top of"): "az asztalokon" ~ "az asztalok tetején"
Though they are not completely interchangeable. When talking about tables, "-on" is more natural. Or when something is "a fa tetején", it's on top of the tree, while if it's simply "a fán", it can either be in the tree or on top of it.
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Now I will try to remember it in English and Hungarian, that the ending "on" means on the wheels :-) and not on top of cars and busses (like Germans understand it). Thank you!
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In English you can only be ‘on’ a vehicle you can walk around inside of, like a plane, a train, or a bus, but not a car. Does it work the same way in Hungarian?
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Yes, it means inside the bus (as well as on top). But to translate this sentence into English we'd say "in". "On" with this sentence implies on top of the bus. (You can be "on the bus" but as soon as you add sit it bcomes "in the bus") So teh translation given is incorrect in English.
Really? idős cannot also mean elderly as well as old? Or is there a distinction between the two in Hungarian?
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Actually, idős is elderly, and öreg is old. So öreg is older. And öreg is a ruder word, while idős is more polite.
What determines whether you would use regi vs idős? Does the latter refer specifically to people?
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I learned, that régi is for things and öreg for people. But i am not Sure, if this is correct.
Almost correct. You can use öreg for old things and people too, but régi only for old non-living objects.
a régi férfiak még tudtak harcolni-"men who lived in the past" knew how to fight
elderly sounds much more polite. Also in or on the bus should both be accepted here, unless of course you are talking about some countries where travelling on (top of) the bus is frequent. Standing on the bus is however not recommended, especially when travelling under a bridge.
Does "idős emberek" have the same rude connotation as saying "old people" in English? If so, is there a more polite term in Hungarian that would correspond to "elderly"?
Why does is 'and' in the correct answer when you have a commer and no and in the Hungarian text?
Shall I translate emberek always as people? It's not the first time "men" was rejected. And I didn't even mention, that sometimes ember can even mean a woman...
I would say people is better as "emberek" is gender-neutral.
in the singular "ember" is "man" only when "man" actually stands for the gender-neutral "human" or "person" (e.g. "mankind" also includes women)
so, I would say: ember - person emberek - people
Do you think that "on the bus the elderly people seat, whereas the students stand" should be accepted?
I would say yes, but only if you replace "seat" for "sit" also, i would put the "on the bus" later in the sentence:
"The elderly people sit on the bus, whereas the students stand." This should be accepted in my opinion.
I though it would have been acceptable. "sit" of course, "seat" comes from.. i don't know! :-) Köszönöm!
With the word pedig, we can also use the word however in English. To say, "The old people are sitting on the bus, the students, however, are standing." means exactly the same as if you use the word "but".
I thought "oreg" was old, whereas "idos was "elderly". In English, we say: they are sitting in the bus, which is what they actually do. We get "on or into a vehicle" but we sit on seats in them.
