"A munkások villamoson és buszon utaznak."
Translation:The workers travel by tram and by bus.
22 Comments
there is no plural in the hungarian sentence- so how are we supposed to know that it is plural- why is it not villamosokon and buszokon?
48
The current translation (5 July 2017) looks fine to me: A munkások villamoson és buszon utaznak.
why not -the workers are on the tram and on the bus traveling. on and not by
- 48
- There is a plural in the sentence: munkások.
- In English you usually use the singular (by tram, by bus) when making a general description. Apparently that is also true for Hungarian.
I'm considering whether "The workers travel on trams and on buses" is a correct translation here. The meaning is similar, at least in American English. But maybe there's something I'm missing?
No, you're not missing anything, "on" would be just as good as "by" here.
Fwiw, there's another Hungarian ending that's used with modes of transportation that would feel like a more natural translation of "by" to me (villamossal és busszal) but it hasn't been in the lessons so far.
So, in order to be more specific, does the suffix "-al"/"-el" translate as "via" in English, "via" meaning "by way of" or "by means of"? It seems to be properly translated ONLY that way! Thank you to our contributors!
It seems correct to me. If I were to say a sentence like this, I think I'd probably say "The workers travel by tram and by bus." The only situations I can think of where I would use the plural would involve specific trams and buses, but then that would probably involve the definite article.
I don't think it makes sense to use the plural, since it's neither used in the original Hungarian sentence nor more "natural" in English.
Yes, I agree. "By tram and by bus" is sufficiently more correct that "by trams and by buses" should likely be marked wrong.
Both translations are correct . Buszon és villamoson utaznak is as common here as busszal és villamossal utaznak.
On would be a more direct translation rather than by. Surely by would be val/vel
I this situation - By tram and on the tram have the exact same meaning in American Enlish
Harold - I suspect that your assertion that "I[n] this situation . . . American En[g]lish." is not true in all contexts, especially if there are many possible "trams" under discussion
Tram is not often used in Canada. We usually use streetcars or buses. Tram is more often used in the UK.
