21 Comments
szabad means "free" as in "not in jail", right?
Can it also mean "free" as in "free speech" or "free software"?
What about "free" as in "free beer" (= without cost, gratis)?
What about "unmarried"?
What about "free" as in "are you free right now?" (= do you have time) or "Is this table free?" (= can I sit here because it is not occupied)?
251
Szabad works for all of your examples, except for free beer. gratis= ingyen, ingyenes, free beer = ingyen sör.
umarried can be szabad, but there are also many other words for it: egyedülálló (=single), szingli (=single, English loanword), nőtlen (unmarried man), hajadon (unmarried woman, this one is a bit old-style)
are you free right now?" (= do you have time) Szabad vagy most? / Van egy kis időd? / Ráérsz?
"Is this table free?" Szabad ez az asztal?
Thank you! Now these are useful phrases to know!
I like thinking about the possible etymologies of some of these words.
"Nőtlen" = "woman-less"? "Hajadon" - What is the literal translation (if different from just unmarried)?
Also, it's just occurred to me after seeing "időd" that this is where "idős" must come from. So if someone is old, they are "time-ish"? :)
- 251
Yes, nőtlen=woman-less
Hajadon comes from the word "haj"=hair. Traditionally (like 70 years ago) in villages, married women wore a kerchief on their head, but maidens did not, so they went with free hair.
There is also a word "hajadonfőtt" (literally more or less "maiden-headed") which means "with bared head", so not wearing a kerchief or a hat or anything on your head.
Thanks for that. I kept staring at "Hajadon" trying to break it down, but I didn't think of hair at all.
"Maiden-headed" could be thought of as meaning "virgin," though I don't think anyone actually says that. This would date back to when women were expected to be virgins before they married.
It has more meanings: http://wikiszotar.hu/wiki/magyar_ertelmezo_szotar/Szabad Szabad szoftver is perfectly fine. Free speech - Szólásszabadság which is more like freedom of speech. Szabad is also good for "do you have time" and "is this seat free"? About unmarried - I think it can be used sometimes, but usually other words are used.
"Free beer" would use ingyenes instead of szabad, IINM. Beyond that, I don't know.
Another possible meaning of free : without, as in "fat-free" or "smoke-free". Does szabad work for those?
- 213
For "without something" you'd usually say valami nélkül or nélküli if you want to use it as adjective. Also part of one of my favourite phrases I'd learned earlier: vezeték nélküli hálózat - wireless network.
If you want to say "doesn't contain", like in "fat-free", you can add -mentes to the noun. Fat-free is zsírmentes, smoke-free translates to füstmentes.
What is the difference between "free software" and "free beer"? Don't they both mean "without cost"?
No - "free software" refers to the freedom to analyse and modify the software and to distribute modified versions, not to its cost.
In this sense, Linux is free software because you can download the source code and create your own version of Linux and even sell the result (as long as you provide your customers with the source code to your changed version as well), whereas Windows is not free software even if you did not pay for it separately, because you do not have the freedom to modify the source code or to distribute changed versions.
Interesting, I didn't realize the definition was so specific. I was thinking of "freeware," I guess.
True; in my experience as well, "freeware" is about price, but "free software" is about freedom.
It's a bit confusing, which may be why some prefer "libre software" or "open-source software" (not entirely the same thing - having the source may not come with permission to distribute modified copies) or "FLOSS" (free/libre and open-source software).
I also thought that "szabad" meant "allowed". Is this incorrect? If not, would, "No, you're not allowed" be acceptable?
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I tried that and it was rejected. Can anyone confirm it is not correct? Seems all my childhood I kept hearing "nem szabad!"
- 213
Szabad has two different uses. Here it's simply an adjective, meaning "free".
But on the other hand it can also take the meaning of "being allowed to" as one of the handful of "impersonal verbs". Those are a special little category of verbs that don't conjugate by themselves, but modify the secondary verb instead. That secondary verb then uses a form called "possessive infinitive". Looks a bit funny sometimes:
- Szabad menned. - You may go.
- Nem szabad innunk. - We aren't allowed to drink it.
With the unpossessed infinitive it can also be used for more general sentences (that's why they are called "impersonal"):
- A szobrot nem szabad fényképezni. - It is not allowed to take pictures of the statue.
If you say something is "nem szabad," it would normally mean not allowed. My answer was, "No, you are not allowed" but this wasn't accepted. Was it wrong?
