13 Comments
1571
It is a nice short sentence within a sequence of (partly horrible) long ones.
But what is the meaning of that sentence?
Maybe: I write ONTO that one, which is white?
>I write ONTO that one, which is white?
Yes, or even better in English, "...ON that one," since we don't usually bother trying to specify directionality as precisely as Hungarian does.
Basically, I write on white things.
There may be a little confusion here, and I mean the original sentences. The translation needs to be corrected. Mixing "ami" with "amelyik" is an unfortunate mistake in Hungarian usage. Hopefully it will not be taught here.
"Arra írok, ami fehér." means "I write on what is white".
That is, I only write on white things.
"Arra írok, amelyik fehér" means "I write on the one that is white".
That is, I pick the white one, out of all the available colors, and I write on that one.
So the Hungarian sentence is using singular what we would say as plural. Interesting.
Well, that was just my attempt at explaining the meaning using the plural. But "I write on what is white" is singular.
And "I write on white things" has its plural equivalent in Hungarian:
"Én fehér dolgokra írok."
Until now, I never understood the difference between ami and amelyik. Your explanation made it clear. Thanks!
You are welcome! But be aware, colloquial usage may not folllow the "rules". This very sentence above ("Arra írok, ami fehér") means to say "amelyik" but uses "ami" instead. It is okay in some cases, while in other cases may be plain wrong. Here, for example, it can lead to misunderstanding.
Anyway, if you understand the difference, that is a great help in any case, both understanding the correct usage and hopefully being able to decipher the not so correct, lazy usage. You will see a lot of those in this course. Good luck!
And here is a long discussion for you, where I tried to explain all this confusing topic in detail:
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Oh joyous day, "I write on what is white" is accepted, against all odds. :D
there is something wrong in the program I wrote twice thew same answer and it iis alway wrong
