"You are not artists, but actors."
Translation:Nem művészek vagytok, hanem színészek.
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Could someone tell me the logic as to why this is not correct? Nem vagytok művészek, hanem színészek. I seem to have a hard time with this order. When I was growing up, it was completely acceptable in our Hungarian household to say it either way and the way I wrote it seems to be the way I remember saying it. Thank you!
People will understand it that way, too, but it is still incorrect. See, in Hungarian, you can specifically negate the verb or the noun. Just as Denizfru says, when it is about just one thing, say, "You are not artists.", it becomes a question of "are you or are you not?". So, we can say
"Nem vagytok művészek." - negating the verb itself.
But when it is a choice between two things (artists or actors), then the question becomes "artists or actors?". Then we are NOT negating the verb but rather one noun over the other. Because, after all, "you ARE something", except that something is "not artists but actors". Hence
"Nem művészek vagytok, hanem színészek."
926
I think when that phrase stands alone, "Nem vagytok művészek." - this is a correct sentence. One ascertainment. When we express opposition, the other word order is more Hungarian (magyarosabb). https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/hanem Look at the sentence of the link
926
A színészek művészek. Vagy nem? Az eredeti mondattal van bajom, nem a fordítással. (An artist can be a painter, musician, sculptor, ceramicist, etc. and also an actor.)