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- "Tourists do not go to those …
"Tourists do not go to those beaches; there are few hotels."
Translation:Azokra a strandokra nem mennek turisták; kevés a szálloda.
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Hotels are few and far between.
- Few are the hotels
- Few is the number of the hotels
Actually, with a little generalization, this is an extremely common structure. The subject is last, and what we state about it is before it. That statement can be a verb or an adjective or anything.
You will surely remember this one:
"Esik az eső." - It rains. Literally, "falling is the rain", "falls the rain". This one with a verb.
"Kevés a víz." - "Little is the water". There is little water. This one with an adjective.
Just a few more, with their literal translations:
"Hosszú az út." - "Long is the road."
"Vad a szél." - "Wild is the wind."
"Kevés az idő." - "Little is the time."
"Kevés az oroszlán." - "Few are the lions."
"Fúj a szél." - "Blowing is the wind."
"Esik a hó." - "Falling is the snow."
"Fáj a fejem." - "Hurting is my head."
"Jön a nyár." - "Coming is the Summer."
"Szépek a felhők." - "Beautiful are the clouds."
"Eltűntek a házak." - "Gone are the houses."
"Szép ez az ország." - "Beautiful is this country."
"Kevés a vacsora." - "Little is the dinner."
"Szűk ez a város." - "Tight is this city."
"Jó a kedvem." - "Good is my mood."
"Itt jön a nap." - "Here comes the Sun."
"Elfogyott a pénz." - "Gone is the money."
"Felkelt a Nap." - "Has risen the Sun".
"Múlik az idő." - "Passes the time."
I could go on and on...
I will let you translate this one:
"Happily jumping is Yoda."
To put it in perspective with the other structures you have seen before, let's take one example:
"Szép felhő" - beautiful cloud - adjective + noun
"Szép felhők" - beautiful clouds - singular adj. + plural noun
"A felhő szép." - The cloud is beautiful.
"A felhők szépek." - The clouds are beautiful. Adj. after the noun, so it is plural.
"Szépek a felhők." - The clouds are beautiful.
So, suddenly it is clear that this is just a reversal of the normal word order of "A felhők szépek." Important stuff first, that's all. The adjective is still plural.
This is not to be confused with
"A szép felhők" - The beautiful clouds.
Especially in the singular, the word order is very important here:
"Kevés a szálloda." - "Few are the hotels." - There are few hotels.
"a kevés szálloda" - the few hotels
It makes more sense now, thanks for explaining and listing all of these examples! :D In reality a lot of the things I come across in Hungarian make sense; they're just so drastically different from English that it's kind of hard to see that. I'm sure I'll get more used to thinking in a "Hungarian mindset" once I really start using the language.
Thanks again! ^.^
It's basically just another way that the definite article a is used for a general statement about a whole class of things. "Hotels are few" would be another way of reading that part of sentence; it doesn't sound good that way in English, but maybe it explains the structure a little better. ("Hotels are scarce" would be a better-sounding way to say it in English)
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I met this via the word bank and, realising that I usually need to leave four words unused, I chose to put my second "a" in front of "turisták", for the same reason: it is talking generally about tourists.
I did appreciate all the discussion about what the "a" is doing after "kevés".