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- "Ez piros alma, nem fekete."
12 Comments
The English sentence would be better as "..., not a black one.", I think.
919
A. Since none of the Hungarian words in "Ez piros alma, nem fekete" translates as "is," could someone please reiterate why there does not need to be a verb in this third-person sentence?
B. What if one wanted to say, with no verb, "This red apple, not the black"? Perhaps it is not possible to say that in Hungarian? (That does not seem likely, though.)
- 30
There are tons of comments on this in the earlier lessons. Here is the summary:
"is" = "van".
In the third person, in the present tense, in statements about a subject, "van" is omitted. Here is the full roster:
Én piros vagyok
Te piros vagy
Ő piros
Mi pirosak vagyunk
Ti pirosak vagytok
Ők pirosak
You can further search the discussions for more information. Or just keep reading the comments wherever there are some, you will surely come across this topic.
And on your B question:
This is an apple - Ez alma. Or ez egy alma.
This apple - Ez az alma.
Yes, you stick a definite article right in the middle. That is how it is distinguished from the other structure.
"This red apple, not the black" - "Ez a piros alma, nem a fekete."
- 919
Your explanation is so clear! Köszönöm szépen! And after I wrote my comment, I kept wondering and working at more examples--until I stumbled across someone else's comment someplace that had a link to the explanations in Basic 2. That helped much. But your explanation is so valuable. Grazie molto! Much appreciated! It is clear that this is not a Latin or Germanic language--not that I ever expected it to be.
This is what I heard her say: Egy piros alma, nem fekete. Not egy. Maybe it's my speakers.
- 30
Btw, this should also work in the plural:
"These are red apples, not black (ones)."
I hope the system accepts it.
