"This beautiful young kindergarten teacher is not sitting on the bus, but on a tram."

Translation: Ez a szép fiatal óvónő nem a buszon, hanem egy villamoson ül.

[JMaxGlobal]

If I were never to have visited Hungary, I would have to conclude from these lessons, that the vast majority of the population is comprised of kindergarten teachers.

[ivancarmo2]

Flying, young and beautiful kindergarten teachers

[GerSzej]

ez a szép fiatal óvónö (I know I don't have the right ") nem ul a buszon, hanem egy villamoson. not correct? also, I noticed that sometimes egy is rejected and sometimes it is required.

[jsiehler]

In contrastive, Not-X-but-Y sentences like this (not on the bus, but on a tram), the Hungarian needs to be nem X ... hanem Y with nem immediately before the X and hanem immediately before the Y.

Your sentence expresses a contrast like "not sitting .... but on a tram" which doesn't really work.

They are inconsistent with the use of egy. There are plenty of exercises where it could be legitimately included or left out, but only one version is accepted.

[vvsey]

"jsiehler", you are doing a really good job with these eplanations on the "not-X-but-Y" concept!

On omitting "egy". In this particular sentence, it is much better to include the "egy", since it is contrasted with a definite alternative. "A buszon" vs "egy villamoson". Without "egy", the second part sounds too much like a general statement. But that is also possible, it is up to the context to determine.

[GerSzej]

Thank you both. Your comments/corrections are very much appreciated.

[MarcoInacio]

"Ez a szép fiatal óvónő nem a buszon ül hanem egy villamoson" was accepted. Does it sound less natural than the default one?

[MGeri92]

Your version is also absolutely correct and natural! :)

[pinholik]

Ez a szép fiatal óvónő nem a buszon ül, hanem egy villamoson . Ez így is helyes!

[judy736882]

She's tired after all that flying.

[guntunge]

Can "ül" appear also in the first part of the sentence?

Ez a szép fiatal óvónő (ül) nem a buszon (ül), hanem egy villamoson (ül).

1+3, 2+3, 1, 2, 3?

[guntunge]

If I remember another discussion correctly I think 2+3 or just 2 or 3 are proper, since the elements after nem x hanem y should be the focus and focusing on óvónő makes not much sense.

[orangemiez]

I typed in your alternate 2 (only 2) and was rejected

[Gabri570182]

Why is not correct "Ez a szép fiatal óvónő nem ül a buszon hanem egy villamoson"?

[MGeri92]

You have to take care of what you put against each other by using "hanem". In your sentence, you compare "ül" (is sitting) and "villamoson" (on the tram), which is not correct and also sounds strange (like comparing apple and pear). So you could have 2 possibilities here:

1. Put two places (bus and tram) against each other, because those are WHERE the woman can sit: "Ez a szép fiatal óvónő nem a buszon ül, hanem egy villamoson." Here "a buszon" is after "nem", meaning that it is NOT the bus she's sitting on but the tram. So here the place is more important than the action.

2. Put two actions (sitting and something else, like standing ["áll" in Hungarian]) against each other, because those are which the woman can DO on a bus: "Ez a szép fiatal óvónő nem ül a buszon, hanem áll." (But of course it won't be correct for Duolingo, as the sentence lacks the tram, it's only for getting the idea.)

I hope this explanation helps you. :)

[Heldhram]

Was playing around with the word order and typed: "Nem a buszon ül ez a szép fiatal óvónő, hanem egy villamoson." which got marked wrong, I wonder if it's because I separated 'nem a buszon' and 'hanem egy villamoson'.

Could someone explain why that was incorrect? Thanks!

[MGeri92]

I can only guess, but maybe because you wrote "a buszon" instead of "egy buszon".