11 Comments
This is not necessarily an error, but it is very old-fashioned in English to refer to a wife by her husband's name. This is probably more properly translated as Excuse me, are you László Tóth's wife? which is more likely to be accepted.
47
Does the -ne attach to the family name or the given name or either? I think I have seen both in the DL exercises.
- 213
It's attaches to the end of the name, whichever part of the name you have. Tóthné, Tóth Lászlóné. I don't know exactly if just Lászlóné is used, but it would be pretty colloquial in any case. It would usually be "László felesége" instead. The Wikipedia has a nice article touching that matter.
- 47
Thanks, RyagonIV. I'm glad to see that you continue to post on these comment pages. You are making a valuable contribution.
Ok, thanks so much. I didn't spot that. Wish we could have a bit of explanation with the app
- 127
after reading several contributions, I feel that the answer as given as correct is strange since 'Toth Laszlone', is not a name, but a combination between a name and a family 'position' (as in wife of), but 'Laszlone', has no meaning in English.
- 213
The issue is that "Tóth Lászlóné" is her actual name in that case, at least traditionally. The wife gives up her maiden name completely.
I think that you do not understand the Hungarian family expression.If you translate it into English it is only Mrs family name ,Mrs Toth and nothing else The name Laszlo is the name of her husband and there it does not come into English translation
- 213
Around the middle of the last century it was also common (in America, at least), to attach "Mrs." to the full name of the husband when talking about his wife. So if Sylvia Garner married Jack Robinson, she would sometimes be referred to as "Mrs. Jack Robinson", making clear who she's married to. That naming convention wasn't as popular as the Hungarian counterpart, but you can sometimes hear it in older films and some sitcoms.
But yes, nowadays it's archaic and you'd rather translate this as "Are you the wife of László Tóth?"
