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- "The burglar climbs up onto t…
"The burglar climbs up onto the roof and climbs down in the chimney."
Translation:A betörő felmászik a tetőre és lemászik a kéményen.
9 Comments
Kéményen - shouldn't it be kéményben if the translation says the burglar climbs down IN the chimney? My Hungarian is getting a bit rusty after not living there for 5 years though...
In Hungarian "lemászik a kéményen" sounds more natural; on the other hand I think "climbs down the chimney" also sounds more natural in English... I think the English version should be changed, and then the Hungarian translation would seem more logical.
Yeah, even as I was writing "kéményben" it felt unnatural. I could feel there was something wrong but as I said, my Hungarian is getting a bit rusty so I couldn't pinpoint it exactly. Thanks for clearing it up for me! :)
Since it is a burglar, who just climbed on the roof to get to the chimney, I think he or she intends to get inside (the house), by climbing down inside the chimney. Personally, I would probably use "kéményben", to avoid any misunderstanding.
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It would really really help all of us, if the scenarios describe in the sentences were more realistic. Here again, there are all kinds of semantic problems simply - and only - because we are having to get our heads around concepts that are best related to fairytales or cartoon shows.
The preverb/postnoun (actually, it's more the postnoun) has been my greatest headache. This example is one that would make my point. I have notes on detaching preverbs and those rules aren't followed....and then trying to figure out which suffix to use.....not even drawing pictures could help me out!
'Climbs down in the chimney' is not possible either physically or in English. He can climb down 'by way of the chimney' or climb down the chimney but not 'in' the chimney. 'Via the chimney' is also possible, but NOT 'in the chimney'.
