"A busznál, a vonatnál és a villamosnál is sok ember vár."
Translation:Many people are waiting by the bus, by the train, and by the tram, too.
29 Comments
Considering that after the first "by", the susequent ones in English are optional, and given that sometimes you accept them, and sometimes not, can you please get this lesson consistent in what is being accepted?
If you click the 'report a problem' button and check 'my answer should be accepted' the course creators will fix it.
It is the same problem with "from" and other prepositions when listing multiples. In Hungarian they use it in front of each noun but in English we don't.
326
I used plural nouns in my answer, but it was not accepted. Given that sometimes we have to assume the plurals from context, should my answer be correct (given that there are many people)? Or would there be plurals in the sentence if necessary? Thanks in advance!
From the way this is written in Hungarian, I see no reason one would assume any of the vehicular nouns should be plural in English.
- 326
No, not necessarily -- but is there a grammatical reason to assume that they are not in the plural? Genuine question!
I understand the question, I'm saying I can't see why one would consider them to be plural in any way. The context gives absolutely no reason to assume any of the vehicles listed should be in the plural. They use the article "a" in each case, which in Hungarian is very specific. Unless the corresponding nouns were pluralised, it explicitly indicates one of each. I can't see (and I am not trying to imply anything personal here), why one would make the logical jump that it might be plural.
- 326
Right -- I'm just asking if they HAVE TO BE singular. I'll accept it if they do -- this would have been my assumption in the first place too, but I've just read that sometimes we have to assume plurals from context. I just want to know if these particular nouns are RESTRICTED to the singular here, so that I can begin to understand the parameters within which I have to guess from context. This is a fine point, but I'm assuming from your answer that the definite articles here indicate that these nouns are in the singular? And that with definite articles in place, we never have to assume from context? (Which is to say, any nouns with definite articles would be singular or plural, definitively, no guessing required.) I hope this puts my question in context -- I'm not trying to be difficult!
In Hungarian, for what you are describing, the articles would have to be missing entirely, yes. Then you could start to consider whether or not the context might allow for plural. Once the article is there, however, there is no room for consideration. To be plural with the article, the noun itself would have to be plural: a buszoknál, a vonatoknál, és a villamosoknál.
I thought nél / nél is "at"
If it is also "by" is it also "next to" - mellett?
- 1105
How does one know in Hungarian that the too applies to the tram rather than the people? Is it that there are also people there in addition to other things waiting, or is it implied that the too applies to the vehicles? Is there some rule about the placement of the too and what it refers too? In English, it would be uncertain / ambiguous what the too refers to.
is follows the word villamosnál so it applies to that (actually, I think it probably applies to the whole phrase A busznál, a vonatnál és a villamosnál)
Actually, using too is not the best translation because too modifies the whole sentence (which is not the usage of is here) and I would prefer using also because also can be positioned before what it modifies, like how is works
The English translation given here seems to indicate that the "too" applies only to the tram (the bus, the train, and also the tram). Is this the case with the Hungarian, or is it saying that many people are also waiting by these three things (in addition to the people that are waiting at the ATM)? I tried "Many people are also waiting by the bus, the train and the tram." with negative results. I seem to recall that "sok" should apply mainly to what follows it.
I wrote "There are also many people waiting by the buses, the trains and the trams." I do not understand whether "is" in the Hungarian applies only to villamosnál or to all the transit.
It seems to apply to the three modes of transportation rather than the people because "is" implies more than one thing and people is a singular word although it means multiples of a person.
I don't understand how "many people wait by the bus, by the train and by the tram" is any different from "many people wait by the bus, by the train and also by the tram" or "many people wait by the bus, by the train and by the tram too". (Maybe I need to improve my English).
There is nothing wrong with your English. The writers simply haven’t included every possible choice in the correct answers yet.
The first version doesn't include a too or also (which is in the Hungarian). The last two versions mean the same thing.
