"Brown cars are not beautiful."

Translation: A barna autók nem szépek.

[Sweep4]

If i were to just say "barna autók nem szépek", without starting the sentence with an "A", how would that affect the meaning? Or would it just be grammatically incorrect? Thanks :)

[vvsey]

It is just incorrect, I guess. Hungarian uses the article even in general statements like these.

But if you were to say that there is no such thing as a brown car: "Brown cars do not exist.", then you don't need an article:
"Barna autók nem léteznek."
Or even better in the singular:
"Barna autó nem létezik."

Or, "I will not get into a(ny) brown car.":
"Barna autóba nem szállok be."

Probably because these statements are more abstract(?). They are not THE brown cars.

[Zsuzsi97194]

Would kocsi be good?

[Brigi60202]

They keep rejecting kocsi although it is correct

[Judit294350]

Many words in Hungarian have dozens of synonyms. Best to stick to the vocab they are teaching here. (Add one synonym the number of correct translations doubles, add two it triples - many sentences already have hundreds of correct translations without synonyms) That said, the decision to use "autó" rather than "kocsi" seems odd.

[Brigi60202]

Seems odd to me, too. I have only ever used kocsi when in Hungary.
Sometimes, however, kocsi is accepted on Duolingo.

[Harold77079]

"the" is NOT Iin the english sentence - why shoud"a" be in th Hungarian sentence?

[Judit294350]

Because translating between languages is not word by word (otherwise you would get some sense out of Google translate). English does not use "the" in general statements, but you must use it in Hungarian.

[john91469]

When do you use barnak? I thought it was when the noun was plural so in this sentence "a barnak autok nem szepek". Or do you only use "barnak" to mean "brown ones"?

[Judit294350]

You use barnák when the adjective follows the noun ie "the cars are brown." (Az autók barnák.) But when it comes before ie "the brown cars" which is just describing the noun you don't.

[kos479137]

I don't understand the use of "a" here. The English, to me, implies all brown cars, but by adding the "a" in the translation we're refering to specific brown cars. e.g. the brown cars (in this lot) ate not beautiful.

[Judit294350]

Just the opposite. With the "a" in Hungarian it is a general statement applying to all cars. Without it it means just some..

[kos479137]

When translating I need to remember that a brown car = egy barna kocsi, not a barna kocsi. I need to slow down and re-read the question and the answer.