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- Topic: Hungarian >
- "Nagyon erős ez a fokhagyma."
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"Hot" for foods implies either high temperature (which is more literal) or spicy, like jalapeño peppers or some curries. "Strong" means "highly concentrated flavor".
OK, so, garlic would be "strong" then. Hungarian also uses "erős" for paprika, peppers and such that are hot in flavor. Or "csípős" - "biting", spicy.
And hot in temperature is "forró" (literally: boiling).
English would also use "strong" to describe peppers and such that are hot. But basically just implied because the "hotness" of such foods is their most obvious quality, so that's what you're saying is strong.
Saying the garlic is strong is saying it is very garlicky. But saying the garlic is "hot" is a different sentence I think, since "hotness" (in the sense of chilli spiciness) is not an expected quality of garlic; it would probably be taken as meaning the garlic is physically hot (forró).
No.
Take these two sentences:
This car is black. = Ez az autó fekete.
This is a black car. = Ez egy fekete autó.
Similarly: "Nagyon erős ez a fokhagyma."/ Ez a fokhagyma nagyon erős. - This garlic is very strong.
Ez nagyon erős fokhagyma. - This is a very strong garlic.
These two types look similar, but they are grammatically different, both in Hungarian and English.
Having spoken English for a few years now - albeit in America - I can tell you that the sentence differs grammatically in English in word order, but not in meaning. People could easily respond to the question "is this garlic strong?" with either sentence. Similarly, the response to "is this a strong garlic?" could be made by either sentence. Now... if you wanted to differentiate between two garlics, as in "is this THE strong garlic, or is it that one? " then you might respond with "this is THE very strong garlic". But that wasn't the case . So thank you for your response, but i think i'll continue to reserve judgement on the English meanings here.
