"Az országnak van repülőgépe."
Translation:The country has airplanes.
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939
How does this sentence relate to the one where the "country does not have nice apples, but good restaurants" ( https://forum.duolingo.com/comment/35182578 )?
Here, the airplane is singular in both English and Hungarian; in the other sentence the apples and restaurants appear in plural in the English version but apparently should be singular in the Hungarian version?
939
Great, thanks!
I am still a bit puzzled by the plural/singular differences here (and in the linked sentence) between Hungarian and English.. why is the Hungarian "repülőgépe" in singular and not plural? What would be the difference in meaning if we used plural "repülőgépei" in the Hungarian sentence?
"Az országnak vannak repülőgépei" is also fine.
That other sentence "Az országnak nem szép almája van, hanem jó étterme." is really weird, but maybe the airplane sentence is not that bad and can be explained.
"Az országnak van repülőgépe."
A gazdag embernek van repülőgépe. (the rich man has airplanes / has an airplane)
A színésznek van gyereke. (the actor has children /has a child)
So if we claim "A gazdag embernek van repülőgépe" we can interpret it as he HAS it, but the quantity does not matter. The important point is having it versus not having airplanes at all.
See, we did not include "egy", did not write "A gazdag embernek van egy repülőgépe." Singular with no article can show unknown quantity sometimes.
Another example: Almát eszem. - I eat apples. We don't have to say almákat eszem, instead, treat alma as if it were a mass noun.