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- "Το παιδί δείχνει το μπαλκόνι…
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Maybe the family of the child has visitors and they are showing around the house to them. Like "here's the balcony", "here's my room" etc Δείχνω means "show" but it can also mean "point to/at". For example: "δείξε μου το βιβλίο σου" means "show me your book" and "σταμάτα να δείχνεις, δεν είναι ευγενικό" means "stop pointing, it's not polite". The child here is probably showing around.
In English, an indirect object is required with this verb. Since the Greek word also means "points at/to," that's the word that should be used in the English translation as that can form a grammatically correct sentence in English.
I've reported this in other cases. There are a few of these. But yeah, you need to show someone the balcony.
I agree. It makes no sense. I don't think it would ever be said in English. "The child points to the balcony" makes more sense. Or maybe, "The child shows them the balcony".
"The child is pointing at the balcony" is a better translation, as stated below by Georgopoulos.
I have to agree. The English sentence does leave me wondering "to whom?" Which is fine...what I really want to know is: Does a Greek speaker have the same experience with the Greek sentence?
In the sense of "to show sth to sb", yes, an object is needed in Greek as well. However, "δείχνω" can also mean "to point at", so perhaps that would be a better translation for this sentence.
So in the newspaper this grammatical construction is wrong? I mean... when you read it as a native speaker, sounds this strange to you? Just asking... I'm not a native speaker, so I'm deaf (grammatically) to heard if it sounds wrong.
Well, I don't think anyone would come across this sentence in a newspaper to begin with, unless that balcony was something extraordinary. ;D However, I'll agree that when δείχνω means show, it's more natural for it to be followed by the object. When it means point out, like G.Georgopoulos mentioned in his comment above, it's okay.
In English "show" nearly always needs an indirect object. "I show (off) my room" sounds a bit theatrical!
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Hey there! I am using the mobile version of duolingo and the suggested words for this exercise contained "acc" and "n". Is it a bug or is there an explanation for these?
Some of the hints are like that. "Acc" stands for "accusative", "n" for "neuter". Of course, "accusative"="nominative", since it's a neuter noun.
The tiles for answering are generated automatically, at least partly from the hints -- and the hints sometimes contain not only translations but also little notes to the learner such as "acc" for "accusative case".
Those shouldn't really turn up as tiles but Duo isn't smart enough to tell them apart from the translations, unfortunately.
