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- "Mindenfelől kislányok futnak…
"Mindenfelől kislányok futnak a szoborhoz kis, rózsaszín szoknyában."
Translation:Little girls run to the statue from every direction in small, pink skirts.
26 Comments
456
For me the english sentence sounds to complicate. What's about: Little girls in small, pink skirts are running to the statue from every direction.
You can also do that in Hungarian:
"Mindenfelől kis, rózsaszín szoknyás kislányok futnak a szoborhoz."
- 735
I wonder how you can dress the statue in a pink skirt.
"Mindenfelől kislányok a szoborhoz futnak, amely kis, rózsaszín szoknyában."?
" .... van". :)
But that is not enough. Your word order can be improved:
"Mindenfelől kislányok futnak a szoborhoz, amely kis, rózsaszín szoknyában van."
But it can be made simpler:
"Mindenfelől kislányok futnak a kis rózsaszín szoknyás szoborhoz."
"Mindenfelől kislányok futnak a kis rózsaszín szoknyát viselő szoborhoz."
Etc.
Here, in these last two sentences, you run the risk of making it ambigous what is small and pink: the skirt or the statue.
Unfortunately, the rules are better in English. There's no ambiguity.
If the statue is the small and pink one:
- "small pink skirt-wearing statue"
If the statue is small and the skirt is pink:
- "small pink-skirt-wearing statue"
If the skirt is both small and pink:
- "small-pink-skirt-wearing statue"
In Hungarian, you can only operate with commas, which give you less power.
- 576
wait, are those last two sentences really valid in english? I mean, I get the meaning but I would have never tried using more than one hyphen. That third sentence seems painful in a completely different way from hungarian one.
Ishana92 (comments were nested too deep to reply to you directly): I think those hyphenated sentences are at least arguably technically not incorrect, but they're certainly awkward and unnatural (plus they'd all sound the same spoken aloud, which defeats the purpose of the disambiguating hyphens). A more natural way to phrase them in English would be "the small pink statue in a skirt", "the small statue in a pink skirt", and "the statue in a small, pink skirt".
- 456
vvsey:I wonder, how you can keep all those grammar rules in your mind. Thank you for all your comments.
It is so easy. Just listening to my instincts. Once you get the logic of the language, everything starts to make total sense and becomes easy. I am really happy if I can help. You are welcome.
- 735
Forgot the van. I made a new clause, I need a verb!
Okay, it seems to make pretty little sense to put the statue in front of the verb if you don't want to single it out. Köszönöm a rózsaszín szoknyás információt. :D
That's a good point! New clause, new verb! Let us know if you found the statue. :)
Yes.... "szoknyában" is an adverb so you need a verb + it'd sound better if you included the demonstrative pronoun for "szoborhoz" in your Guerilla Action:
- Mindenfelől kislányok ahhoz a szoborhoz futnak, amely kis, rózsaszín szoknyában van.
Adding the demonstrative "ahhoz" is not really about sounding better but, rather, about what you want to say.
Do you want to "identify", "single out", the statue (out of the many statues, it is the one with the skirt)? Then you use "ahhoz".
Are you just describing the statue, which may be the only statue within a 10-mile radius? Then you don't need "ahhoz" at all.
And, either way, the word order needs a little adjustment:
-
"identifying" the statue:
"Mindenfelől kislányok futnak ahhoz a szoborhoz, amelyik kis, rózsaszín szoknyában van." - Little girls are running from every direction to the statue that/which is wearing a small pink skirt.
It can be further enhanced, to emphasize the singling out even more: "Ahhoz a szoborhoz futnak mindenfelől kislányok, amelyik kis, rózsaszín szoknyában van." -
"describing" the statue:
"Mindenfelől kislányok futnak a szoborhoz, amely kis, rózsaszín szoknyában van." - Little girls are running from every direction to the statue, which is wearing a small pink skirt. So, they are running to the statue and, oh, by the way, the statue is wearing a small pink skirt.
But this "ahhoz" is also a little bit ambiguous. It is not necessarily a strong identifying word. Depending on how it is emphasized, it could be just something like "that (one) over there". As in "Do you see that tree over there? Go to that tree." There may not be any other tree in view and we can still say "to that tree over there" or, in Hungarian, "ahhoz a fához".
Of course, the written language lacks all the verbal features which are also an organic part of it all.
- 277
I know this statue! It's "Ralph himself, a broken statue... as gay as any. Lilia... had wound a scarf of orange round the stony helm, and robed the shoulders in a rosy silk" It's from 'The Princess' by Tennyson.
- 416
with the word order you propose it sounds as if the "direction" was in small pink skirts...
"from all directions" should also be accepted as part of the translation.
"from every direction" and "from all directions" mean the same thing
This is not a grammar question, I'm just wondering if there's any context for this scenario. Why are they all wearing pink skirts? Are they part of a school uniform? Are they on a class trip to see famous sights? It just seems so random otherwise. Maybe another late night for the course team?
The statue doesn't have a pink skirt on. :-D The girls in little pink skirts are running to the statue. My translation was "Little girls are running to the statue from every direction in little pink skirts." but stupid DL didn't accept it because I used the word "little" instead of "small" I think my version is much better.
- 735
Translation-wise "from everywhere" is mindenhonnan and "from every direction" is mindenfelől. In practical terms the difference is negligible.
What about mindenmerről? Does that mean "from everywhere," or "from every direction?" Or something else? After 2 years in this course I'm still confused about some of these directional words.
- 735
"Mindenmerről" simply isn't a word. :)
There is only the question word merről, the relative pronouns amerről and (rarely) emerről, and a few other derivations you can find in this Wiktionary article. Most other compounds are made with felől. Same goes for merre and felé, respectively.
You can notice the difference between them if you compare them properly:
- Merről? - From which direction?
- Mi felől? - From the direction of what?
So merről is just a direction, but felől wants to refer to something, a noun or a pronoun, as a reference for that direction. Minden is the reference in mindenfelől, basically saying "from the direction of everything".
- 1127
Fully agree with many comments. What may be correct and acceptable in Hungarian does not necessarily have to be translated with the same word order into English. Accordingly the version "Little girls in small pink skirts run to the statue from all directions" shall be accepted.
