"Ea vine până la ora șase."
Translation:She comes by six o'clock.
17 CommentsThis discussion is locked.
The English translation you're looking for is: "She comes/arrives by six o'clock."
I'm not sure what the right way to interpret this sentence is. The English "She comes until six o'clock" to me is somewhat ambiguous between:
1) "She will be in the process of moving here until six o'clock (at which point she will have stopped moving)."
2) "She is visiting us until six o'clock (and then she will leave)."
Which of these two interpretations does the Romanian sentence point towards? Is this a colloquialism I (US Mid-Atlantic) have never encountered?
The accepted translation: 'She comes until six o'clock' is nonsense in English.
In English, "She comes until six o'clock" means that on coming, she will only stay until 6 and then leave. Is this also the meaning for the Romanian?
No, it appears not. I found this very confusing, because of the incorrect usage of "until", which makes no sense in English as written above. You are right to understand that it means staying, which is not what is meant here. It means "by" that time, instead.
237
@PhilipNikolayev in Romanian "ea vine până la ora șase" or "ea sosește până la ora șase" means "she arrives before six o'clock". It is rarely used with the sense "she comes and can stay up to six o'clock".
The sentence was corrected now, thanks to all who have reported it.
Sorry, Philip, one can't say it in English so one can't say it means anything.
Perhaps "she comes" translates as "she stays" in Romanian mind; also, perhaps the preposition "in timpul" is part of the construction that would be intended for "She stays until seven o'clock. (Excuse my lack of diacritics, please.)
Again, no. This sentence is wrong and I reported it. It means that she arrives by the time of six o' clock.
- 237
"I expect we'll be gone in any case, unless she comes by six o'clock." - Beverley Times Newspaper Archives Friday, September 20, 1946 - Page 4
The English sentence should be, "She will come before six o'clock." "She will come by six o'clock" and "She is coming by six o'clock" are acceptable. It has a different meaning, but "She is coming by at six o'clock" is also a sensible English sentence.
"She comes by six o'clock" is odd.
Correct: Ea va veni până la ora șase or Ea o să vină... Usually, we do not use Present time for a future action in Romanian language.
- 1274
I think "ea va sosi cel târziu la ora șase sau ea va ajunge cel târziu la ora șase" would be a better exmple
- 237
I think your proposals are more general than "ea vine". When you say "ea va sosi ..." or "ea va ajunge ..." there is more room to think about another place, different of "here". So I think your examples are very good while "ea vine" is still the better one, because "ea vine aici" without any doubt.