"True or false?"
Translation:Λάθος ή σωστό;
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1919
Hmm, I'm sure I'm just confused or not looking at things right, but «Λάθος» appears to be a noun and «σωστό» appears to be an adjective, at least according to wiktionary, which makes this construct seem a bit odd, although I guess the idea is to treat «σωστό» as a noun-phrase with an omitted "one" as demonstrated elsewhere in this section?
You are correct in your observation! Λάθος is a noun meaning mistake, but it is now also used as an adjective instead of λανθασμένος, which itself should be λαθεμένος. Please see also the comments here.
"Σωστό ή λάθος" is a fixed expression for asking true or false in everyday speech. Neither word matches the English meanings.
σωστός/-ή/-ό: correct (το) λάθος: the mistake (η) αλήθεια: the truth (το) ψέμα: the lie
A literal translation of "true or false" would be "αληθινό ή ψεύτικο": both these words are used in everyday speech, but this expression is not.
In more formal/academic contexts (e.g. logic, boolean algebra, computer science), the expression takes a more archaic form: "αληθής ή ψευδής": these adjectives also mean true and false respectively, but are rarely used outside such contexts.
672
I'm thinking maybe that way translates to truths or lies instead of true or false--where one set of words are nouns and the other are adjectives. Maybe someone else knows for sure.
Since το λάθος (the mistake) is actually a neuter noun, it isn't declined at all when used as an adjective:
Ο σωστός τρόπος (the correct way), της σωστής απάντησης (answer), το σωστό όνομα, τους σωστούς αριθμούς (numbers), τις σωστές παρατηρήσεις (observations), των σωστών βημάτων (steps), but ο λάθος τρόπος (the wrong way), της λάθος απάντησης, το λάθος όνομα, τους λάθος αριθμούς, τις λάθος παρατηρήσεις, των λάθος βημάτων.