"Το ξύλο είναι αρκετά ακριβό."
Translation:The wood is very expensive.
16 CommentsThis discussion is locked.
466
Does this sentence have to be translated with the definite article? How about “Wood is very expensive”?
The comments more confuse me than clarify the meaning. I see my problem already in the meaning hints for αρκετά, "very", "fairly", :rather". "very" means it's really expensive, whereas "fairly" and "rather" take that down a bit. If I were to put them in line it would be: "fairly expensive", "rather expensive", "expensive", "very expensive". What is the real meaning in Greek anyway?
It think the best translation from the Greek phrase would be 'the wood is quite/fairly expensive', not 'very' or 'really' as you suggest, which have very distinct meanings and exact matches to Greek. 'Quite' of course may mean 'very' in such a context or 'faily' which is the closest to what the phrase means. I think that your suggestion is too strong for what is implied here.
1982
Ah I see - yes, I'd misunderstood the level of emphasis. Quite is of course a very confusing word in English, and gives little clue as to whether it means "very" or "fairly"
456
I translated it as 'the wood is really expensive' which I think is the same as 'very expensive' (at least in the UK) but it is marked as wrong.