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- "Η Βιολογία είναι το τέταρτο …
"Η Βιολογία είναι το τέταρτο αγαπημένο μου μάθημα."
Translation:Biology is my fourth favorite subject.
13 Comments
I think not because a subject is the whole discipline while a lesson is a single session, isn't it However, μάθημα can be translated as lesson in the right context.
(Sorry it took that long to reply, we lost access to sentence discussions for a while.)
I know that this discussion has been dormant for a few months, but I would agree that "lesson" -- in a colloquial sense -- is used in English as term for "subject". The context here (i.e. if I would say "subject" or "lesson") would be who I was talking with at the time.
This is interesting, as a non native English speaker I thought μάθημα was used as lesson only in Greek. And not even just colloquially. Hence the 'isn't it' in my comment. At this point I still find 'lesson' in the phrase 'what's your favourite lesson' a bit out of place or a poor translation of 'ποιο είναι το αγαπημένο σου μάθημα', but I see your point. Thanks for that!
The consensus among my bilingual speaker contacts is in favour of the word "lesson" of the three possibilities suggested.
You can say: "lesson one: The cell", "lesson two: Proteins" etc. You can also say "I have a Biology lesson afterwards", but, when referring to a whole field of study along with the expertise and knowledge that accompanies it, I think "subject" is the right choice.
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The original Greek does not necessarily refer to a 'whole field of study'. If it's a comment from a student - which is what it sounds like - it is just as likely to mean 'my fourth favourite class' or 'lesson´...
I think in that case it would stand, but it'd need another clause, which isn't in the sentence, eg, "biology is my fourth favourite lesson of the day" /"Η Βιολογία είναι το τέταρτο αγαπημένο μου μάθημα της μέρας". With the sentence as it is, I think subject is a more accurate translation.
Can you also say Η Βιολογία είναι το τέταρτο μου αγαπημένο μάθημα?
