"Not once did they look at me."
Translation:Ani jednou se na mě nepodívaly.
15 CommentsThis discussion is locked.
1750
In order to solicit "ani" in the translation, it might be important to include "even", for example: "Not even once did they look at me." My translation "Nepodivali se jednou na mě." was rejected. Was the word order incorrect or just the missing "ani"? Thanks for all your great clarifications.
A jak by to tedy bylo? Já také napsal "Nejednou se na mě podívali" a nebylo mi uznáno.
"Nejednou se na mě podívali" means they actually DID look at me - more than once, a few times, several times... That's the opposite of what the English sentence means.
Please see the earlier comment from AgnusOinas in response to LukasBlech.
He/She's asking (I believe) how to say "Nejednou se na mě podívali" in English.
The meaning is "They looked at me more than once", but I'm not sure how to capture the feeling of "nejednou" in English. It has an element of emphasis -- "Yes, they looked at me, indeed, and not just once."
Perhaps: "Many a time did they look at me" or "They looked at me many a time". How does that sound to you? (probably bookish)
I assume that "Not just once they looked at me" (as suggested by the commenter) doesn't work, it still sounds like "They didn't look at me even once" with "just" weirdly thrust in there. But how would you interpret "Not just once did they look at me"? As that could be followed by (implied) "they looked at me more times".
@AO: No Reply button for your comment on my comment ATM...
If the simple "They looked at me more than once" or "They looked at me many times" can work for "Nejednou se na mě podívali.", I'd say those are better choices, from the perspective of what someone is more likely to say.
Next (to me) for usability -- if they fit the Czech sentence -- might be "Not just once did they look at me" or "They did not look at me just/only once."
Finally, I actually like "Many a time did they look at me" and "They looked at me many a time" a lot because they're a bit unusual and artful. But I wouldn't expect to hear them used very often, so it would really get my attention if I did. :-)
I suppose "nepodilvai" is too far away from "nepodívali" to be considered a typo.