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- Topic: Czech >
- "Nebylas ještě vdaná."
14 Comments
The English translation sounds grammatically incorrect. Perhaps a better translation would be ‘you have not married yet’. Thinking about this makes me question if the Czech sentence is discussing a marriage or a wedding day. Could someone clarify?
It's discussing a marriage. Vdaná is an adjective and means "married". (The male version is zenatý.) I think, the English translation is correct - It means that the woman, at an earlier point, was not yet in a marriage, so not married yet. "You have not married yet." or "You didn't get married yet." is in Czech "Jeste ses nevdala." Is it clearer? (Sorry, I have no Czech letters on my keyboard.)
The English translation "You were not married yet" is fine, as is the alternative (which was accepted) "You were not yet married." The latter also appears to be the literal translation of the Czech sentence.
It would be more usual to say in English "You are not married yet", unless you are referring to something that occurred in the past. e.g. "I met you some years ago. You were not yet married"!
I am sorry. That was the point I was trying to make to mattevic, but may have expressed it poorly
Does a language as old as Czech have grammatical rules established to deal with such a modern scenario?
I also used 'still' which is offered as a suggested translation of ještě. I'm wondering why this is wrong (if it is in fact wrong).
As a native UK English speaker, "You were not married yet" is just wrong. "You are not yet married," or "You were not yet married," would be better. Optionally and widely acceptable colloquial English would be "You are not married yet," but leaves a hanging preposition. A better colloquial form would be "You weren't yet married."
The sentence in question is in the past. All your suggested translations are present.
