"Buď jsou tyto dveře příliš úzké, anebo ta pohovka příliš široká."
Translation:Either this door is too narrow, or that sofa too wide.
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I think a more natural sentence in English would be "Either this door is too narrow, or that sofa IS too wide," although there's nothing wrong with the translation given. I was about to include "is" in my answer, but decided not to, since there is no "je" in the original. But I'm wondering...
Would a Czech version written as "Buď jsou tyto dveře příliš úzké, anebo ta pohovka JE příliš široká" be wrong or unnatural? Thanks!
UPDATE -- Just a quick Thank You to all for your help!
I included JE in my answer and was marked wrong. I did it out of curiosity but felt that because the verb in the first part was plural it would not be appropriate for the sofa.
But this is a translation exercise from Czech to English, and the reverse exercise is disabled. So where did you include "je"?
I've noticed that if an exercise is the only one left in the set that you haven't yet gotten "right," DL will keep presenting it until you do, so that may be why you've seen the sentence three times running. {Or maybe something weird was happening at that moment.}
I don't understand why there is a plural jsou with a singular door and sofa - it would only work in english if both door and sofa were too narrow or both too wide but because the sentence is contrasting them they have to have their own singular verb
dveře is always plural, exactly like trousers, pants, scissors, glasses and whatnot are in English.
I have not yet fathomed the pedagogical benefit of doing this exercise 3 times with the adjective in a different location!
Maybe just to show that adjectives can be in different positions in a sentence...? Of course, once we start thinking that, along will come a situation (or two, or three...) where they can only be in ONE position! :-)
Grammatically, dveře is always plural, In practical terms, it can refer to one or multiple doors, and can be translated as singular or plural depending on the context.
That sofa too wide definitely needs an is on the English translation even if it's not necessary for the Czech
I am native AmE. It does not need to be "... or that sofa is too wide," but that construction can be used, of course. There are accepted alternatives that include the second "is." In everyday speech -- especially in the US -- using the second "is" is probably more common, but the sentence is not incorrect without it.
I would also note that there is an advantage to mirroring the original language in the translation when this is possible, as it is here.
597
"Either is this door too narrow, or is that sofa too wide?" doesn't it sound as a question? would it have been right this way? Thx
This cannot be used here. It uses the question word order, but does not make sense as a question. Also, see https://thegrammarexchange.infopop.cc/topic/inversion-with-either