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- "See him and see his son."
"See him and see his son."
Translation:उसे देखो और उसके बेटे को देखो।
63 Comments
1122
"Look at him and look at his son" .. Do you think that might better reflect the situation here in English?
I like your translation "LOOK at him and look at his son".
And it took me a second, but I made sense of "SEE him and see his son" by thinking how "they" might be so alike that if you "see him you'll see his son." As in if you see one, you've seen the other.
- 1122
I really like your different approach of looking at it :) But the Hindi translation given as the preferred solution does not look as creative. I think to mean "SEE him and then you have (practically) also seen his son (because of how much they resemble)" you'd have to say- "Usse dekh liya toh uske beteko dekh liya"
A native speaker is welcome to intervene and clarify :)
'Look at him and look at his son' sounds best to me. "See him and see his son", like Kateykr said sounds odd, even in the context she gave. It would be more "See him and you see his son", and that's a very esoteric usage that I don't think would be constructed the same in Hindi.
I don't understand why I need ko with the second dekho (see his son) but not with the first (see him).
- 542
उसे is actually उस+को. It means 'to him/to her' or 'him/her'. So there is ko with the first dekho.
So... if I understand it right - "use dekho" stands for "at him" and "uske bete ko" for "at his son"? I.e. "use" is not only "him" but indicates a direction as "at him"...? But why are there two different constructions serving the same purpose?
- 297
उसे can be used with a lot of things. उसे देखो Look at him. उसे दे दो Give it to him. उसे बोलो Tell him. उसे मारो Hit him. All of the 'him's can also be 'her'. Basically, it directs something at him/her.
- 59
The "ko" corresponds to "at" in the translation given by jegviltaledansk: "Look at him and look at his son".
'Use' is like more informal and 'usko' is not really formal but like informal with a little respect i guess
I must be truly lost. I don't understand why the possessive को is after बेटे instead of उसके. I realize that I am lacking in basic grammar. It doesn't help that the mobile version of Hindi has no lessons or tips whatsoever.
- 341
को is not possessive (का, की, के) - it's a dative marker like 'to' or 'at' - 'look at son'.
The possessive marker has been contracted into उसके (it's के rather than का because बेटा is in the dative (oblique) case here).
Thank you so much for explaining that so simply, that even I could understand it. A lingot for your trouble, Sir : )
Dear Hindi Duolingans!!! Earlier, In the lessons in Duolingo, it was being taught that the objective forms of यह, वह (ie इस, उस) are never used in their accusative cases(like मैं एक केले खाता हूं which never happens and is always wrong) but in dative cases where the pronoun acts as indirect object (like रवि मुझे सेब देता है।); sentences with चाहिए, पसंद होना,etc; sentences where the personal pronouns are being followed by post positions and that's all.
But in the above example, IMO, Should the translation for 'See him' be वह देखो rather than उसे देखो??
Please correct me.
को is used to transform उसका बेटा to उसके बेटे को for indirect object like his son in the sentence see his son
बेटा is not used here because the sentence has to be in the oblique case, hence बेटे
- 341
Indeed, but I think it's also important to realise that grammatical case is a property of the sentence outside of any particular word being present, there are some that are helpful hints or rules of thumb but they're not in themselves the reason a sentence takes a particular case.
That's probably clearer in languages that make use of more cases (or rather, decline differently through more) without additional articles, such as Latin, in which the meaning can change significantly according to the case, and the only difference a change in case makes is to that noun.
So could it be 1.उसके देखो और उसके बेटेको देखो And also 2.उसे देखो और उसे बेटे को देखो
?
- 341
No, उसे = उसको (so your first substitution is fine), but उसे != उसके (so your second change between 1&2 isn't).
उसे/उसको ~ to him (etc.); उसके ~ his (etc.)
- 355
Ok, so this is a meta question, but can someone pls give me a good reason for this whole oblique thing? How does it help understand life better? Why would a language develop this construct? :)
- 341
That's a difficult question to answer satisfactorily! The best I can do is to say there are more cases to understand in, for example, Latin, or Sanskrit; and that we do have it in English too, it's just that (a) we don't tend to be taught grammar particularly formaly, at least not for very long; (b) it doesn't impact all nouns and isn't so obviously changing our sentences. Consider: 'give it to him' vs. 'he received it'. 'He' is oblique (dative) in the first, and direct (nominative) in the second. In English generally only pronouns decline differently.
When I made a mistake in the lesson where you have to type the Hindi answer in from listening, it gave only the English translation and not the correct Hindi. So when you get an error message like 'Wrong word used" you have no clue what is correct because the correct Hindi isn't shown. Duo, please fix this.
- 341
It might be valid (I'm not sure though - I think you still need को , otherwise whoever you're talking to will think 'and his son does what?') but it doesn't match the given sentence, it doesn't say in English 'See him and his son', it says 'See him and see his son'.
- 355
You have a typo in Bete, the wrong t.. and it needs to be plural because it's oblique, whatever that means :)
- 341
It's not 'plural because it's oblique' - it just happens that masculine oblique singulars are generally the same as the masculine direct/nominative plural.
Case (direct/oblique/vocative) is a distinct concept from plurality.
Masc. direct sing. - मेरा बेटा खाता है।
Masc. oblique sing. - मेरे बेटे को खाना पसंद है।
Masc. vocative sing. - बेटे, खाओ!
Masc. direct plural - मेरे बेटे खाते हैं।
Masc. oblique plural - मेरे बेटों को खाना पसंद हैं।
Masc. vocative plural - बेटो, खाइए!
