"नेहा कहती है कि वह दिल्ली से है।"
Translation:Neha says that she is from Delhi.
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It's totally acceptable here to leave out the "that" in English though you need it in Hindi, thus "Neha says she is from Delhi" should also be accepted.
Ah, but to whom does "she" refer? If it is Neha herself, would it not be better as "neha kehti hai ki MAIN Dilli se hoon"?
2763
Exactly, I thought the sentence may mean "Neha says that he is from Delhi". Is that wrong?
That could be correct as well. The वह and है are ambiguous and can be both masculine or feminine. And if she'd refer to herself, कि मैं दिल्ली से हूँ, would indeed be more appropriate.
However I tried answering, "Neha says that he is from Delhi" and it was marked incorrect. I didn't report it as I wasn't sure of myself until I read these comments. If it comes up again I will.
Yes but the point is that she (Neha) is not necessarily talking about herself.
That would translate as Neha says: I am from Delhi. i.e it changes from passive voice to active voice.
- 1818
What's the most common way of phrasing this in Hindi? In English it's invariably the passive voice (the above sentence without the help of the punctuation marks would come across as Neha saying that the speaker is from Delhi) but I know that in some languages direct quotation is the natural method.
The way I learned it, is that direct quotation is more natural in Hindi. But I would like a native speaker to confirm this.
While it's acceptable to leave out "that" in English, the diminishing use of the indirect discourse marker ("that") has blurred the distinction between quotation and paraphrase in mass news media. This adds authority to paraphrase (interpretation), which adds power to propagandistic spin. Therefore, I resist the trend of leaving out "that" even though it's commonly done.
Is Neha talking about herself or does she mean that another person is from Delhi?
Neha is saying that she (Neha) is from Delhi. If she was talking about another person it would need to be specified. Eg. नेहा कहती है कि वह लड़की दिल्ली से हैं (Neha says that girl is from Delhi)
- 252
I'm not convinced. :-)
How would this dialog be translated?
- Aamir: Where is that man from?
- Raj: Neha says that he is from Delhi.
In that case it would be:
Aamir: Voh admi kahan se hain?
Raj: Neha kehti hai ki voh dilli se hai.
(this would be because 'that man' was already specified in the question being asked).
It is just like in English, if someone says 'Neha says she is from Delhi' - you would assume that it is saying that - Neha told someone that she (Neha) is from Delhi, and now that person has told you that Neha told them she was from delhi. Because no one else has been specified in the conversation.
Hope that clarifies it a little? :)
- 252
It does. Thank you.
So, basically, the only thing wrong with translating "नेहा कहती है कि वह दिल्ली से है।" as "Neha says that he is from Delhi" is that Duolingo didn't anticipate that answer. :-)
- 252
If you didn't already know "Neha" was a woman's name, you could tell ki Neha ek aurat hai because "कहती" matches her gender.
But there's nothing in "वह दिल्ली से है" to indicate the gender of "वह". Either "he" or "she" would work. It all depends on context.
- 1818
I feel like the answer is that you have to go with the context you're given, eg '"नेहा कहती है कि वह दिल्ली से है।' could mean 'Neha says he is from Delhi' with additional context, but there is no additional context here, so it doesn't.
Oh ok I see what you're trying to say. The sentence HAS to be "Neha says that she is from Delhi" in this case because there is no context to the sentence - therefore 'he' would not be accepted because Neha is a girl.
So "नेहा कहती है कि वह दिल्ली से है" "Neha kehti hai ki voh dilli se hai" -Neha says SHE is from Delhi.
But lets say this sentence is about Aamir instead of Neha, it would say "आमिर कहता है कि वह दिल्ली से है" "Aamir kehta hai ki voh dilli se hai" -Aamir says HE is from Delhi
Does that make sense?
"Neha says that he is from delhi" should also be accepted. They gave it to me correct but said that there was a typo in my answer. IMO they should accept my response as is.
I definitely don't hear any 'l' sound; it is a bit more like 'keheti' (English phonetic) perhaps; that's just the same effect on ह with the 'schwa' sound each side as found in बहन for example: instead of the usual (second) schwa deletion, it tends to morph into 'ehe' (or something like' "ैहै').