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- "We hebben een gezellig gespr…
"We hebben een gezellig gesprek gevoerd over frikandellen."
Translation:We had a gezellig conversation about frikandellen.
27 Comments
237
Again, why these tips, if in the end they're rejected?! Isn't it ridiculous to accept 'gezellig conversation' and reject 'cozy conversation' ?!... Which one is 'less English'...? :-(
My English teacher taught me that 'cozy' means something like: a nice livingroom, with a fireplace and a nice atmosphere (or something like that). However, the Dutch word 'gezellig' means so much more than that. There is no English word for it.
Here is a nice explanation about 'gezellig'. :)
237
well, according to Merriam Webster, cozy conversation would be perfectly acceptable; but my point here was about WHAT Duo does accept for English translations, not about the richness of this Dutch term (which btw I understand very well). I'd accept Duo would avoid the term gezelligheid in the course altogether for being not-translatable... Here, however, Duo is giving hints on its translation, like for all other translatable terms, but then rejects your translation when you use the hints. That feels just misleading.
1141
Seems like the link is outdated. Here is where the article now: https://stuffdutchpeoplelike.com/2015/09/23/gezelligheid-gezellig/
2078
Should "a warm conversation" have been accepted, or am I misunderstanding the meaning of "gezellig"?
As a native English speaker with more than 30 years residence in Amsterdam, this sounds pretty good to me, and I will add it to my translator's toolkit of various ways to translate the supposedly untranslatable word "gezellig," depending on context. Hopefully DL will agree. I might however point out to beginners the difference between "a warm conversation" and "a heated conversation"!
2078
To me, "warm", especially in the context of a conversation, means friendly, whereas "heated" is the opposite! Ah, the joys of English.
1775
You do not have to - other translations, such as "cosy" are accepted.
However, it is rather famously a word for which there is no exact English translation, so if you want to capture it perfectly, an acceptable solution is to leave it as it is.
2078
In this sentence "hebben" is an auxiliary verb and "gevoerd" is the main verb. Together, "hebben gevoerd" means "have had" (in the context of a conversation). So an appropriate translation into English would either be simple past or present perfect, not present tense.
1775
I didn't try it, but would "chat" have been OK instead of "conversation"? It goes more naturally with "cosy/cozy". In fact, I would almost say: "a cosy chat" is something of a set expression in English, but: "a cosy conversation" is definitely not.
However, "a cosy chat" can also have a sarcastic or euphemistic meaning. If your boss says: "We need to have a cosy chat", he's almost certainly not meaning he wants to praise your work. He means: "We need to go somewhere private, so we can discuss what you did wrong!"
Similarly, to comment on others "having a cosy chat" could imply you think they are plotting something. It might be particularly true of people who are not naturally perceived as friends: "Look at those two, having a cosy chat! What are they up to?"
Or am I in paranoid mode tonight? ;)
235
The Duolingo translation is just not English. Why is "pleasant" not accepted? It's even suggested by DL as a translation!