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- "Pappa tittar på kaffet."
13 Comments
... and stares into its inky blackness -- barely awake but angry, this morning -- and consideres how much it resembles his soul.
I put dad is looking for the coffee I don’t understand why he would be looking at it. Would that be Pappa tittar för kaffe ?
Is there a difference between "se på" and "titta på"? Acorrding to Wordreference, both mean "to look at".
Kaffe is an ett word, so the definite noun "the coffee" would be kaffet. Ett words ended with vowels when added an "n" at the end are the plural conjugation, so it would be coffees (?) It sound strange to me as a non-english native, but thinking logically that should be it!!
Also as a non-english native, I translated the sentence as "Dad is looking TO the coffee" and it was marked incorrect. Is it really incorrect? If it is, what is difference between at and to?
"looking to" is more about waiting and anticipation. It is not followed by a simple object.
'He was looking to make money from the situation'
'he was looking to the community for an answer'
"looking to" can be an emphasis about direction. Like a synonym for 'towards' 'Dad was looking to the east' 'I look to the hills...'
"Looking at" is for the simple act of looking at a thing
As a native english speaker "Dad is looking to the coffee" confuses me. I would not understand it as the meaning of the sentence to be translated. I would expect some sort of extra information, a sentence like "Dad is looking to the coffee to kick start his day"
I think it's one of those "That's the way it is" rules. 99% of the time you'd say "Look at." Saying "Dad is looking to the coffee" almost makes it sound like he's seeking something from it. Like "Dad is looking to the coffee for answers"
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One of the prepositions offered was "for". I makes for sense for someone to be looking for coffee.
