"Det är antingen en matta eller en handduk."
Translation:It is either a mat or a towel.
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so can someone explain the difference in usage between antingen, heller and varken???
They're used in pairs with other words:
antingen – eller
varken – eller
inte heller
Det är antingen en bok eller en tidning — It is either a book or a newspaper
Det är varken en bok eller en tidning — It is neither a book nor a newspaper
Det är inte ett brev heller — It isn't a letter either
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So that is complicated. Too complicated for a random person to simply figure out by chance. Duolingo needs some kind of special texts or course explaining stuff like that.
I don't know how Towel and a Carpet would be confused, I like all these funny but easy to learn sentences on here
It could be one of those towely things you often get on a hotel, that you are supposed to put on the floor when getting out of the bath. They are kind of a mat, but also a towel. :-)
Can "handduk" be translated as "hand towel", or is it always only "towel"?
Just curious, what would you call a hand towel? In Dutch you'd normally call both a towel and a hand towel "handdoek", so I wonder what it would be in Swedish?
Arguably, they're both towels, but a distinction could be made with "liten handduk" for a small one (such as to dry your hands).
what does this sentence really mean? that the thing can be used as a mat or as a towel equally or that the person who is speaking does not know with certainty what the thing is ?
I always type sentences like this with 'that is..' instead of 'it is..' and I've noticed it's not always in the system yet! Such is life in beta, I suppose :P (I keep reporting it so you can update!
I think "that is..." would be written as "det där är..." - so perhaps they don't allow "det är" to be translated as "that is" to avoid confusion? (Even if it does make sense in English). I could be wrong, though.
We allow it in contexts like this, though it's not the best translation, you're right that if we really wanted to say that is … we would have said det där är ….
