"Are you coming there tonight?"

Translation: Kommer du dit i kväll?

[jbrains762]

Hm. In English "come there" just doesn't sound right to me. I doubt in alone in this. "Come here" and "go there", but not "come there". I take it that Swedish speakers don't mind saying "att komma dit"? How would that differ from "att gå/åka dit"?

I'd recommend removing "come there", because native English speakers very rarely say it, and many consider it wrong.

[LoriLinstr]

As a native speaker of English, I have to say I totally agree with jbrains. "come there" sounds totally odd (in English) in this case.

[Arnauti]

I agree it's not correct in English, but it is in Swedish, and maybe having this incorrect English sentence in the course is the only way of teaching it here. Because if you translate it as 'Are you going there tonight?', you sort of miss the point (that would be Ska du gå dit i kväll? )

[jbrains762]

I understand the tradeoff, but since "come there" doesn't work in English, then I literally don't know what "att komma dit" is meant to teach me. So what's the difference? Why does one ask "Kommer du dit?" as opposed to "Ska du gå dit?"

[Arnauti]

It's a question of perspective. When you ask Kommer du dit?, you ask whether someone will show up at the place, not whether they're going there. I have no idea how else to teach it.

[jbrains762]

I might understand. Does it correspond to "Do you plan/intend to be there (at some point)?"

I see a problem with the English "Are you going there?" because it can mean both "Are you on the way?" and "Do you intend to be there?" With the way DuoLingo works, I don't quite know one would teach it either. At least now I know what it's meant to mean.

I'd accept at least "Are you going to be there tonight?" and "Are you going there tonight?" as well as possibly "Will you be there tonight?" in addition to the literal-but-strange-sounding "Are you coming there tonight?"

[LoriLinstr]

I see your point Arnauti, but can't help pointing out that this example was in the placement test, not being used as a teaching point. The task was to translate from English to Swedish. There had been no teaching at this point, and without any context it was totally confusing to try to guess how such an unnatural sentence in English should be translated into proper Swedish.

[Arnauti]

Well, how could there be any teaching before the placement test? Are you saying that you were aware of this construction in Swedish before doing the placement test, but missed it because of how it was translated? Because if you weren't aware of this construction when you took the placement test, you can hardly complain that the test said you didn't know it, can you?

[LoriLinstr]

I brought up that point because you said that the incorrect sentence was the only way to teach that construction. The English sentence was so awkward that I couldn't make the connection...but that's my problem! If I can come up with what might be a better example sentence I'll be back :-) For now I'll just accept that we disagree.

[bigswedeej]

Totally agree

[CommieGnome]

Dit vs där?

[Zmrzlina]

It has to do with direction or location.

Dit = thereto = direction

Där = there = location

In the sentence above, dit is used since it's motion (direction) to the party, rather than action taking place at the party.

[SapphiraeLupa]

This makes no sense to me, because the English sentence implies that they speaker is asking if someone is going to a particular place later (ie: a location), not that they are asking if you are going in a particular direction.

Perhaps I'm getting misled by the awkwardness of the 'coming there' construction as discussed extensively on this thread, but I would never guess that this sentence is about direction and not location.

[Zmrzlina]

The going to a place implies motion, thus Swedish needs to have "dit" there.

[deactivated user]

Why is kommer du där i natt wrong?

[jarrettph]

You need to use dit not där for movement in a direction.

[Below14th]

I actually think this is kind of cool. It's not just a case of one word covering both contexts in English. The perspective is genuinely different. I guess "are you going to go there" might be closest.

[Marcel293689]

The Swedish is correct but the English sentence is wrong.
You go there --- you come here.
NO EXCEPTIONS

[laurarose145]

Shouldn't ni and du both be accepted as a translation for you in this sentence?

[Arnauti]

From what I can see in the incubator, it is.

[Torsby]

It isn't, but the difference is that in the ni-sentece ikväll is one word... but shouldn't that be accepted as well?

[Arnauti]

It is accepted. If you don't get things like that accepted, we need to see a screenshot to be able to report whatever bug is causing it to the developers, because all combinations of du/ni and ikväll/i kväll/i natt/inatt are in fact in the database. – Only dit should be accepted though, not där.

[rwhodges]

I got a screenshot of it accepting, but telling me I have a typo (an extra space) in my answer "Kommer ni dit i kväll"). And suggesting for another translation, "Kommer du dit i kväll". Is that a bug? If so, where do I send the screenshot? (I'm on mobile just now but can get back to this on desktop later.)

[GwenDragoness]

What's wrong with "i natt"?

[jarrettph]

There should be nothing wrong with that although it would be later night. Ikväll is preferred in most cases.

[PaoloLim]

What's wrong with saying "Kommer dit i kvall du?" I understand adverbs normally go immediately after the verb they modify.

[jarrettph]

Not in a question. The noun and verb invert.

[guillcamp]

It seems like the English should be either "Are you coming here tonight?" or "Are you going there tonight?" Coming there?????

[Seeheer]

I understand that you need to point out what a swede would say but I and others don't understand the English because it's contradictory. Perhaps you could give me a situation example when this question is asked and what it actually means: not a translation