"Det står en man i rummet där jag ska sova."
Translation:There is a man in the room where I am going to sleep.
34 Comments
I'm pretty sure 'shall' is acceptable as well as 'will' in this sentence.
Go for will/going to, it's a safer bet. We won't include "shall" on every sentence, that'd be too much work on us contributors.
In other places, "ska" is translated as should. Why not here? It seems to make semse.
Great question, Harold.
This annoying little word may actually be the single trickiest one in the entire course. Modals are generally difficult between any languages, since they seldom have one-to-one relationships, but ska in specific can be translated into so many things, and what's idiomatic can vary greatly. Depending on the context, ska can translate to either "should", "would", "will", "may", or even occasionally "must". And that's without even taking into account the considerable differences within English (such as "must not" typically meaning two separate things in the US and the UK).
We've actually discussed this internally recently, and I'm afraid the best general answer I can give is that ska more often than not means "will" or "is going to", and that we use "should" mainly when it's unidiomatic in English to not use the future tense. I realise that in this case, some sociolects - primarily UK ones - may use "should" to indicate the future, but I think allowing it would cause more harm than do good. It's important to realise that ska, here, can mean neither a recommendation, nor an expectation, nor an obligation - hence, "should" is not a good choice.
It's a really difficult word to teach well, and we'll probably be continuously evaluating it forever.
Could I use instead of ''står'' the verbs ''finns'' or ''är''? Just like the sentence ''Det är en flugga i soppan.''. When do I use each of these verbs?
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Very late answer here but it's still a good question so I'll give it a shot. – They're all accepted answers in this case, but står probably sounds most idiomatic. We can't give any strict rules for when to use är vs finns, but as a general rule of thumb, finns is for more permanent existence and är for more temporary presence. So finns is not a very natural choice here.
For things that are perceived to be in a position like standing, sitting, or lying, we very often prefer to use those verbs instead of just är or finns when we're describing something. So Det ligger en tidning på bordet 'There lies a newspaper on the table' is more idiomatic than just Det är en tidning på bordet.
On the other (third?) hand, if we're just asking where something is located, we're pretty likely to just use är or finns. E.g. Var är tvålen? 'Where is the soap?' At least for movable things. For geographic entities, the default is ligger. For instance: Var ligger Timbuktu? 'Where is Timbuktu?'
Absolutely, but it sounds borderline stilted. So I use it all of the time. :)
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Thank you! A bit like in French: "La chambre où je dors" / "la chambre dans laquelle je dors."
Why "där jag ska sova" instead of "där ska jag sova"? Does it work both ways?
That means the same thing and is perfectly idiomatic. I think it should be accepted.
For this idea, I think an English speaker would say "where I am supposed to sleep." "I am going to" suggests that I am definitely still planning to sleep in that room regardless. Does "ska/skall" here carry that sense, or is this a demand for some action--get him out or find me another room.
I don't think the sentence has any connotation, really. It's just literal. Of course, given context, you could argue for the latter interpretation - but not out of the blue, I'd say. If you added an exclamation mark, I would go for the latter option.
Well, doesn't there have to be a connotation? It means the room where I want to sleep, or intend to sleep, or was told to sleep. Since the context doesn't tell us, if you want the most neutral translation, then it would probably be "the room where I am to sleep." I actually like that, since clearly there is a plan even if we don't know who made the decision.
I meant connotation as in any connotation beyond the literal meaning of the words, but that's an entire subject area, I guess. :)
To be clear, though: "... where I am supposed to sleep" is actually accepted; I'm just arguing that it shouldn't be the default translation. I'll add "... where I am to sleep" as well. And I see now that the "supposed" option is only accepted for some sentence variations, not all - so I'll fix that as well.
Sorry if my posts aren't as coherent as usual today. I'm a bit sick and tired, so I expect to make more mistakes than usual...
Edit: Done. There are now 71 accepted translations. Since "... where I will be sleeping" is apparently not accepted, I expect that there'll be 142 once I've fixed that.
Don't give it a thought. You're a great resource and doing a fine job. I agree it would be a bit bizarre to confuse people by making my suggestions the main translation, since there can be only one standard, but I am glad they'll be accepted since they are accurate alternative renderings.
I thought that " there is a man standing in the room where I have to sleep" would be acceptable as a translation...can someone please give me some feedback about why it is not?
Well, it doesn't say you "have to" sleep there - ska only signals future tense here.
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You MUST include the spelling "skall" as correct some time! I will keep reporting until you do so!
skall is already accepted here, and has been so for over three years. That said, there's a bug with "type what you hear" exercises which only allows us to accept one correct option, so skall gets marked wrong in those. It's very annoying but not something we can do anything about.
I know it's missing in some places, and I'm adding it whenever I come across a place where it's not accepted, but this is a process which takes a lot of time.
