"Manden var i færd med at betale, da tjeneren løb."
Translation:The man was in the midst of paying when the waiter ran.
20 Comments
Haha, have you seen a Czech film "Waiter, scarper!"? It is about a man who pretended to be waiter and then run away with what people have paied to him ^_^
I wrote "The man was going to pay when the waiter ran" which wasn't accepted. In Australia "was going to" means you were just about to, i.e. in the midst of.
"was going to" does mean you were just about to, but "in the midst of" means you have already started but haven't finished yet. Many people would now say "in the middle of" or "in the process of".
Well as far as I remember from school the going to is a future form for planned events. I guess the meaning is very very similar but not quite the same? ;)
I put that also and it was accepted. But yes there is a difference between the meanings of 'going to' and 'midst'. Being 'planned to undertake' and midst being 'underway but not yet finished'
The man was in the process of paying when the waiter ran. - This was marked incorrect. Is "the process of" more specific than "the midst of" and so I am not allowed to use it?
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I am just learner like you, but I agree. I would report your answer as correct and see if it gets added.
I had, the man was paying. Nothing like in the midst or in the process, it feels awkward, while this seems a more common idiom in Danish.
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"When" gives a logical connection between the two clauses. "I smiled when you came home." - I smiled because you were here now.
"As", like "while", connect the two clauses just in a temporal manner. "I smiled as you came home." - You saw me smiling when you came home, but maybe not because of you.
That said, there's a huge gray area there. Danish doesn't make that kind of difference, so you could translate it with either conjunction.
