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- "You put the letter in an env…
"You put the letter in an envelope and you sent the letter."
Translation:Chuir sibh an litir i gclúdach litreach agus sheol sibh an litir.
20 Comments
730
I think it's reasonable to assume that a single letter is being sent by one person. But since the grammar is ambiguous, both interpretations should be accepted.
395
I really hate English for being so imprecise when it comes to words like that. However, for me the sentence only makes sense with one type of you. Especially as the context clearly indicates a single action, or how should "'yous' sent the letter" you (on your own) have put in an envelope? Each taking one end of the envelope?
Well, one person could have put it in the envelope, and then multiple people (of another group) gone to send it. In my dialect, it'd be like this:
[to one person] You put the letter in the envelope [turning to another group of people] and y'all sent the letter.
It'd work even better with a rising intonation and as a question, but can be said as a statement.
In such a case, where the "you" has two different references, an English speaker would naturally use sentence stress to emphasise the difference eg "You put... and you sent...".
I would also see it accompanied by some gestures indicating who was being referred to in each case.
In written form, some kind of textual cue (underlining, italics) could be used.
Now, in the Irish, although Duolingo seems to avoid these forms, would this not be a case where the emphatic pronoun forms ("tusa" and "sibhse") would be appropriate?
Or, even fronting eg "Is tusa a chuir..."?
304
I think that if you pass it to the third person you'll see it better: 'He puts the letter in an envelope and they send the letter'. It does not present any problem to me.
262
Is é mo thuairim go bhfuil an ceist débhíoch! Cén fáth ? An bhfuil gach duine ina chodladh i Duolingo?