"Det er dejligt når andre tænker på én."
Translation:It is nice when other people think of you.
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Why is it not correct to translate 'andre' to 'others'? It says i have to put 'other people'
871
Hi All, For Android User who could not see the "Tips" in PC version of Duolingo. I think it is very useful.
Referring to the Indefinite Welcome to something confusing!
A very common thing in Danish is to say something like man må ikke bande (one must not swear), when talking about some general person. Indefinite pronouns are used when referring to an unknown or unspecified being, object, or place.
There are three difficult pronouns that it is key to understand the difference between, since they are generally translated to almost the same in English. These three words are: man, én, and ens. The last word is slight different, since it is the possessive indefinite pronoun, but let us wait with that. The apostrophe on én is optional, and you might also encounter it (elsewhere) written with a double-e instead (een). It merely serves to differentiate it from the meaning of a or one.
First we will look at the two words man and én. Man is only used as the subject, and can be translated to one or you. Which one it is translated to comes down to preference in most cases, or which side of the Atlantic you were/one was born on. Én can only be used as the object, and also translates to one or you. Therefore it is usually easy to translate to English, but it requires a lot more thought going back.
Here are some examples:
Det er dejligt når andre tænker på én (It is nice when others think of you), here it is the object, since others think of the pronoun, and thus it is én. Man spiser ikke heste (you do not eat horses or one does not eat horses), here it is the subject and thus it is man. I hope this is pretty clear, because now we will extend it with the word ens. This is the possessive indefinite pronoun and translates to your or one's. This should be pretty straight forward, but let us take an example:
Det er ikke altid godt når andre går ind i ens hjem (It is not always good when others go into one's home), the English sentence can obviously use both your and one's. I just arbitrarily picked one's for this example. I hope this is clear. There are not many indefinite pronouns worth spending time on learning, so this is a very focused skill. Good luck!
So, only "good" and "nice" can translate to "dejligt", and not "wonderful"? Weird...
- 1511
Underfuld in DDO. Not every dictionary I consulted knows it, though, so I figure it might be rather uncommon in use. Vidunderlig might be the better choice, you're right.
Alright, it is a word then :-) And there's even something refreshing about newcomers to a language re-appropriating old, forgotten words, so why not? But for the simple purpose of making yourself as clear as possible, better use another.
Because "you" has multiple meanings in English. In this sentence, "you" refers to anyone, not one particular person. It's the same in the Danish sentence. "Én" means "you" (general). "Dig" means "you" (specific person).
Maybe it would help to think of this "én" as "one". As in: "It is nice when one is thought of".
- 1511
Unless context points in a different direction, it's mostly assumed that andre refers to people. Like "others" in English.