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- "Ĝi estas oranĝkolora, ĉu ne?"
55 Comments
It is not a problem, it's simply a "beta" course. That means that the course is still unstable, buggy and alternative translations are missing. If the course members had added each possible translation for each sentence, this course wouldn't have been released before 2017 or 2018, believe me. "It is orange, right?" is fine and should be reported (I'm a mod, but no member of the team, thus I cannot add it in the incubator directly).
155
The course is in beta so people can report these problems and get them corrected. I understand how a beta works.
In any course, beta or not, you can be click the "report a problem" button, or the little flag (mobile) to suggest another translation. If they accept your translation, eventually you'll get an email saying so. (I sometimes get a whole batch of emails when someone goes through and clears the backlog.)
- 337
Technically it should be okay because nouns ONLY end in -o and adjectives ONLY end in -a so I also do not understand why they're making the words so long. . .
Wouldn't orangxa means orangy? As in the properties of the entire fruit, not just the color?
Shouldn't this be written "Cxu gxi estas orangxkolora, cxu ne?" (P.S. Mi estas komencanto)
- 2412
I don't think so. It's similar to English, where a simple question will invert the subject-verb order:
Is it orange? = Cxu gxi estas orangxkolora?
But with the tag question, the first part remains a statement:
It is orange, isn't it? = Gxi estas orangxkolora, cxu ne?
People usually say these 3 forms:
-
Ĝi estas oranĝkolora, ĉu?
-
Ĝi estas oranĝkolora, ĉu ne?
-
Ĝi ne estas oranĝkolora, ĉu?
...but what practically no one says, is:
- Ĝi ne estas oranĝkolora, ĉu ne?
Note to self: oranĝ = orange, kolora = color. oranĝkolora = orangecolor, orange as in the color. Far less confusing :D
Why can't "cxu ne" be translated as "or not"? My answer was "Is it orange, or not?" Why is that wrong?
- 2412
Because the first part is not a question, it's a statement. Esperanto, like English, has what's called a tag question. It's where you take a statement and then tag a mini question at the end.
It is orange, [statement] isn't it? [question]
Gxi estas orangxkolora, [statement] cxu ne? [question]
This is not the same thing as "Is it orange or not?"/"Cxu gxi estas orangxkolora aux ne?"
It is a contraction of the phrase [is it] not so? It is common use in South Africa, but perhaps it is regional. One never really thinks about these irregularities in English until someone says that they have not heard it before :)
- 2412
I see! Yeah, I'm from the US, and we just say "It is/it's X, isn't it?" or "It's not/it isn't X, is it?"
- 2412
No. In English we would say "It is/It's orange, isn't it/is it not?"
You need that second "it".
- 2412
As long as it accepts x-notation and merely flags it as a typo, rather than marking it as fully wrong, I wouldn't worry about it.
I use a program called Phrase Express. It's relatively easy to set up (although it can get painstaking depending on how many entries you want to add) but once it's set up you can just let it work in the background.
So I have it set up to (among other things) convert x-notation to diacritics. I type, say, gx and hit space, and it gives me the option to convert that to ĝ by hitting tab.
- 2412
"It isn't" is equivalent to "it is not", but that's not what's needed here.
"It is not/It isn't" is a simple statement.
"Is it not?/Isn't it?" is a tag question that goes after a positive question.
If the question were negative, for example "It's not orange?" then the tag question would be the positive "is it?"
