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- "The good-looking man and wom…
"The good-looking man and woman dance slowly."
Translation:La belaj viro kaj virino dancas malrapide.
36 Comments
"La bela viro kaj virino dancas malrapide" should be accepted because "belaj" may only apply to the "viro".
Agreed, this one is ambiguous. The English sentence could certainly be taken to mean that only the man is good-looking. I think either the English sentence should be clearer or the answer above should be accepted.
No. To make "good-looking" apply only to the man, you would need to insert "the" before "woman".
Yes the English sentence could be read as either
The beautiful (man) and woman dance slowly. or The beautiful (man and woman) dance slowly.
I disagree. For this to work, the English sentence would beed to be ""The good-looking man and a woman dance slowly.""
I can tell you were frustrated when you wrote this (21 hours ago) - but words like "magically" are not very inspiring to the people who can answer your question. I see Joffy answered your other comment in this thread. Hopefully his reply will help.
If it were an option, would "La viro kaj virino belaj dancas malrapide" be acceptable?
Jes, "belaspektaj" estas taŭga vorto, tamen bedaŭrinde Duolingo ne akceptas ĝin. Mi ĵus uzis ĝin, sed Duolingo diris, ke mi devus uzi "bela". Laŭ mi, "belaspekta" estas pli taŭga vorto por la angla "good-looking".
It is because the adjective describes both the man and the woman - they are both good-looking, so it's plural. If you put "La bela viro kaj virino" that would mean "The good-looking man and a woman".
How is viroj kaj virinoj not correct when "malgrandaj katoj estas belaj/Smalls cats are beautifuls" is?
Because there is only one man and one woman, so viro and virino should be singular, whereas there are several small cats, wherefore katoj is plural.
Why can't I say "geviroj", it implies both sexes. Or is it too ambiguous?
I think you would rather use that in a more generic situation. I'm not sure though. It seems here they refer to two specific persons, one man and one woman, but if you'd use geviroj it sounds more generic: it might refer to more than one man and woman.
I failed to put belaj. It let me pass when I put bela only. I was wondering which of the two it was before I clicked ok. It described belaj as an alternative solution. I dissagree. It should have corrected me.
The English sentence is ambiguous: It could mean that only the man is handsome (in this case bela is the correct choice) or that both the man and the woman are beautiful (in this case belaj is the correct choice). Since someone could not know a priori which meaning was intended, both answers are correct here; even though the meaning of the two correct Esperanto solutions are different.
Could "belulo" and "belulino" be used in place of good looking man and woman?
Not really. "belulo" means a good-looking male person, so it he could be a boy. Similarly "belulino" could be a girl.
In general, yes, but if the sentence was "La belulo kaj la belulino malrapide dancas", I suggest it is at least unlikely that it would mean "The good-looking person and the beautiful woman dance slowly".
Yes, I completely agree. I just pointed out the “in general” bit, so that people don't take your comment out of context and think that a belulo always is male.
But belulo really is always male... for reasons that I spell out in my link. In short, David is understating the case when he says "unlikely".
I believe Joffysloffy is literally correct but mistaken in practice -- for reasons I explain in this thread.
https://forum.duolingo.com/comment/19419564
David wrote:
In general, yes, but if the sentence was "La belulo kaj la belulino malrapide dancas", I suggest it is at least unlikely that it would mean "The good-looking person and the beautiful woman dance slowly".
Exactly.
