"Noen ting kan man ikke forklare."

Translation:Some things one cannot explain.

May 30, 2015

15 Comments
This discussion is locked.


https://www.duolingo.com/profile/Mundgeirr

Wouldn't the use of passive be correct here: "some things cannot be explained", I believe it has the same meaning since "man" is a rather general or impersonal pronoun.


https://www.duolingo.com/profile/fveldig

It would have almost the same meaning, but I think the course makers want you to translate every word, so you learn to use them. Your sentence would be better translated from "Noen ting kan ikke forklares". Which would have almost the same as the current Norwegian sentence.


https://www.duolingo.com/profile/fveldig

It seems your sentence has been added as a correct option.


https://www.duolingo.com/profile/Mundgeirr

Nice! even though the sentences were not exactly the same it made sense to me to accept is as a possible option


https://www.duolingo.com/profile/Vologirl-chan

Why "man" used between "kan" and "ikke"?


https://www.duolingo.com/profile/Vadrone

Think of "man" as "one". Without "man" in this sentence, the translation would be "Some things cannot explain".


https://www.duolingo.com/profile/quammmom1

Why was "some things man cannot explain " not marked as correct?


https://www.duolingo.com/profile/Yakuul

Man in norsk means one (or yhr general 'you') in English. Mann with two enns means man in norsk.


https://www.duolingo.com/profile/jlosi1

because Man means one whereas Mann means man


https://www.duolingo.com/profile/tavisoreilly

Where is the indication that this is plural?


https://www.duolingo.com/profile/Vadrone

The Norwegian word "ting" is written the same way whether it's singular or plural.

En ting = one thing

Flere ting = several things


https://www.duolingo.com/profile/Geoffrey_Carlton

So why is the relative clause word order used here. I always interpreted "man" in this sentence as the subject and "noen ting" as the DO.


https://www.duolingo.com/profile/ThisIsOwls

I always thought that 'noen' meant 'someone' and 'noe' means 'something'.


https://www.duolingo.com/profile/Candidandelion

Yes, but 'noen' can also mean 'some', and 'noen ting' means some things.

Some words have more than one meaning.

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