32 Comments
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But wouldn't "Ili komprenas reciproke" mean the same thing?
Edit: I just realized the reason for "sin". Kompreni is transitive, and needs an object, which is "sin"
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So, could another version of this sentence be "Ili reciproke komprenas sin"?
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Yes, "Ili reciproke komprenas sin" sounds even more normal.. Same with "Ili komprenas sin reciproke".
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Without reciproke, would this sentence mean "They understand themselves"? And is there any other way to clarify that they understand each other?
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Well, I always use "Ili komprenas unu la alian". Literally, "Ili sin komprenas" means they understand themselves. So basically a russian and an englishman talks and they don't speak each other's language, then you could say "Ili sin komprenas" - meaning that they understand what they say but we have no info whether they understand each other or not.
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"Ili komprenas unu la alian" = "(ili) Unu komprenas la alian"... So, yes! It's mutual.
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That's not true. Ili sin komprenas literally means they understand "each other", because si is a reflexive pronoun which refers back to ili -- it's mutual. Reciproke only adds more emphasis to the fact that it's mutual and you can happily leave it out. You can't leave out si in accusative however. It's hard to grasp if your native language lacks reflexive verbs and pronouns especially, but that's the way it is.
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Although does "sin" without "reciproke" leave it ambiguous as to whether it means "they understand each other" and "they understand themselves"?
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As I see it, "ili sin komprenas" would mean "They understand themselves".
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Maybe you could say "Ni komprenas ilin kaj ili komprenas reciproke" like...they understand [some third party] back.
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This sentence simply makes no sense. What do you think of when you use reciproke?
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Something like: They understand mutually.
Still you need "themselves" i.e. sin (si, sin, sia... mi, min, mia...)
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Is "sin" the reflexive pronoun for "ili"? My gut feeling is that this is the same as " ils se comprennent", where "se" in French is the reflexive pronoun for ils.
Si is the third-person reflexive, both singular and plural. It takes the "-n" here because it's being used in the accusative. (It can also take an "-a" when used as a possessive.)
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You learned how to use the reflexive "sia" in the "Family" skill
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Another calque from Polish, where reciproke is nawzajem.
sin reciproke means each other, or in Polish, siebie nawzajem. In this sentence it means that they understand themselves, due to each person understanding all the other people.
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"Oni rozumieją się nawzajem", but I assume "sin" is the same as "się", the reflexive pronoun? But in Polish, the reflexive pronoun never changes based on the particular personal pronoun (ie JA nazywam się, TY nazywasz się, ONI nazywąją się, itp) which translates to "I call (as in name) myself", the "się" being myself, yourself, themselves etc. So I am wondering is "sin" applicable for all the personal pronouns, or does it just pertain to "ili"?
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Finally here you are, someone who understands how I feel seeing the native English speakers struggle with these simple grammar features. My native language is Slovak.
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I just tried, "They understand each other reciprocally", and for some reason, Duo counted "reciprocally" as wrong. Duo considers "mutually" to be correct, and "mutually" means the same as "reciprocally", so both should be accepted. I have reported this. (Edited to add: Duo gave "They understand each other mutually" as a correct answer. I've just tried, "They mutually understand each other" and it was rejected. Again, I have reported it.)
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I cannot understand this at all. The initial "r" of "reciproke" is just not pronounced. It sounds like "komprenas alciproke"
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what is the need of reciproke here? does "Ili sin komprenas" not mean the same thing?
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"Ili sin komprenas" would mean something like "They understand themselves".
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What's the difference between 'sin' and 'mem'? According to the dictionary hints, 'sin' means themselves, but wouldn't 'ili mem' mean the same?
