"Baby, fall asleep already!"

Translation:Bebo, ekdormu jam!

June 13, 2015

14 Comments
This discussion is locked.


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

I think the construction is simply wrong in Esperanto. "Jam" says something already happened. "Ekdormu" in this sentence is talking about something that might happen in the near future. Combining them is not an elegant use of the Esperanto language. I understand that it might be convenient for the English speaking Esperantists, but it is wrong to copy these strange sentence constructions to Esperanto.


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

"fall asleep already" doesn't sound like a very natural English expression to me. "Hurry up and fall asleep" or just "Go to sleep" might be better


https://www.duolingo.com/profile/MrMorley3

It's quite typical of US English, but sounds strange to British speakers. As far as the course is concerned, it should certainly be an acceptable answer, but the intended meaning may not even be clear to a British learner. I'd say your suggestion "Hurry up and fall asleep!" is better; you should definitely suggest it.

In fact, even the Esperanto sounds odd to me. I'm just canvassing for expert opinions now... https://www.facebook.com/groups/duolingo.esperanto.learners/permalink/477487179079971/


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

Se la bebo jam ekdormas oni prefere silentu. Sed oni emus diri al la bebo. Ekdormu tuj!


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

It might be worth noting that this construction exists in Spanish as well (Duerme ya!)


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

You should report it. It might be a regionalism.


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

Alright already, it's a very typical Americanism. I agree with Morley3 (above) about it being very odd Esperanto, but perfectly acceptable English on this side of the pond.

Usually used to imply frustration &/or impatience, already.


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

It sounds strange/wrong to me as well, but I have come across 'already' used like this quite a few times so I think it must be valid.


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

Sounds weird to me. Can't think of any way it can make sense in British English, and so I'd no idea what it was supposed to mean.


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

So how do the Brits express frustration at an infant who refuses to go to sleep? That may be a good thing for the management here to learn too.


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

Usually by swearing. "Baby, for goodness sake go to sleep" or some ruder version of that: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Go_the_Fuck_to_Sleep


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

Mi pensas ke ili pensis pro tiu. Mi pensas ke ili havas bebojn.


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

Ah, that's how a lot of Americans do it, too. It's just not my personal style.


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

Everybody here is discussing how odd the sentence sounds from esperanto to english but seem to be forgetting that esperanto is model as a romance language, with very few Germanic words. As such let's all remember that in Italian, Spanish,Portuguese, French an Catalan the "ekdormu jam" would be a very natural way of speaking.

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