"La najbaroj invitis nin rigardi ilian novan televidilon."
Translation:The neighbours invited us to look at their new TV set.
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What kind of neighbors are these who would invite people to look at their new television but not to watch it?
http://reta-vortaro.de and http://vortaro.net say:
vidi = to see (vido = sight, view), percepti per la okuloj.
rigardi = to look (rigardo =look, view), fiksi la okulojn al iu direkto/objekto.
spekti = to watch to spectate (spektanto: spectator), atenti per la vido kaj aŭdo tion, kio estas prezentata. 'Spekti' as a special form of 'rigardi' is less used.
I think this isn't settled yet. From my experience, I can tell you that, here in the U.S., many women in the world of online dating -- I would bet this applies to men too, but I'm not looking at men's dating profiles -- specify that, on the one hand, they either don't own a TV or don't watch TV and, on the other hand, will list their favorite TV to watch on their computers / tablets. Which I always find very strange, particularly since making a point of stating that you don't own something as ubiquitous as a TV or automobile is, at least in this country, usually a form of bragging, usually about how virtuous/wise/non-materialistic/ecologically sound/non-consumer-oriented one is.
No. I separated the sentence only to show that "ni/nin" is not only the direct object of "invitis" but also the subject of "rigardi".
The reflexive "si" relates to the subject of the LAST action. There cannot be "sian" instead of "ilian", since the subject is "ni" and "ni" doesn't use "si".
This sentence is fine: "La najbaroj invitis ŝin montri sian novan televidilon." where she shows her own TV set.
Reflexive is tricky to use if your language doesn't have a word for "si"
I guess where I've always been misled is that I thought the use of "si/sia/sin" was applicable to/determined by the subject within a statement or clause.
(If you'll pardon the weird impromptu examples) Like: "Li helpis sian (his own) hundon," or "Li volis ke ili trovu sian (their) libron," because "ke" began a new clause with the new subject, "they."
... I think what you're saying is that it has less to do with clauses and more to do with the last verb used, and who was the subject (explicitly or implicitly) of that verb?
Jaerivus, for accusative, reflexive etc. there is only a simple rule. You need enough exercices, a course with a teacher
2104
I played the sound many times and still couldn’t hear the “nin” properly. I knew there had to be something there and guessed right. This happens sometimes to me in English too, so I am not complaining about the clarity of the recording, nor will I report it. In English I usually have a context to make the correct guess. In Duolingo, with a single sentence, it is harder.
I tell people that I'm not a fan of grammatical terminology just for the sake of grammatical terminology - but in this case it really helps. Si is the third person reflexive pronoun. A pronoun takes the place of a noun. "Reflexive" tells us that it "reflects" back to the subject. And "third person" means that it's not used for first and second person (i.e. it's not used with mi, ni, or vi).
The "hard" part here is that you don't look to the subject of the sentence. You have to look at the verb.
- rigardi sian novan televidilon = to look at one's new TV set.
What is the subject of "regardi"? Who is doing that action? Whoever that is, THAT is who sian refers to - as I tried to explain above.
Got it wrong for putting "lin" instead of "nin," I blame the pronunciation!