"Blua birdo saltas sur la tablon."
Translation:A blue bird is jumping onto the table.
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"Blua birdo saltas sur la tablo" Would be a blue bird already on the table, jumping, then? It is a nice and useful distinction.
That would mean exactly that, yes - there is a bird on the table and while it's there, it's jumping.
And yes, it's a useful distinction.
Similarly with a bird flying over a table - if it "flugas super la tablon", then it starts at one end of the room, flies over the table, and ends up at the other end of the toom, while if it "flugas super la tablo", then it flies around (in circles?) above the table; it is over the table the whole time rather than only during part of the motion.
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I can think of a lot of situations where the "flugas super la tablo" vs. "flugas super la tablon." For instance: La blua birdo flugis super la kampo. As opposed to: La blua birdo flugis super la kampon. One being a blue bird flying around and around over a field, the other being a blue bird that just shoots by. We have a lot of bats where I live and they do tend to fly around and around over things. It seems, in general, that the -n ending means the action is completed or the object is traversed, whereas the -o ending might mean the action is sort of ongoing. There must be a lot of variation depending on the verb and the preposition.
For other people who missed it, the difference between this sentence and the one in the exercise is the use of the adcusative; "sur la tablon" is, then, "onto the table" and "sur la tablo" is "on the table".
Ĝuste, jes. :) En Esperanto, oni povas nomi tiun servon Twitter aŭ Tvitero, kaj por la verbo "to tweet" oni plej ofte uzas "pep/i", ekz. Mi legis interesan pepon pri tio hieraŭ.
Ĉu pepon aŭ pepaĵon? Ĉu la pepo ne estas la ago "pepi" mem kaj ne la rezulto de la ago?
No - that would be "sur la tablo" without accusative.
"A blue bird jumps onto the table" would work, though.
I literally just learned this rule about three minutes ago. About the accusitive case being used for direction. Thank you for the answer though!
It shouldn't be, in my opinion, because that would mean that the bird, already on the table, starts jumping. "Sur la tablon" means "On to the table" (or "onto the table")
Many English speakers don't distinguish between "on" and "onto.".
Here's a random example.
http://www.dogchatforum.com/forums/topic/5898-jumping-on-table/
Clearly the problem is with the dog moving from being not on the table to a location that is on the table. For sure the owner would not be happy with the dog standing on the table without jumping. The approach of the course authors seems to be not to frustrate learners by making them learn the difference between "on" and "onto" in English - especially if it's optional in many regions.
i have the same question for "to the table". (see salivanto's comment above for context.)
and how does Duolingo decide which colloquialisms or informal English translations are accepted?
I'm not sure I understand your question ... but as much as I do, I would say that jumping "onto a table" and jumping "to a table" mean very different things.
"Salti" comes from the Latin "salto" meaning to jump or dance- though in Esperanto the word for dance is "danci".
Because that would mean the bird was already on the table when it started jumping. For that meaning, in Esperanto, you would say, "La birdo saltis sur la tablo."
I'll have to remember to report that then. It didn't like is leaping in the answer.
For my part, I would encourage you NOT to report this. Do birds leap? Deer do. Birds don't. Birds do hop, but I wouldn't suggest every thesaurus entry for "jump." Just type "jump" and Duo will understand you.
Well, possibly some birds, but not ones likely to go onto tables. Fair enough. I think I got distracted by saltas being linked in my mind to saltation