"I read a book on the screen of my computer."
Translation:Mi legas libron sur la ekrano de mia komputilo.
12 CommentsThis discussion is locked.
I knew about sur, but wrote instead:
mi legis libron per la ekrano de mia komputilo
Because according to what I've learnt Esperanto tries to be less ambiguous as possible, and "sur" here could mean (maybe only to me :D) that I'm standing on a computer screen while reading my paper book.
I reported my translation, but I'm not very sure about the correctness of this one...what do you guys think?
Yes, Esperanto is generally less ambiguous than most other languages.
That being said, I do not know a single language, including Esperanto, that is consistently unambiguous in use of prepositions.
You are not alone. Also for me sur means, that I'm standing on the screen. de (sur) would be reading from the screen.
Shouldn't legis and legas be right in this case because English's past tense and present tense of "read" stays the same so it's ambiguous.
1587
"Legis" was accepted 10/16/17, as it should be since "read" can be either present or past tense depending on pronunciation and /or context. But here we have neither pronunciation nor context.
- 37
In English, the simple present tense, "I go", is a habitual tense. "I go to the mall" means I tend to go to the mall. It's something I regularly do. And that's at best awkward in this sentence. If it were "I read a book on my computer screen every Wednesday", that would be perfectly ambiguous.
I put in "Mi legas libron je la ekrano de mia komputilo." and it was marked incorrect. I've reported it as a possible correct answer, but was wondering if I actually am wrong. If so, why?
The English sentence reads more naturally as past tense. The English sentence should be revised to "I am reading..." if it can only accept a present-tense answer
shouldn't this be legis ?
The English sentence is ambiguous:
- "I read" pronounced "I reed" is present tense = mi legas
- "I read" pronounced "I red" is past tense = mi legis
I would expect both translations to be accepted.
Well no. The Esperanto course here in Duolingo ,and I assume that other courses as well, follows a principle, where the language to be taught is always considered the original and correct one. So a better question would be how Mi legas libron… should be translated to English. By "I read a book…" or "I am reading a book…" or…