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have i got this right?

door BelgoHead, 31 augustus 2007

Berichten: 5

Taal: English

BelgoHead (Profiel tonen) 31 augustus 2007 23:57:49

I have a sentence in english: I didn't remember any dreams last night.

in esperanto: Mi ne havas memoris de mia revis nakton antau.

Is everything correct in my esperanto sentence? If so how could i fix it demando.gif

note*revis-revi is a word i made up (I couldn't find the right word on the net),
I took from the french word reve meaning dream. Since esperanto is an evolving langauge i thought i would give it my two cents.

erinja (Profiel tonen) 1 september 2007 00:17:40

I would say "Mi ne memoris ajnan sonĝon pasint-nokte" ("I didn't remember any dream last night") or else "Mi ne memoras ajnan sonĝon de la pasinta nokto" ("I don't remember any dream from last night"). But there are many variations that would be correct.

The word "revo" means "dream" in Esperanto, but only in the sense of a strong desire or hope (having dreams for your children, dreams of a better future, etc). The word "sonĝo" means "dream" in the sense of what happens when you sleep, and is the most appropriate word for the meaning you're after.

Remember that in Esperanto, the -is ending is for verbs (past tense), so "memoris" means "remembered". "Mi ne memoris" = "I didn't remember". Or else "Mi ne havas memoron" = "I don't have memory". Therefore, "revis" is actually a correct word (from "revi") but it is also a verb, meaning "dreamed", according to the meaning I gave above. It will help your Esperanto a lot if you remember to distinguish between nouns (-o ending, -oj for plural) and verbs (-i, -as, -os, -is)

Also, don't forget to take advantage of the lernu dictionary. I know you said you couldn't find the Esperanto word for "dream" online, but it is found in the lernu dictionary, so I encourage you to take advantage of that as a resource!

Mendacapote (Profiel tonen) 1 september 2007 01:12:22

I would say:

Mi ne memoris iun songxon ajn cxi lastnokte.

Miland (Profiel tonen) 1 september 2007 18:55:48

This problem provides a good illustration of Claude Piron's saying that a good translator has to be a detective. There are at least two questions to be asked, which determine the translation: firstly, do we have a bald statement of fact, or a complaint that the author tried to remember his dreams and could not? Secondly, to what time is the report referring - to just after waking up, or the moment at which the report is made?
Let us consider two cases as examples; there are of course many other possibilities:
(a) We have a statement of fact, which refers to the author's waking moment:
'Vekigxinte, mi ne memoris iu ajn songxon de la pasinta nokto.'
(b) We have a complaint, and the author is trying to remember the dream at the moment of reporting, but cannot:
'Mi ne povas memori iu ajn songxon de la pasinta nokto.'

Miland (Profiel tonen) 1 september 2007 19:01:02

PS. Correction: that should be iun ajn songxon in both cases, to agree with the accusative!

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