Berichten: 97
Taal: English
RiotNrrd (Profiel tonen) 16 augustus 2012 23:57:08
Vestitor:Were you being satirical? Well it was funny anyway.Not at all. I was demonstrating that there is a very clear distinction between "well" and "good", in a way that even people who claim they can't tell the difference, can actually tell the difference.
In the sense of "all is fine with me", the only place "good" and "well" are interchangeable is in informal, colloquial speech, or among people with lower levels of education. In standard English - the kind you'd read in the newspaper, for example, or that is expected to be used in ordinary business correspondence - the difference is very clear. You won't read something along the lines of "How are you? I'm good" in the newspaper unless the editor is trying to get fired*.
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* Yeah, OK, there probably are some circumstances in which you'd see it. Quotations, comics, reproductions of informal or colloquial speech, in letters to the editor (i.e., written by someone who isn't expected to produce professionally written material), and so on. But in a piece of straight journalism - if an editor let something like that pass, he'd be a laughingstock. Anywhere in the country.
Smartyy (Profiel tonen) 17 augustus 2012 14:05:53
I'm going through the basic course, bildoj kaj demandoj. As you can see from my account, I've been here for four years, but I haven't touched esperanto in.. forever. But I'm getting back into it and learning it the right way this time, not halfway doing it.
Anyway, my question is this:
If you say: Kion manĝas Marko?
Then, according to the course, you are essentially asking "what is Marko eating?" to which, the answer is "Marko manĝas pomon."
But, what if I want to ask "What is eating Marko?" - the only thing it gives is "Kiun manĝas la pomon?" - What is the apple eating? Would it simply be "Kio manĝas Marko?"
I'm trying not to confuse myself by translating things back to english, since obviously "Kion manĝas x" isn't a perfect translation from "What is x eating?"
I also wonder if it's proper to instead say "Mark manĝas kion?" ... I know word order doesn't matter too much in Esperanto, but I have read that.. there's generally an accepted way, and a less accepted way. Is this acceptable? To my mind, this makes more sense, since it's in the order that English is.
Thanks so much!
tommjames (Profiel tonen) 17 augustus 2012 14:14:19
Smartyy:But, what if I want to ask "What is eating Marko?"That would be "Kio manĝas Markon?"
Smartyy:the only thing it gives is "Kiun manĝas la pomon?" - What is the apple eating?This one's wrong, as you have the n-ending on both "kiun" and "pomon". But also because "kiu" means "which/who", not "what". To ask "What is the apple eating" it would be "Kion manĝas la pomo?"
Smartyy:I also wonder if it's proper to instead say "Mark manĝas kion?"Yes, that would be fine.
creedelambard (Profiel tonen) 17 augustus 2012 15:19:11
Smartyy:But, what if I want to ask "What is eating Marko?"Kion prizorgegas Marko?
Sorry, the first thing I thought of when you said "What's eating Marco?" was the idiomatic usage here in Usono, perhaps most famously manifested in the name of the old Johnny Depp film, What's Eating Gilbert Grape?.
sudanglo (Profiel tonen) 17 augustus 2012 21:31:53
Maybe Kio agacas Markon? is good too
erinja (Profiel tonen) 18 augustus 2012 02:27:38
Smartyy:I also wonder if it's proper to instead say "Mark manĝas kion?" ... I know word order doesn't matter too much in Esperanto, but I have read that.. there's generally an accepted way, and a less accepted way. Is this acceptable? To my mind, this makes more sense, since it's in the order that English is.English isn't in the order "Mark eats what?"; English's order is "What is Mark eating?", which would be something like "Kion Marko manĝas?" in Esperanto. Which would also be fine.
Basically alternate word orders are acceptable in Esperanto, but a change in word order usually brings with it a small change in emphasis, so you should be aware of that.
Word order is sometimes changed to increase the clarity of meaning as well.
sudanglo (Profiel tonen) 18 augustus 2012 10:11:23
As Erinja says, statistically unusual word orders do create a slightly different emphasis in Esperanto. I'm not sure though to what extent Esperanto has embraced the theoretically possible question word shift.
Vi manĝas kion? sounds to me like the speaker is outraged or surprised at somebody eating something, can't believe his ears, or didn't hear properly the first time.
Getting back to 'What's eating you?' in the sense of 'What is your problem?' I think on reflection that a similar metaphor might work in Esperanto, but I'd change from manĝi to mordi. Kio mordas Markon?