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I should <action>...

by Leke, June 15, 2013

Messages: 14

Language: English

Leke (User's profile) June 15, 2013, 7:04:34 PM

If I wanted to say, "I should go for a run", I read it could be like...
Mi iru por kuri.
Is this correct? Also, how about...
Mi devus iri por kuri.
Would that be understood?

goli (User's profile) June 15, 2013, 9:55:14 PM

I think that iri por kurado sounds better. It's even better to say kuradi, just to keep the things short. Well, mi iru por kurado is more like let me go for a run. Actually, it means kinda the same, but with a different nuance. Mi devus iri por kurado is more preferable, I guess. But you can say both, and everybody would understand you.

P. S. A thought just has got into my mind. On an Esperanto site, we use English to find understanding between each other. 'Cause I'm Russian, Leke is Finnish, English isn't a mother tounge for both of us. It's kinda funny.

kefga_x (User's profile) June 15, 2013, 11:20:07 PM

I would think something simpler like, Mi devus kuradi, would work nicely too and lets you be a little lazier at only 3 words!

goli:P. S. A thought just has got into my mind. On an Esperanto site, we use English to find understanding between each other. 'Cause I'm Russian, Leke is Finnish, English isn't a mother tounge for both of us. It's kinda funny.
I think that happens fairly regularly here and everywhere else on the internet. lango.gif

Leke (User's profile) June 15, 2013, 11:32:35 PM

goli:P. S. A thought just has got into my mind. On an Esperanto site, we use English to find understanding between each other. 'Cause I'm Russian, Leke is Finnish, English isn't a mother tounge for both of us. It's kinda funny.
You make a good point, but I'm actually an English guy living in Finland. Still, it's common for many other people.

Epovikipedio (User's profile) June 16, 2013, 12:07:40 AM

kefga_x:I would think something simpler like, Mi devus kuradi, would work nicely too and lets you be a little lazier at only 3 words!
This or Mi kur(ad)u.

Oijos (User's profile) June 16, 2013, 12:26:19 AM

I suspect you misuse conditional(-us). It should be used only to indicate conditionality. If the action is conditional to something happening. I don't know how to correctly describe it in English.

sudanglo (User's profile) June 16, 2013, 10:12:29 AM

I suspect you misuse conditional(-us). It should be used only to indicate conditionality
No!

Ĉu vi povus pasigi (transdoni) la sukeron.

Devus as 'should' (a weak form of must) is perfectly ordinary in Esperanto. The problem here is not translating the 'should' but how to express the idea of going for a run, distinguishing it from running.

Kuradi doesn't solve the problem, I think. A 'run' here is an ekzerco-kuro or trejniĝa kuro.

Perhaps you could say mi devus iri por troto, or mi devus kurigi min.

The common English expression 'go for a ..' could receive various translations in Esperanto depending on what follows the 'a',

kefga_x (User's profile) June 16, 2013, 10:58:42 AM

sudanglo:Devus as 'should' (a weak form of must) is perfectly ordinary in Esperanto. The problem here is not translating the 'should' but how to express the idea of going for a run, distinguishing it from running.
What is the difference between these two:

I'm going running.
I'm going for a run.

To me they seem to be exactly the same. Although I'll be thinking about this now trying to figure out the practical difference. Good question sudanglo!

Roberto12 (User's profile) June 16, 2013, 2:36:55 PM

The lack of a distinction between the optative/"ought" and the imperative/jussive is something of an old chestnut in Esperanto. Luckily we're able to get along just with -U, plus the somewhat dodgy use of "devus" as described in this thread.

(I once had the idea of using "devu" for the optative, and another possibility is "deveti".)

Oijos (User's profile) June 16, 2013, 9:41:51 PM

sudanglo:
I suspect you misuse conditional(-us). It should be used only to indicate conditionality
No!

Ĉu vi povus pasigi (transdoni) la sukeron.

Devus as 'should' (a weak form of must) is perfectly ordinary in Esperanto.
I have a direct command to the contrary from the Esperanto course in the Internet created by Marko Rauhamaa. He says that it is ordinary, but plainly wrong. Link

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