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al vs gxis

od deltasalmon, 27 stycznia 2015

Wpisy: 5

Język: English

deltasalmon (Pokaż profil) 27 stycznia 2015, 19:24:28

What is the difference between "al" and "gxis"?

is "al" more like "going towards" or "in the direction of"
where "gxis" means going exactly to?

Fenris_kcf (Pokaż profil) 27 stycznia 2015, 20:20:08

Yes, just like "to" vs. "(un)til".

deltasalmon (Pokaż profil) 27 stycznia 2015, 20:36:14

Fenris_kcf:Yes, just like "to" vs. "(un)til".
That was what confused me. The dictionary said exactly that, gxis = until.

"The man goes until the house" sounds funny to me though. Maybe it's just a regional difference (in English).

Tempodivalse (Pokaż profil) 27 stycznia 2015, 23:15:32

deltasalmon:
Fenris_kcf:Yes, just like "to" vs. "(un)til".
That was what confused me. The dictionary said exactly that, gxis = until.

"The man goes until the house" sounds funny to me though. Maybe it's just a regional difference (in English).
The use of prepositions in Esperanto tends to be more free than in English or other languages. For example, there is a long (arbitrary) list of nouns which can only be preceded by "in", and another by "on" - on the plane, but in the car. These lists vary from language to language, too: compare the Russian na kuhne, v zale to the English in the kitchen (never "on" ), in the living room.

To accommodate the discrepancies between languages, it only makes sense that Esperanto doesn't limit particular nouns to particular prepositions, when other prepositions would have a very similar meaning. (Cxe la kuirejo, en la kuirejo.) This may result in literal translations of some prepositional phrases sounding 'awkward'. Instead, you should be worried only about whether the meaning is clear. "Gxis la domo" sounds fine to my ear. In Russian, you would say "until".

sudanglo (Pokaż profil) 28 stycznia 2015, 11:39:00

"The man goes until the house" sounds funny to me though. Maybe it's just a regional difference (in English).
No, the translation of ĝis as illustrated in the link would be 'as far as' or 'up to'. In other contexts the translation might well be 'until'

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