Messaggi: 94
Lingua: English
mfar (Mostra il profilo) 09 maggio 2016 14:27:21
For the translation of the Confucian proverb - "It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop", the online translation I get is - " Ne gravas kiom malrapide vin iri tiel longe kiel vi ne haltas".
Why is the "you - vin" in the accusative and the "go - iri" in the infinitive?
Miland (Mostra il profilo) 09 maggio 2016 14:32:47
mfar (Mostra il profilo) 09 maggio 2016 14:39:29
Alkanadi (Mostra il profilo) 09 maggio 2016 15:26:25
Kiel = In what manner/style/way? In this case, the manner is slow.
Miland:I would put it Ne gravas kiel malrapide vi iras, se nur vi ne haltas.Is it better to change vi to oni?
ludomastro (Mostra il profilo) 09 maggio 2016 17:26:46
mfar: ... the online translation ...Be careful with the online translators. While Google translate does better than most at Esperanto (in my experience) it still has issues with complex sentence structure.
eshapard (Mostra il profilo) 09 maggio 2016 18:10:38
mfar:Hope someone can clear this up for this beginner:Because the translation algorithm guessed that 'vi' was the direct object of 'gravas' or 'iri' and because the infinitive version of a verb often follows after the non-infinitive version of another. (e.g. I volas ofte iri... ; I often want to go...).
For the translation of the Confucian proverb - "It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop", the online translation I get is - " Ne gravas kiom malrapide vin iri tiel longe kiel vi ne haltas".
Why is the "you - vin" in the accusative and the "go - iri" in the infinitive?
Not bad guesses for a computer algorithm. In other sentences, they might have been correct.
e.g. Mi volas malrapide vin iri. I want to go [to] you slowly.
nornen (Mostra il profilo) 09 maggio 2016 18:13:58
eshapard:e.g. Mi volas malripide vin iri. I want to go [to] you slowly.What does this mean?
eshapard (Mostra il profilo) 09 maggio 2016 18:19:17
nornen:I'm not sure how to answer this, seeing how I provided the translation. I guess it could also mean "I slowly want to go to you".eshapard:e.g. Mi volas malripide vin iri. I want to go [to] you slowly.What does this mean?
Oh, oops, there was a typo. *malrapide
nornen (Mostra il profilo) 09 maggio 2016 18:22:26
eshapard:Thank you. Is it common to use the accusative of direction with personal pronouns (or humans in general)?nornen:I'm not sure how to answer this, seeing how I provided the translation. I guess it could also mean "I slowly want to go to you".eshapard:e.g. Mi volas malripide vin iri. I want to go [to] you slowly.What does this mean?
eshapard (Mostra il profilo) 09 maggio 2016 18:29:16
nornen:I don't know. I don't think I've seen it before; usually al vi. I just wanted to come up with a sentence that was very similar to the OP's, but where it made sense to use the accusative and the infintive.
Thank you. Is it common to use the accusative of direction with personal pronouns (or humans in general)?
If I had chosen another verb such as 'bati' (to beat), then I could have used the regular accusative instead of the accusative of direction.
Actually, I guess 'vin iri' could be more 'to go towards him', meaning in his direction (but not necessarily all the way to him), wheras 'al vi iri' is to go all the way to him. A slight difference, but maybe useful in some contexts.