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A question word not existing in English | ||
Tags: Language Trivia | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| Javi Senior Member Spain Joined 5768 days ago 419 posts - 548 votes  Speaks: Spanish* | Message 17 of 25 29 March 2014 at 11:13pm | IP Logged | ||
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In Spanish: ¿qué vez hace?, not a single word though.
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| andy123 Newbie Russian Federation Joined 4105 days ago 14 posts - 19 votes Speaks: Russian* Studies: English, Spanish | Message 18 of 25 05 April 2014 at 11:04pm | IP Logged | ||
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"This is which time" = "В какой раз" in perfect Russian.
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| shk00design Triglot Senior Member Canada Joined 4231 days ago 747 posts - 1123 votes Speaks: Cantonese*, English, Mandarin Studies: French | Message 19 of 25 05 April 2014 at 11:44pm | IP Logged | ||
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1 way to pose the question in Chinese would be:
你是第一次来到纽约吗? nǐ shì dìyīcì láidào Niǔyuē ma translated directly as "You are the first time come to New York"? In the sentence 你 "you" the subject is placed in the beginning followed by the verb 是 "are". The 吗 at the end of the sentence is a filler to a "yes/no" question. The phrase for "the first time" can also be written as 头一次 tóuyīcì: 你是头一次来到纽约吗? The reply: 第二次 dìèrcì "The second time". Edited by shk00design on 05 April 2014 at 11:59pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| yong321 Groupie United States yong321.freeshe Joined 5329 days ago 80 posts - 104 votes Studies: Spanish | Message 20 of 25 06 April 2014 at 6:21am | IP Logged | ||
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Javi and andy123, Can "qué" in Spanish and "В какой" in Russian be generalized to form part of this interrogative phrase, not limited to "time" (as in "for the first time", not in "I have time")? I mean, if the question is not about "time", but say "book", "apple", etc, can "qué manzana?" or "В какой яблоко?" demand the answer "the n-th one" and reject "the one in the basket"?
shk00design, your question "你是第一次来到纽约吗?" is a yes-no question. We're talking about an information question (what English speakers may call wh-question). I know English has no problem with a yes-no question regarding "which time". By the way, I made a short summary of this topic on my blog. Correction is welcome. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| andy123 Newbie Russian Federation Joined 4105 days ago 14 posts - 19 votes Speaks: Russian* Studies: English, Spanish | Message 21 of 25 06 April 2014 at 8:18am | IP Logged | ||
of course, though it changes a form a little. You can ask "Какое яблоко", "Какая машина", "Какой человек" and get all sort of answers like "the red one", "the big one", "the fifth one", "the one in the basket" etc. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Dragon27 Diglot Groupie Russian Federation Joined 4028 days ago 41 posts - 71 votes Speaks: Russian*, English | Message 22 of 25 06 April 2014 at 1:47pm | IP Logged | ||
You should mention "Который?" in Russian. It requires either numerical answer or something like "последний" (the last one), "предпоследний" (penultimate) etc. Or may be even less numerical indication of a specific object ("the one, that is on the shelf"). May be extended to "Который по счёту", as already been said earlier in this thread (and this form demands an ordinal number or indication of number more strongly). Or "который раз" in some cases. Edited by Dragon27 on 06 April 2014 at 1:58pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Medulin Tetraglot Senior Member Croatia Joined 4455 days ago 1199 posts - 2192 votes Speaks: Croatian*, English, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Norwegian, Hindi, Nepali | Message 23 of 25 06 April 2014 at 3:30pm | IP Logged | ||
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This is which time you come to New York?
in Croatian it would be: ''Koji ti je ovo put u New Yorku''? Koji = Which ti = to you je = is ovo = this put = time lit. Which time is it to you in NYC? :) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| yong321 Groupie United States yong321.freeshe Joined 5329 days ago 80 posts - 104 votes Studies: Spanish | Message 24 of 25 06 April 2014 at 6:52pm | IP Logged | ||
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andy123: If "Какое яблоко?" can be answered with "the one in the basket", then that's not what I want. I want the question that can only be answered with an ordinal number.
Dragon27: If "Который?" can be answered with "the last one" (not strictly ordinal), I think it's OK if we relax the rule in searching for this type of interrogative word/phrase. I'll mention this in my blog. Medulin: Can the Croatian question in your example be changed to asking about say "apple" and the answer must be "the first (second,...) apple" and not "the apple in the basket"? Thank you all very much! 1 person has voted this message useful |
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