Sentence discussion
"Are these apples?"
Translation:Ezek almák?
Comments
Ezek az alma? not acceptable,why?
We can think about it this way: there are two kinds of "this"
One is a standalone this: This is a car. This is a house. This is a new house. (Ez egy autó. Ez egy ház. Ez egy új ház.)
For this standalone this, simply this = ez.
But there is another, the "attributive" this. This car... this house... this girl...
For the attributive this, the Hungarian equivalent is ez a / ez az
This car. Ez az autó.
This house. Ez a ház.
This girl. Ez a lány.
This house is big. Ez a ház nagy.
This car is new. Ez az autó új.
These cars. Ezek az autók.
These houses. Ezek a házak.
Are these apples? Let's turn this into a statement: These are apples.
So, in this sentence, it's just a "standalone" these -> ezek.
And apples are in plural. Almák.
And we drop the "to be" verb from the sentence.
So we get "Ezek almák?"
comment by Emoryzzzheng
but in "these are apples", isn't "apples" accusative? so why isn't it "almákat"?
Comment by jzsuzsi:
I lot of people ask this...
after "to be" you NEVER need the accusative. Think of it as an equality sign.
These = apples. Ezek almák.
He = man. He is a man. Ő férfi.
They = teachers. They are teachers. Ők tanárok.
This rule, that after "to be" you do not need the accusative is true in Hungarian, German, Esperanto, Latin .... I think in several languages that have an accusative case.
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