Monsieur_Elephant's avatar
Monsieur_Elephant

March 20, 2025

154
Patarlė apie upes

Šiandieninia Prancūzų patarlė yra „mažai upeliai sudaro dideles upes“. Tai reiškia, kad dideli pasiekimai pagamintai mažių žingsnių ir mažių poelgių. Apie upes... Seine upės šaltinis yra netoli iš mano namo. Jau ten vairavau. Sequanos statula (keltų dievė, iš kurios upės vardas kalęs) dar jį saugoja. Kai mažią sroves mačiau, man bavo keista galvoti, kad ji taps šia didele upe, kuri per Paryžių teka. Gamta visada yra nuostabos šaltinis!


A proverb about rivers
Today's French proverb is "small brooks make large rivers". It means that big accomplishments are made of small steps and small acts. Talking about rivers... The source of the Seine river is located not far from my home. I've already driven there. A statue of Sequana (the Celtic goddess the river was named after) is still protecting it. When I saw the small stream, it was strange to think that it would become this large river running through Paris. Nature is always a source of amazement!

Corrections

Šiandieniniaos Prancūzų patarlė yra „mažai upeliai sudaro dideles upes“.

Šiandieninė could also probably work, but šiandienos sounds better to my ear. Šiandienos patarlė (whose? = today's) vs Šiandieninė patarlė (what kind? = today's)

Tai reiškia, kad dideli pasiekimai pagamintairasideda nuo mažių žingsnių ir mažių poelgių.

I wasn't too sure how to correct the main verb here. This says that big accomplishments begin with small actions (which eventually turn into the "big river"). Not sure if that takes away from the intended meaning :/
"kyla iš mažų poelgių" could work too (rises from). However, that requires removing the steps part (the verb "kyla" is simply incompatible here")
Ack, translating proverbs is not easy!

AKalbant apie upes...

Seine upės šaltinis yra netoli mano namoų.

Netoli does not go with "iš". Depending on the situation, it can go with the genitive case, or sometimes with "nuo" + genitive case. Unfortunately, I don't know the logic behind when it can go with nuo :'D All examples I can think of sound good without "nuo", so I think it's best to stick with that!

Jau tenTen esu vairavauęs.

We use būti + "adjectival participle" form (that's what Dalyvis is called, according to google :D) to describe present perfect.
I would remove "jau"/"already" completely. It makes me expect that you will compare it to other places where you haven't driven before, because you are mentioning such detail.

Sequanos statula (keltų dievė, iš kurios kilo upės vardas kalęs) dar jį saugoja.

Kai mažią sroves mačiaučiau tik mažą srovę, man bauvo keista galvoti, kad ji taps šia didele upe, kuri teka per Paryžių teka.

About the word order -- Lithuanian is "easy" (debatable xD) in a sense that you can put the words in whatever order, since we can understand what role in the sentence it acts based on its ending. However, the "standard"/most neutral sentence structure is Subject-Verb-Object (S-V-O).
If you put the Object before the verb (S-O-V), it has the consequence of putting subtle emphasis on it (the Object). Same thing with O-V-S -- puts emphasis on the Subject. That can be somewhat prevented when speaking, since intonation has the final say where that emphasis actually is, but in written form, it is much more important.

In a simpler sentence:
- Mano sesė sodina gėles. = My sister plants flowers. (regular sentence, no emphasis unless one is indicated when speaking)
- Gėles sodina mano sesė. = *My sister* plants flowers. (It's not me, and it's not my brother, it's my sister specifically that plants flowers).
- Mano sesė gėles sodina. = My sister plants *flowers*. (She's does not plant tomatoes or carrots, she specifically plants flowers).

Fun fact: There is a phrase that breaks this standard word order -- "I love you"! We say "Aš tave myliu" (S-O-V), and it doesn't feel like any extra emphasis is put on the word "you"! "Aš myliu tave" is also acceptable, of course, but in my subjective experience, it only happens in songs (usually for better rhyming), or when you want to put emphasis/contrast on "you" (as in, "I love *you*, not somebody else).

Gamta visada yra nuostabos šaltinis!

It is completely understandable, although to my ear, it sounds a bit like a literally translated sentence. That could be just my subjective opinion though :')
I think saying something like "Gamta nenustoja stebinti" (Nature never stops amazing (me/us/everyone)) sounds better

Monsieur_Elephant's avatar
Monsieur_Elephant

March 22, 2025

154

> I wasn't too sure how to correct the main verb here.
Iš tikrųjų, „make“ čia turi „constitute“ reikšmes. Galbūt „sudaryti“? Žodinas man nurodo, kad tai yra „constitute“ žodžio vertimas. Buvau parašęs „pagamintas“ tame prasme: „big rivers are MADE OF small brooks“, bet atrodo negalimu šiame kontekste^^

> We use būti + "adjectival participle" form (that's what Dalyvis is called, according to google :D

vairavęs would technically be an "active past participle" in English (this terminology was used by Anatanas Klimas himself so I totally trust him)
"adjectival participle" is kinda tautological to me, since all participles are basically adjectives in nature - especially in the case of Lithuanian where literally every one of them can and must be declined, unlike in other European languages whose participles aren't declined anymore in compound tenses. But I know some linguists would disagree with my views, so! :-D

I still have no idea to which extent the use of the Lithuanian present perfect can match the use of the English one, and it seems they do match in this case, so thanks!

BTW if you're interested in English grammatical terminology about your own language, you can read this excellent article: http://www.old.lituanus.org/1987/87_1_04.htm (thanks God for resources like this, they helped me a bunch in my learning journey!)

Got it about word order, it works like other languages I know (Slavic ones, again), so I think I won't have any issues remembering it!

Dar kartą labai ačiū!

Patarlė apie upes


Šiandieninia Prancūzų patarlė yra „mažai upeliai sudaro dideles upes“.


Šiandieniniaos Prancūzų patarlė yra „mažai upeliai sudaro dideles upes“.

Šiandieninė could also probably work, but šiandienos sounds better to my ear. Šiandienos patarlė (whose? = today's) vs Šiandieninė patarlė (what kind? = today's)

Tai reiškia, kad dideli pasiekimai pagamintai mažių žingsnių ir mažių poelgių.


Tai reiškia, kad dideli pasiekimai pagamintairasideda nuo mažių žingsnių ir mažių poelgių.

I wasn't too sure how to correct the main verb here. This says that big accomplishments begin with small actions (which eventually turn into the "big river"). Not sure if that takes away from the intended meaning :/ "kyla iš mažų poelgių" could work too (rises from). However, that requires removing the steps part (the verb "kyla" is simply incompatible here") Ack, translating proverbs is not easy!

Apie upes...


AKalbant apie upes...

Seine upės šaltinis yra netoli iš mano namo.


Seine upės šaltinis yra netoli mano namoų.

Netoli does not go with "iš". Depending on the situation, it can go with the genitive case, or sometimes with "nuo" + genitive case. Unfortunately, I don't know the logic behind when it can go with nuo :'D All examples I can think of sound good without "nuo", so I think it's best to stick with that!

Jau ten vairavau.


Jau tenTen esu vairavauęs.

We use būti + "adjectival participle" form (that's what Dalyvis is called, according to google :D) to describe present perfect. I would remove "jau"/"already" completely. It makes me expect that you will compare it to other places where you haven't driven before, because you are mentioning such detail.

Sequanos statula (keltų dievė, iš kurios upės vardas kalęs) dar jį saugoja.


Sequanos statula (keltų dievė, iš kurios kilo upės vardas kalęs) dar jį saugoja.

Kai mažią sroves mačiau, man bavo keista galvoti, kad ji taps šia didele upe, kuri per Paryžių teka.


Kai mažią sroves mačiaučiau tik mažą srovę, man bauvo keista galvoti, kad ji taps šia didele upe, kuri teka per Paryžių teka.

About the word order -- Lithuanian is "easy" (debatable xD) in a sense that you can put the words in whatever order, since we can understand what role in the sentence it acts based on its ending. However, the "standard"/most neutral sentence structure is Subject-Verb-Object (S-V-O). If you put the Object before the verb (S-O-V), it has the consequence of putting subtle emphasis on it (the Object). Same thing with O-V-S -- puts emphasis on the Subject. That can be somewhat prevented when speaking, since intonation has the final say where that emphasis actually is, but in written form, it is much more important. In a simpler sentence: - Mano sesė sodina gėles. = My sister plants flowers. (regular sentence, no emphasis unless one is indicated when speaking) - Gėles sodina mano sesė. = *My sister* plants flowers. (It's not me, and it's not my brother, it's my sister specifically that plants flowers). - Mano sesė gėles sodina. = My sister plants *flowers*. (She's does not plant tomatoes or carrots, she specifically plants flowers). Fun fact: There is a phrase that breaks this standard word order -- "I love you"! We say "Aš tave myliu" (S-O-V), and it doesn't feel like any extra emphasis is put on the word "you"! "Aš myliu tave" is also acceptable, of course, but in my subjective experience, it only happens in songs (usually for better rhyming), or when you want to put emphasis/contrast on "you" (as in, "I love *you*, not somebody else).

Gamta visada yra nuostabos šaltinis!


Gamta visada yra nuostabos šaltinis!

It is completely understandable, although to my ear, it sounds a bit like a literally translated sentence. That could be just my subjective opinion though :') I think saying something like "Gamta nenustoja stebinti" (Nature never stops amazing (me/us/everyone)) sounds better

You need LangCorrect Premium to access this feature.

Go Premium