# Three good reasons to...



## sakvaka

Hello,

How would you say this phrase in Hungarian? I won't have a try, because I am not studying the language. 

_Three good reasons to be a teacher: ..._
(Finnish - Kolme hyvää syytä olla opettaja: ...)

Thanks a lot!


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## Zsanna

Hello sakvaka,

Very "compact" constructions like this are a bit tricky to translate into Hungarian and a verbatim translation does not sound very well/natural in Hungarian. (More information would be necessary about who is talking to who, his intentions/style, etc.)

Nevertheless, here it goes:

Három jó ok tanárnak lenni:


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## sakvaka

Zsanna said:


> Hello sakvaka,
> 
> Very "compact" constructions like this are a bit tricky to translate into Hungarian and a verbatim translation does not sound very well/natural in Hungarian. (More information would be necessary about who is talking to who, his intentions/style, etc.)
> 
> Nevertheless, here it goes:
> 
> Három jó ok tanárnak lenni:



An example context would be a magazine. _10 good reasons to drop your weight_, _5 reasons to avoid overworking_ etc. 

What I want to know is how the the verb is connected in the sentence. In English, we have the _to_-particle before an infinitive. In Italian, there would be _per_ and infinitive. In Swedish, it would be _till att_ + infinitive. In Dutch, it is _om ... te _+ infinitive.

Is it possible to open this phrase up? Just guessing:

_Három jó ok tanárnak lenni._
"Three_nom good_nom reason_nom teacher_dat be_inf."

So, there are no little words (to, att, te...), precisely as in Finnish. Right? _Tíz jó ok a súlyod csökkenti_ would be acceptable too?

Mind you, all of my guessings are based on Wiktionary.


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## David_HUN

Hello,

Personally I'd say:
Három ok, amiért jó tanárnak lenni. 

Tíz jó ok, hogy miért csökkentsd a súlyod.    or
Tíz jó ok a súlyod csökkentésére. 

"Tíz jó ok a súlyod csökkenti" - Well it sounds strange. The infinitive would be "csökkenteni", but that wouldn't be correct in that sentence either. "Csökkenti" means - he/she reduces; so this sentence means "Ten good reasons that reduces your weight".


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## Zsanna

How the verb is connected in the sentence? 
Well, the same way as in English: I used it in its infinitive form (_lenni_), only in Hungarian it is done by the suffix "ni". 

The "to" is _part of the infinitive_ in English, for me there is nothing "connecting" about it like in your other examples.



sakvaka said:


> Is it possible to open this phrase up? Just guessing:
> _Három jó ok tanárnak lenni._
> "Three_nom good_nom reason_nom teacher_dat be_inf."


 
Let us say yes. 
Except: vminek lenni = _to be something_ is a structure where the suffix -*nak*/-*nek* just formally coincides with the Dative suffix, it does not have any such function here.



sakvaka said:


> _Tíz jó ok a súlyod csökkenti_ would be acceptable too?


 
If we ignore what I said above about the general difficulties of translating: yes -> with a little correction: csökkenteni.
[csökkent + *e* (= connecting vowel to avoid having 3 consonants one after the other)+ -ni (= suffix of the infinitve)]

If, however, you wanted a better sounding translation for this, I'd suggest something like
*Tíz jó ok a fogyásra *
where the last word can be "chopped up" like this (while the rest follows the schema given by you above): 

fogyás (= noun meaning _losing weight_ originating from the verb _fogyni _= to lose weight) + 
ra (= suffix: -ra/-re, originally with the adverbial meaning of "onto", here it has a shade of expressing an aim, an objective).

However, this construction could not be used to provide a better translation to your original question... (Which would still need some more explanation to know how to translate it better - at least to my mind.)


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## Zsanna

Hello David HUN and welcome to the forum! 

I agree.



David_HUN said:


> Personally I'd say:
> Három ok, amiért jó tanárnak lenni.


 
The trouble is that we could say an awful lot of (other) things, too. (Három ok, amiért _érdemes_ tanárnak lenni:/ _Miért_ legyél tanár? _Íme három jó ok_ (rá):/Miért érdmes tanárnak _menni_?)

This is why it was important to know what sakvaka wanted to ask really.


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## bibax

In Czech we must insert an interrogative pronoun (why, how, ...) as a conjunction before the infinitive. Omitting the interrogative doesn't sound well in Czech.

I think it works in English and Hungarian, too.

Three good reasons *why* to do ... = Három jó ok *(a)miért* ...

Ten ways *how* to ... = Tíz mód *(a)hogy(an)* ...


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## Zsanna

I think it doesn't really work like that in English but it may sound certainly more natural in Hungarian, too. 
Except for the last example which, I think, is better in a simpler structure (without the introduction of a subsentence).

I don't think it is possible to give a "uniform" answer that would work with (the translation of) every such sentence.


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## MosoMasa

I'd think it is certainly a possibility in English  - e.g. three good reasons why you should... - but the difference may be that the shorter version is not only possible but also at least just as good meanwhile in Hungarian, and apparently in Czech, it is mainly the "longer" version that sounds natural.


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