# There was a lot of traffic.



## Encolpius

Hello, I'd like to find out what adjective / determiner you use in front of the word traffic. English say: a lot of traffic, in Hungarian we say "big traffic". What do YOU say? Thanks. 

(1) English: There was *a lot of* traffic. (that's why I'm late)
(2) Hungarian: *Nagy *volt a forgalom. [nagy=big, volt=was, forgalom=traffic]
(3) Italian: C'era *molto *traffico. [molt=lot of, much]


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## rusita preciosa

Russian: 
*я попал в пробку* /ya popal v probku/ - I got into a cork
or 
*я стоял в пробке* /ya stoyal v probke/ - I was standing in a cork
 
I think it could be a calque from French *embouteillage.*


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## bibax

Czech:

*hustý provoz* or *velký provoz* = dense or big traffic (it's a tie)

*Byl hustý provoz.*

With no adverbial expression it sounds very unnatural in Czech.

Dnes ráno byl hustý provoz. = This morning ...
Na ulicích byl hustý provoz. = ... on the streets.
Dnes ráno byl na ulicích hustý provoz.

The word order is somedeal tricky in Czech.


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## Encolpius

rusita preciosa said:


> Russian:
> *я попал в пробку* /yapopalvprobku/ - I got into a cork
> or
> *я стоял в пробке* /yastoyalvprobke/ - I was standing in a cork
> 
> I think it could be a calque from French *embouteillage.*



Hello, nice examples, but I'd like to compare what collocations are used with the word traffic. English say: much traffic, Italians, too, molto traffico, Hungarians say: "big traffic". What adjective do you use in Russian? Thanks.


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## rusita preciosa

Encolpius said:


> Hello, nice examples, but I'd like to compare what collocations are used with the word traffic. English say: much traffic, Italians, too, molto traffico, Hungarians say: "big traffic". What adjective do you use in Russian? Thanks.


Oops, sorry, didn't read the question well...
большая пробка /bolshaya probka/ - big cork
огромная пробка /ogromnaya probka/ - huge cork


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## Encolpius

rusita preciosa said:


> Oops, sorry, didn't read the question well...
> большая пробка /bolshaya probka/ - big cork
> огромная пробка /ogromnaya probka/ - huge cork



Nor did I quite often. 
You see, you use the Hungarian version. 
Cork? Interesting because we also say "dugó" (cork) but it means "traffic jam". 
How about большое движение? Thanks.


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## bibax

I think *пробкa* means _embouteillage_, not traffic.

*(уличное) движение* = traffic;


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## enoo

*French*: 
Il y avait beaucoup de trafic/circulation. - There was a lot of traffic.


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## Rallino

*Turkish:* 

*Çok sıkışık bir trafik vardı.
*
Çok: very / much

sıkışık: cramped, pressed

bir: one / a

trafik: traffic

var: there is/are
vardı: there was/were


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## Volcano

*In Turkish, I would say:

sıkışık trafik - jammed traffic

yoğun trafik - busy/dense traffic*


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## rusita preciosa

Encolpius said:


> How about большое движение? Thanks.


We do not say *большое движение*. As bibax mentioned, there is *уличное движение*, but it means just circulation of vehicles, it does not imply intense traffic / traffic jam. I guess there are no degrees to *уличное движение...*


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## bibax

In the Czech Radio (Český rozhlas) you can hear:

Hustota provozu je na stupni číslo 5 (the traffic density degree is #5).

#1 ..... light traffic, considerable separation distances between cars
...
#5 ..... separation distances are minimal, but the vehicles are still in motion
#5 tvoří se kolony ..... traffic with congestions


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## apmoy70

In Greek:
«έντονη κυκλοφορία»
'endoni 'ciklofo'ria
lit. "intense/heavy circulation"
or
«πολλή κίνηση»
po'li 'cinisi
lit. "a lot of movement"
Τraffic in Greek is translated as «κυκλοφοριακή κίνηση» (cikloforia'ci 'cinisi: circulatory movement), «κυκλοφορία» (ciklofo'ria: circulation) or simply «κίνηση» ('cinisi: movement, motion)

[c] is a voiceless palatal plosive


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## sakvaka

*Finnish*: _Siellä oli *paljon* liikennettä._ = There was *a lot* of traffic there.

However, we can use the word _isosti_ ("bigly"), mainly in negative contexts, but this is quite rare. _Siellä ei ollut isosti liikennettä. = Siellä ei ollut paljon liikennettä._


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## Outsider

Portuguese: _Havia muito trânsito_.

muito = much, a lot of


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## 涼宮

In Japanese it changes. The word for traffic is 交通 _koutsuu_, but when you want to say ''there is a lot of traffic'' you say: 交通量が多い_ koutsuuryou ga ooi_. Literally: as regard to the quantity/volume of the passing through mixing, much/frequent (it is). The word traffic must add the word 'volume' after it.


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## ThomasK

Dutch: *druk verkeer*, based on _drukken _(to press) and _traffic_. 

Dutch, Flemish _traffic jam_: *opstopping *(up + stop + noun-prefix), which reminds me of the _cork _indeed, the bouteille. It is all stuck !


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## arielipi

In hebrew we avoid it by relating the amount of cars(and here its simply many cars).
We can also talk about the flowness of the traffic, suggesting its amount of cars, the traffic is flowing or not, how fast it is flowing.


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## Grefsen

Encolpius said:


> Hello, I'd like to find out what adjective / determiner you use in front of the word traffic. English say: a lot of traffic, in Hungarian we say "big traffic". What do YOU say? Thanks.
> 
> (1) English: There was *a lot of* traffic. (that's why I'm late)
> (2) Hungarian: *Nagy *volt a forgalom. [nagy=big, volt=was, forgalom=traffic]
> (3) Italian: C'era *molto *traffico. [molt=lot of, much]


One possibility in Norwegian is "det var *mye* trafikk." [det=there, var=was, [B]mye[/B]=much / a lot, trafikk=traffic]


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## ahmedcowon

*In Arabic*, we don't say "a lot of traffic"

we usually say:
زحام مروري /zi7aam muroori/ - heavy traffic
or
المواصلات كانت صعبة /al-muwaSalaat kaanat sa3ba/ - transportation was difficult


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## arielipi

ahmedcowon said:


> *In Arabic*, we don't say "a lot of traffic"
> 
> we usually say:
> زحام مروري /zi7aam muroori/ - heavy traffic
> or
> المواصلات كانت صعبة /al-muwaSalaat kaanat sa3ba/ - transportation was difficult




as always, you are really helpful, same goes for hebrew.


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## Halfdan

*Swedish*: Det var _mycket_ trafik. There was a lot of traffic. Mycket = much, a lot.


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## Tjahzi

Halfdan said:


> *Swedish*: Det fanns _mycket_ trafik. There was a lot of traffic. Mycket = much, a lot.



Swedish would actually use _var_ rather than _fanns _in that context.


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## Halfdan

Tjahzi said:


> Swedish would actually use _var_ rather than _fanns _in that context.


Yeah, I had quite a bit of doubt in whether to use _vara _or _finnas_. In fact, I think the correct form had many more Google results. I mustn't have been in the right frame of mind. 
Tack.


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