Talk:aki kapja, marja

ambiguous
Are you sure about this? I always understood marja as an imperative, which would then translate into the English subjunctive (as in "God bless you"), what with English lacking third-person imperative forms. Maybe we should ask a couple of people how they understand it, and come to a conclusion. I just wanted to make it clear that it was not a typo. --84.236.127.78 21:44, 21 April 2019 (UTC)
 * Nevermind, I've made a quick Google search, and as it turns out, the same phrase is also used as "aki kapja, az marja" (or at least has been used historically, including several quotes from Mikszáth) which sounds much more like an indicative form after all. --84.236.127.78 06:36, 22 April 2019 (UTC)
 * Good question. I always thought it was indicative but there is quite a bit of ambiguity. I think it depends on the context, on the sentence. For example: "Feldobta a labdát és elkiáltotta magát: Aki kapja, marja!" Here it could be imperative. Panda10 (talk) 13:39, 22 April 2019 (UTC)
 * That's exactly the kind of situation I had in mind. Good thing you've added the clarification in the usage notes, as catch-as-catch-can is not a perfect translation, only the closest I could come up with. I've also found another interesting tidbit, and added it for what it's worth, it may help those who understand Latin. --84.236.127.78 17:42, 22 April 2019 (UTC)
 * Yes, that's a good one. These types of examples all add to the understanding and clarifying the meaning of an idiom. Panda10 (talk) 18:00, 22 April 2019 (UTC)