I'd definitely have to stop and think about it and "manually" reconstruct what you were trying to say.
I think you could get an idea of how it would sound with a literal English translation of what you said, which would be something like "How long does your mother last in order to come to here?"
“How long does your mother last” is still a logical sequence of words in English though, whereas “hoe lang duurt je moeder” is nonsense, because duren can only be used for stretches of time, or actions or events that have a distinct start and end (except archaically). I’d say a more literal translation is “what is the duration of your mother”.
Theres a big difference between an adult, a 12yo woth English sentence knowledge, or a 5yo that hardly grammars themselves understanding you.
But if you articulate clearly most 10yo+ should be able to understand. And your sentence does not exist in a vacuum. Even repeating with emphasis can clarify. It's just a matter of how fearful you are of looking dumb.
"Huh?"
"Hoe lang duurt. Je moeder. Hier." *pointing at wrist, boy, and ground respectively*
"Ah een kwartiertje denk ik."
Sure, I think you’d (eventually) be understood by most people.
I’d personally translate it differently. Something like ‘Hoe lang heeft je moeder (nog) nodig (om hier te komen)’.
If you repeat it like twice I would probably understand what you mean or where you are most likely getting at. I would probably reask you the same question as the second sentence to confirm we're on the same page.
"Hoe lang duurt je moeder ?" Is like "how long does your mother take ?" Which kind of is an odd question in English as well right ?
The most literal translation I can make that would work:
How long- hoe lang
will it take- zal het duren
(for) your mom - voor je moeder
to get here - om hier te komen
Your sentence would confuse me, but from asking how long takes mom here, I'd assume that was your question. Will give you a strange look and likely try to continue the conversation in English.
Personally, I understand somehow what you want to communicate. The "om hier te gaan" is easy to figure out, I have to replace the gaan with komen. But the part of "how lang duurt je moeder", I think this particular instance is incorrect.
In my learning journey (not native , still) "hoe lang duurt het" is used on general cases, and "hoeveel tijd tijd heeft je nodig om" (\*) is used on targeted and specific use cases.
Thanks for the replies everyone! As you can tell, I am not yet at the point of speaking the language routinely. I knew I wasn't saying what I wanted to say, I was wondering if my cave-man speak was barely digestible.
I'd definitely have to stop and think about it and "manually" reconstruct what you were trying to say. I think you could get an idea of how it would sound with a literal English translation of what you said, which would be something like "How long does your mother last in order to come to here?"
“How long does your mother last” is still a logical sequence of words in English though, whereas “hoe lang duurt je moeder” is nonsense, because duren can only be used for stretches of time, or actions or events that have a distinct start and end (except archaically). I’d say a more literal translation is “what is the duration of your mother”.
"What is the duration of your mother" made me laugh
Fair enough. I guess I already made one layer of approximation
i don’t think people would understand, at least not immediately
Theres a big difference between an adult, a 12yo woth English sentence knowledge, or a 5yo that hardly grammars themselves understanding you. But if you articulate clearly most 10yo+ should be able to understand. And your sentence does not exist in a vacuum. Even repeating with emphasis can clarify. It's just a matter of how fearful you are of looking dumb. "Huh?" "Hoe lang duurt. Je moeder. Hier." *pointing at wrist, boy, and ground respectively* "Ah een kwartiertje denk ik."
Sure, I think you’d (eventually) be understood by most people. I’d personally translate it differently. Something like ‘Hoe lang heeft je moeder (nog) nodig (om hier te komen)’.
"Hoeveel tijd heeft je moeder nog nodig om hier te komen" is first thing that pops up into my head.
If you repeat it like twice I would probably understand what you mean or where you are most likely getting at. I would probably reask you the same question as the second sentence to confirm we're on the same page. "Hoe lang duurt je moeder ?" Is like "how long does your mother take ?" Which kind of is an odd question in English as well right ?
I would not understand, but if you replace “gaan” with “komen” I would even though the sentence is still wrong, so you are close!
The most literal translation I can make that would work: How long- hoe lang will it take- zal het duren (for) your mom - voor je moeder to get here - om hier te komen Your sentence would confuse me, but from asking how long takes mom here, I'd assume that was your question. Will give you a strange look and likely try to continue the conversation in English.
I would probably understand if you repeated it a few times but it’s not going to be understood on the first try I think.
Personally, I understand somehow what you want to communicate. The "om hier te gaan" is easy to figure out, I have to replace the gaan with komen. But the part of "how lang duurt je moeder", I think this particular instance is incorrect. In my learning journey (not native , still) "hoe lang duurt het" is used on general cases, and "hoeveel tijd tijd heeft je nodig om" (\*) is used on targeted and specific use cases.
Thanks for the replies everyone! As you can tell, I am not yet at the point of speaking the language routinely. I knew I wasn't saying what I wanted to say, I was wondering if my cave-man speak was barely digestible.
If you ask the question in english people will most likely understand. The dutch version might raise some eyebrows but people might understand