Thread: "Они купят машину, когда смогут себе это позволить"

The question is about: позволять

Someone here translated the following sentence:

They will buy a car when they can afford it.

to

Они купят машину, когда смогут себе это позволить.

I wanted to enter позволть to my word list, so I looked up the dictionary definition. To my surprise, neither English Lingvo, nor English Wiktionary even mention "afford" as a possible translation for this word!

Originally Posted by Lingvo

позволять allow; permit, make it possible, enablе

Wiktionary: to allow, permit
Leo doesn't mention it either.

But Swedish-Russian Lingvo gives:
позволять = ha råd (=afford) ONLY! They give no other translation!



What is going on with this word? Why is one dictionary ignoring "afford" and the other giving it as the only possible translation?

How would you normally say "I can't afford to....... " or "Can you afford that? etc?

Originally Posted by Hanna

What is going on with this word? Why is one dictionary ignoring "afford" and the other giving it as the only possible translation?

How would you normally say "I can't afford to....... " or "Can you afford that? etc?

I don't know why these dictionaries ignore this meaning, but "позволять" = "to afford" is rather common.
I'd translate the phrases above as "Я не могу себе позволить..." and "Вы можете себе это позволить?"

I don't know what happened to you Lingvo...
My first attempt to translate this Переводчик Google., the result is right...

"Позволять себе" is an idiom and is different than just "позволять".

Originally Posted by Hanna

The question is about: позволять

Someone here translated the following sentence:

to
I wanted to enter позволть to my word list, so I looked up the dictionary definition. To my surprise, neither English Lingvo, nor English Wiktionary even mention "afford" as a possible translation for this word!


Wiktionary: to allow, permit
Leo doesn't mention it either.

But Swedish-Russian Lingvo gives:
позволять = ha råd (=afford) ONLY! They give no other translation!



What is going on with this word? Why is one dictionary ignoring "afford" and the other giving it as the only possible translation?

How would you normally say "I can't afford to....... " or "Can you afford that? etc?

Try pressing "Ctrl+F" in your Lingvo after entering "позволять", and some of the examples you'll see will correspond to that meaning as "afford". Why didn't they give that meaning straight to the word? Well, maybe because the word "позволять" when used as "afford" always requires an indirect object, "позволить кому?". When you translate something like "I can afford a new car", the translation is "Я могу позволить СЕБЕ новую машину". "Себе" can't be omitted.

Maybe: Позволять себе = afford

Ok, I understand now! себе makes the difference.
Thanks everyone for the examples!

But just a second!

They will buy a car when they can afford it.

Они купят машину, когда смогут себе это позволить

Why isn't it: "Они покупают" or "будут покупать" ?

Все правильно. "Они купят" - совершенный вид, простое будущее время. "Они покупают" - they are buying, they buy. "Они будут покупать" - they will be buying, несовершенный вид, т. е. длящееся действие.

Originally Posted by Hanna

Ok, I understand now! себе makes the difference.
Why isn't it: "Они покупают" or "будут покупать" ?

покупать is imperfective, купить is perfective. It's somewhat of an exception to the prefix rule.