Unlinked from [#1896624] since ukranian sentence says eighth

It was linked on purpose, because what is called the eighth floor in Ukrainian is called seventh floor in Dutch, so both sentences were speaking about the same floor.

I didn't know that. But anyway, do you think that the German sentence should be unlinked from Ukranian since the eight floor in Ukraine is the seventh in Germany as well?
I think we shouldn't confuse people this way. If we are in Ukraine we should call it as ukranian people call even if we speak Dutch. Every floor has its number written on the lift panel.
Maybe the best choice would be to change your sentence from "seventh floor" to "seventh floor of a building which has no ground floor".

In Russian it's the same way, as in Ukrainian (there is no ground floor).

Also, some buildings in some countries don't have the 13-th floor. In general, I would prefer to call it like it written on a lift button in every country and in every language. But if it has only three or four floors and no lift, it can be tricky...

> If we are in Ukraine we should call it as ukranian people call even if we speak Dutch.

I agree on that. I suggest that we do translate literally, but we could add a remark.

If the person is speaking in Ukraine, it might be more natural to say the 8th floor. The problem is that we don't know where the person is speaking. When people see a Dutch example sentence, they'd assume that it takes place in the Dutch-speaking world, and when they see a Ukrainian sentence, they'd assume it takes place in the Ukrainian-speaking world. In this sense, "7e verdieping" should correspond to "8-й поверх". I'd welcome Dutch sentences showing how people can use Dutch in a foreign culture, but in that case, it must be clear from the sentence itself that it's not a normal situation in the Dutch-speaking world.

Of course it can be confusing for the beginners who's learning numbers, but I don't think we need to care for those kinds of absolute beginners. Learners should also learn that they shouldn't always say 8 when they'd say 8 in their language, and that's also an important part of language learning. If you translated "literally", people would think that you count floors in Dutch the same way as in Ukrainian or in American English. At least I would think so.

>>> If we are in Ukraine we should call it as ukranian people call even if we speak Dutch.
I don't think so. I don't see a reason why Dutch should be spoken in another way when spoken outside the Netherlands (and Belgium of course).

Of course that's an confusing issue and I would prefere an international agreement to count everywhere in the same way but at the moment that's a kind of science fiction. :D
As far as the German translation is concerned there is a simple solution.
We may translate in this way (I'm going to use Russian, because I don't speak Ukrainian):
"8-й этаж" = "7. Obergeschoss". (Obergeschoss stands for upper floor, this means the 7th floor above the ground floor, which is called "Erdgeschoss" (sometimes indicated as 0. Geschoss) in German. The word "OBERgeschoss" tells us, that we have to add one floor in order to get the full number of all floors (above ground level, not counting floors wholly or partially under the ground, for instance basement). Thus we get the following equations:
1-й этаж = Erdgeschoss
2-й этаж = 1. Obergeschoss
3-й этаж = 2. Obergeschoss
4-й этаж = 3. Obergeschoss
and so on
Does this work in Dutch too?

>> I don't see a reason why Dutch should be spoken in another way when spoken outside the Netherlands (and Belgium of course).

[#353189]

I've had an interesting experience concerning this. One day, I accompanied a German friend who wanted to buy an electronic dictionary. We entered an electrical appliance store in Shinjuku and she asked a clerk where electronic dictionaries are. He answered that they're on the 1-kai. And then she started to head toward the stairs. When I called "Where are you going? We're already on the 1-kai!", she said "Oh, I thought I'd need to go up to the 1. Stock." She succeeded in making herself understood in Japanese, and she understood the words the clerk said, but she couldn't have found what she was looking for without me. ☺

@odexed
>>> [#353189]
By the way, I wonder what you'd say if you were talking about the wheater in Ukraine (speaking in Russian there).
Saying "погода" would you pronounce "pohoda" instead of "pogoda"? If so I would be surprised.

@al_ex_an_der
But we are not talking about accent. I could pronounce it as ukranians do in order to impress someone but it's not the matter. We are talking about culture. If you go to Japan, would you say tommy, let's go to the 4th floor if there is no such floor in the building?

>> "seventh floor of a building which has no ground floor".
That would have multiple possible interpretations and not make things any clearer. The first thing I think of when I read that is a building on poles, where the "ground floor" is open so not actually part of the building...

>> [Obergeschoss] Does this work in Dutch too?
Unfortunately not.

>>>> I don't see a reason why Dutch should be spoken in another way when spoken outside the Netherlands (and Belgium of course).
>> #353189
If I was speaking Dutch to a Ukrainian in Ukraine, I might call the 7th floor "8e verdieping" if I suspected that s/he doesn't know that we count them differently in Dutch. But if I spoke Dutch in Ukrainian to another Dutch speaker, should I also say I'm on the 8th floor? I might if wanted that person to come to me with the elevator, but I wouldn't if I wanted him to look at me waving out the window while he is outside. So it's impossible to give a general rule about how when you should call things the same way as the locals do.

>>Of course it can be confusing for the beginners who's learning numbers, but I don't think we need to care for those kinds of absolute beginners. Learners should also learn that they shouldn't always say 8 when they'd say 8 in their language, and that's also an important part of language learning.
Exactly. If it confuses them, they can look up in a dictionary that 7th is сьомий and that 8th is восьмий, but they won't find information there about how floors are counted. That's what sentences, which give a bit more context, are good for. If those sentences confuse them because they seem to speak about different floors, they can always ask someone more advanced or search the internet and they will find out how floors are counted in different languages.

Why I think it's not a good translation? Because we have no context. We don't know where a speaker says this, we don't see the building, so we are just inventing the context in which 8th floor is 7th indeed. But it turns out confusing for anyone who reads this. Tatoeba project is about languages, not about counting the floores. I don't think that these details are important for a person who learns the language. If you extend the context and say that the building has a zero floor, it's another thing.

If we assume that in the majority of cases, the purpose of learning a foreign language is to be able to understand and be understood by the speakers of this language, I think details like this actually are important.
Also, if a Ukrainian speaker reads "восьмий поверх" and a Dutch speaker reads "zevende verdieping" without any context, both will know without a doubt which floor is meant and they will think about the same floor.

But to make sure there will be a sentence with more context that I hope everyone agrees on we can use the numbers of floors as it would be said in the language that each sentence is in: http://tatoeba.org/eng/sentences/show/3395053 :)
Native speakers, please check the translations.

Show each sentence to native speakers of each language without providing any context and ask them to draw a picture corresponding to the sentence. If the pictures look alike, it's a good translation.

I understood your pount. I agree that we can link this sentence back to Ukranian with tag "comment on sentence"