For example, in the sentence "Great people are not always wise." I know I could say something like Великие люди иногда не мудрые but is there a more elegant way to say this?
4 Answers
I believe the literal translation не всегда
better fits your needs:
Великие люди не всегда мудры.
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3Здесь определенно стоит использовать краткую форму прилагательного: „Вели́кие лю́ди не всегда́ мудры́“. Sep 3, 2014 at 3:13
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1
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Maybe even "Великие не всегда мудры" as a shorter alternative — after all, such wording is pretty common to aphorisms. Sep 3, 2014 at 11:50
Is it about great people not being wise all the time, or about not every great person being wise?
If latter, I would write it as Не все великие люди мудры
.
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Your confusion over the meaning reminds of a Dilbert cartoon: dilbert.com/fast/2001-04-19.– KCdSep 16, 2014 at 4:30
"Не обязательно" also will do in this case.
Великие люди не обязательно мудры.
Generally speaking, you're not talking about time in this sentence, but about a logical relationship, namely an absence of cause-effect relation. So using of the time-related words like всегда
and иногда
isn't essential, and any way to express this simple logic is OK. For example:
Из того, что человек велик, не следует, что он мудр.