Nov. 15., 2010 | 09:39 am
No:: begemots
1. You can say "Nabaga tu/viņš/viņa!" for "Poor you/him/her!".
English "Poor you!" could frequently in Latvian use deminutive form of "nabags" (poor man/woman): "Nabadziņš/nabadzīte!" without any pronouns both when speaking directly to addresse as well as when refering to somebody else).
The same could be said for "Smart you!", which could be translated as "Gudrinieks/gudriniece!" depending on gender.
I haven't ever heard "Smart you!" used in non-deminutive form "Gudrais tu!".
Not sure about whether there is any such form for "generous". You could theoretically say "Augstsirdīga Jūs!", except you probably should use "Augstsirdīgā Jūs!", but nobody speaks like that. Same for plural form ("augstsirdīgās jūs"). Capitalization of "jūs" in writing generally indicates 2nd person singular.
NB:
1) The forms "Nabaga tu!", "Nabadziņš!" and "Gudrinieks!" are frequently used to indicate irony, same as in English.
2) "Nabags"(noun) is more used to refer to financially poor person, although it can be used to just indicate that something is amiss with him. "Nabadziņš/nabadzīte" is almost exclusively referring to any other (non-financial) misfortune/problem.
3) Female form "nabadze" is practically never used, instead adjective is used: "Viņa ir nabaga" (She is poor [financially]).
2. Adjectives generally follow the form of noun, yes, so singular adjective makes the sentence wrong; in my perception there is a sort of a gap, where you expect the end of the sentence to finish with the same sound as the first word (in this case).
English "Poor you!" could frequently in Latvian use deminutive form of "nabags" (poor man/woman): "Nabadziņš/nabadzīte!" without any pronouns both when speaking directly to addresse as well as when refering to somebody else).
The same could be said for "Smart you!", which could be translated as "Gudrinieks/gudriniece!" depending on gender.
I haven't ever heard "Smart you!" used in non-deminutive form "Gudrais tu!".
Not sure about whether there is any such form for "generous". You could theoretically say "Augstsirdīga Jūs!", except you probably should use "Augstsirdīgā Jūs!", but nobody speaks like that. Same for plural form ("augstsirdīgās jūs"). Capitalization of "jūs" in writing generally indicates 2nd person singular.
NB:
1) The forms "Nabaga tu!", "Nabadziņš!" and "Gudrinieks!" are frequently used to indicate irony, same as in English.
2) "Nabags"(noun) is more used to refer to financially poor person, although it can be used to just indicate that something is amiss with him. "Nabadziņš/nabadzīte" is almost exclusively referring to any other (non-financial) misfortune/problem.
3) Female form "nabadze" is practically never used, instead adjective is used: "Viņa ir nabaga" (She is poor [financially]).
2. Adjectives generally follow the form of noun, yes, so singular adjective makes the sentence wrong; in my perception there is a sort of a gap, where you expect the end of the sentence to finish with the same sound as the first word (in this case).