English Translation
Someone is at the door.
Is the translation wrong here?
@Conor_JPN
Not completely wrong but the Japanese sentence can be interpreted in several ways.
だれか玄関にいる means “someone is at the entrance or foyer,” most likely of one’s personal house.
The person is in front of the door of the entrance where a doorbell is installed, or has already come inside the house but is still at the foyer (the Japanese-style space to take off/on shoes.)
On the other hand, “at the door” in English means “if someone is at the door, they are waiting for you to open the door of a building so they can come inside”, according to the definition by Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English. We usually translate “someone is at the door” into Japanese as 誰かが来た or 誰か来た (dropping が).
誰か(が)来た excludes the case of “already inside but still be at the foyer.” 誰か(が)来た doesn’t matter whether the person is at the door of a personal house, an office building, a personal office room or a meeting room.
But when we say 玄関, it’s more likely to refer to the entrance of a personal house. We say 入口 (pron. いりぐち) instead of 玄関 when referring to the entrance/foyer of an office building, a restaurant, a shopping mall or a theater.