"Die Steckdose"
Translation:The power outlet
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Please do. If it's rejected, Report it so that it can be added.
That way, you will help make the course better for those who come after you.
"Stecken Sie den Stecker in die Steckdose."
Remember to capitalise your nouns! And to capitalise "Sie" when it means "you"!
Also, it's "die Steckdose", and because you are putting the plug into it (= movement), you need the accusative after "in" here.
Thanks, I was so busy concentrating on getting the correct case I forgot to capitalise, and I still get the case wrong. I hope one day the case confusion will clear.
Regardless of case, it's never ‘dem Steckdose’. Even in the dative case, it would be ‘der Steckdose’.
I think so - a socket is a cylinder/can (Dose) that you can stick (stecken) things into.
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Electric socket... from here to Watford Gap, at least, it is the electric socket. And the stuff that comes through the electric meter into the house is 'the electric'. I have spent years absorbing strange looks for referring to these things as electrical, or even electricity. E.g. 'It's your electric guv, you need the whole lot taking (sic) out. I know a Polish lad in the B & Q car park who'll do it... he's got a Phd in Electrics.' I won't, however, be pressing a claim for DL to accept it :)
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Literally, Steck + Dose is roughly "insertion box" -- the thing you stick things in, which is essentially how I would define "socket" anyway.
And the thing you put into it is a Stecker or "inserter" :)
Or "sticker" in the sense of "thing which sticks into somewhere".
I was going to try "pokey bit receptacle" but I'm pretty positive that would be marked wrong.
It won't accept "the outlet" . In Canada we, or at least in my experience, say just outlet not power outlet that's ridiculous. We know the outlet is powered.
If "socket" is accepted, "outlet" should (eventually) be too if you report it.
...actually, there's a comment from someone a couple of months ago that said "the outlet" was accepted. Strange. Spelling mistake?
I think 'The electric socket' (which is what I would say rather than 'The electrical socket' is correct.
A common mistake, even amongst English-speakers:
"Electric" = using electricity for power: an electric blanket; an electric kettle
"Electrical" = related to electricity: electrical switching system; electrical faults
"Electronic" = using, based on or used in a system of operation which involves the control of electric current by various devices: an electronic game; electronic gadgets; electronic devices.
Source: https://www.englishforums.com/English/ElectricalElectricElectronic/zmgrw/post.htm
Do you live in London, UK? I don't suppose you do? We DO call the "Steckdose" the electric socket! I have reported this again!!
Wrong part, I think - I would understand "power plug" as the thing at the end of a cord attached to a device, but a Steckdose is the receptacle in a wall that receives a plug; it's not the plug itself.
When I think about it, I kind of wish I had got it wrong based on not being good at German... turns out I'm just not good enough at my native language!
When I tried, socket on it's own wasn't accepted, and I've never called it anything else
Did you try just socket? Then no, I would have expected it to reject it since the German has a definite article.
the socket should be accepted - if not, please report it.
Is 'Steckdose' used for both 'power outlet' and 'power strip/multiple socket'? I am a bit confused because in Dutch 'Stekkerdoos' (Steckdose) only means a box with multiple sockets. For 'power outlet' the word 'stopcontact' is used.
It's just a single socket / power outlet.
A power strip is a Mehrfachsteckdose ("multiple socket") or a Steckdosenleiste ("socket strip").
Thank you for all your helpful comments. I have learned much from them (even though I complain).
It says it also means "power point", is that a weird way of saying outlet or can it be used to refer to a presentation kind of power point?
It's not a "weird way", just one used in a different place than where you live :)
It refers to a receptacle that you can plug a cord into in order to receive electricity.
Nothing to do with presentations, in this case.
Alright, that's what I thought. I have learned that there are words in German that have completely different meanings. Plus, I have never heard an outlet or cord called a power point haha. Thanks!
I used "the electric socket" and it told me I was wrong and corrected it to "electrical", I mean come on!
When Duo "corrects" this way I lose faith here, it's obvious we KNOW what "Steckdose" is!
Srsly why not use a normal word - socket. What the bloody hell is a power outlet
One person's normal word is another one's weird word.
You say "gasoline", I say "petrol" and all that. "band-aid / plaster; power outlet / socket; sidewalk / pavement" etc. etc.
This is absurd we use plug in here in canada. If you asked for an electrical sockets the correct response is someone here would hand you the socket disconnected from the wall.
Do you mean "jack" is not accepted - that it's marked wrong? I've personally never heard a mains power outlet called a jack, only low voltage/communications (phone, data, cable, audio, etc). I'm from the western US. Do you say "electrical jack" or just "jack", or does it depend on context? And sorry, I'm not trying to be a smart-ass, it just occurred to me that you may actually be asking why "jack" is accepted - ie not excepted from the list of correct answers.
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Australia: the thing on the wall is a power point. The thing that goes into it, on the end of a wire, is a plug. The wire is a cord. I think these usages are pretty universal, here.
I wrote "the plug" and it rejected it. I'm not an English native speaker, but isn't the word "plug" a synonym of "outlet"?
isn't the word "plug" a synonym of "outlet"?
No -- the plug is the part that goes into the outlet.
It's the "male" part (with prongs sticking out of it) while the electrical outlet or socket is the "female" part (with holes that accept the prongs in the plug).
Compare the pictures at
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I put 'power point' and it was rejected, even though it was one of the suggestions when I hovered over 'Steckdose'.
I put 'power point' and it was rejected, even though it was one of the suggestions when I hovered over 'Steckdose'.
But you were asked to translate die Steckdose and not simply Steckdose.
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mizinamo: we purchase energy from the electrical utility providers, not power. Tesla’s electric cars consume energy from the battery; therefore, the instruments are properly designed to indicate how much energy is in the battery, not power. Power is a measurement of the rate at which one uses energy. Homeowners are not charged based upon rate of usage, but only on the amount of energy they use. Regardless of whether one calls them outlets, sockets, receptacles, or whatever, the adjective modifying that noun should be “energy” not power. Finding users who like to call the wired wall outlets plugs, I have no wish to try to change anyone’s mind. I write asking you if you can add, or have added, the correct term “energy” to the allowable answers. My reporting my answer as correct has not worked. My own utility, which used to be called a power company, but has properly changed their name to an energy company, and I will thank you. (No arguments are necessary, gentle readers, simply look at your home’s utility bill: you are buying & using energy, not power.) Thanks!
I write asking you if you can add, or have added
No, I cannot. I am no longer a contributor to the course, nor do I know who the current contributors are.
My reporting my answer as correct has not worked.
How do you know? When did you report it?
Be aware that there is a backlog of literally hundreds of thousands of reports, some going back as much as five years, so don't expect any change without waiting for at least a year or two.
That said, though, you're probably not going to have a lot of luck asking for terms to be included that are not in common usage.
Once a large number of native speakers use a new word, it might get added as an alternative here, but if usage is limited to a small number of people then - regardless of how "logical" it may seem - it is unlikely to be added to Duolingo.
(For example, try replacing "television" with "teleorasis" on the basis that "vision" is Latin and "tele" is Greek and that the word should be pure Greek or pure Latin but not a mixture, and see how much traction that idea is likely to get.)
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Because 'charger' = 'Ladegerät'. The charger/Ladegerät is what goes into the power outlet/steckdose. They are different things.
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It would seem I am learning American English along with German. I got this a Level 4 and don't remember seeing it before, although I am sure I did at an earlier level, I am being asked to translate from German to English and hover over the word Steckdose for some help and I am none the wiser it gives me 'outlet' as a prompt. An outlet in British English is a shop that sells products that are end of lines at very reduced prices........somehow I didn't think that was what this word meant given that it was in a unit about the home!
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I was born in the States, but have lived all of my adult life in Canada. Were I to make use of a British site to learn German, I would expect to occasionally run into terms and usages with which I was not familiar.
Somehow, many Brits on this site seem to be anything from surprised to offended to positively outraged that an American site employs American terms and usages.
I confess to being puzzled by this.
Edit P.s. "outlet" can also mean that kind of shop in North American English. Context would make the meaning clear.
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Of course I expect there to be American English words in use on this site, I was being sarcastic/tongue in cheek not surprised or offended!
I do however think that it would be useful if the prompt was power outlet not just outlet. An outlet could mean so many things in the home couldn't it? It could be related to water and be a drain or a pipe or such like.
I also think it is useful and helpful for those that are learning English on this site to be given the different forms of a word that are used in different English speaking parts of the world.
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"Outlet" is a rather vague term, but usually context makes it clear, I think.
Regarding your last remark - a truly well-made and sophisticated language course might do that, although I'm not aware of any that do. In any case, Duo isn't that.
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You are right that usually context helps to make this clear but in this case there was only the context of the home, the exercise was to translate the words Die Steckdose, and no others, into English. Like I said above there are many words that could be described as an outlet in the home.
There have been many other words that I have come across whilst using Duo, not just in the German lessons but in other languages I am learning as well, that have been new uses of English for me, American English words that I have not come across before. Every time there has been another word or words under the prompt that is either familiar to me or has helped me to work out what is being said in English, which has helped me a lot. I have reported this one as I felt it was a little lacking to help with learning and understanding.