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- Topic: German >
- "Wir essen viele Kartoffeln."
80 Comments
1) It's akkusative case (Wir essen was?),
2) the noun is in plural (Kartoffeln),
3) and because there is no preceding article attribute "viele" has to have strong declination.
If you look here, with this three parameters only one solution is possible: "[...] viele Kartoffeln".
I see you are an English learner and I'm not teasing, just trying to help. But accusative is spelled with two c's not two k's.
Your English is excellent. So you made a spelling error. It's easy enough to do.
With a determiner before it, it would be e.g. die vielen Kartoffeln or meine vielen Kartoffeln.
Kartoffeln has to be capitalised, of course.
Thanks for the link, but what I understood from the table was that the reason it has to be "viele" is that "Kartoffeln" are feminine. I don't see what a preceding article would have to do with it. Please explain.
what I understood from the table was that the reason it has to be "viele" is that "Kartoffeln" are feminine.
No -- it's because Kartoffeln is plural. It's not feminine.
The singular Kartoffel would be feminine, but the plural is plural.
I don't see what a preceding article would have to do with it.
That's what selects between strong, weak, and mixed inflection.
See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_adjectives#Weak,_mixed,_and_strong_inflection .
"Strong inflection is used: [...] when no article is used."
So since there is no article, you look up the "strong inflection table" (rather than the weak or mixed one), and then look for plural accusative, and find the ending -e.
In this case, the "viele" is not because potato is feminine, but because it is plural. Use Google Translate, and type in "I have many potatoes" for translation into German. Then change the object to a plural masculine noun, like dogs, hats, apples, and you'll see the "viele" from potatoes stays "viele" for masculine nouns as well. Don't confuse yourself with the strong, weak etc inflections yet. You'll see "vielen" when an article is put before "viel." It's "viele Kartoffeln" but "die vielen Kartoffeln," and "viele Meere" but "die vielen Meere."
do nominative pronouns change based on which word is following, such as here its viele, would it always be spelled viele? or would alles or dies?
Nominative pronouns do changed based on gender. Luckily, there are only two different variants in this case.
Can anyone give an example of when "vielen" would be the correct response?
"Viel" = much
"viele menschen" = many people/ a lot of people
"die vielen menschen" = the many people
So, with the 'die' before it, it is written with 'vielen'.
Masculine and neuter singular sometimes have -m in the dative, yes.
But dative plural has -n (in all genders).
I think thats more along the lines of "We eat potatoes often" rather than the quantity of potatoes eaten i.e. "How many potatoes do you eat? We eat a lot of potatoes."
Viel means "much" and viele means a lot of or many: Ich trinke viel Milch und esse viele Kartoffeln.
So you mean viel with things that can't be counted like fluides. And viele for countable items?
Now not only am I totally confused abut viel and viele and an article before but a lot about alot.
In English, there is also a difference between much and many. Much is viel and many is viele.
So... based on my own understanding of grammar, viel is a ("how") adverb, while viele is a ("how many") adjective. (Adjectives tell which one, what kind, how many, about a noun; adverbs tell how, when, where, etc., modifying a verb).
viel can be an adverb or an adjective.
Ich trinke viel -- adverb
Ich trinke viel Wasser -- adjective describing the singular noun "water".
Because there is no article before it, so the word viele has to convey the information about gender, number, and case. (strong inflection)
In this case, the -e ending shows that it's plural accusative.
I noticed that a lot of people asked the same question over and over again here, could we please try to avoid that and all the deleted messages? It's a lot of pointless scrolling to do and it takes up memory and stuff. Thank you!
Using "alot", despite how you spell it, is not grammatically correct. For everyday use, people will understand, but use it in a college paper and you will be counted off. Simply, it would be better to translate it as: we eat many/several potatoes
"a lot" is fine in common use, "alot" isn't a word. There is nothing wrong with the sentence. I completely fail to see the relevance of research papers, there is a lot of English language not appropriate for them (see what I did there).
It's great that you're helping people out, and it's important to get the English right, but you have to remember that this is a German lesson, not English. Thank you though!
If you can count they like the potatoes and the word is in the plural then it is not much but many or a lot of in English and "viele" in German.
I realize that, but... I thought that it is "how much we eat potatoes", not number of potatoes.
Shouldn't we be able to translate it as We are eating SEVERAL/many potatoes?
What other forms of word viel/viele are there? We have "viel" for much, and is it the same word in all positions (nom., acc. Dat.) And all genders?
"Viele" for many, but ending could change based on gender or case. If so, how we write it with different genders and in different cases?
And "vielen" which is many as well, but in case there is article before it or in Dat. Case?
That is another possible translation.
(Standard) German does not make the distinction between "we eat..." and "we are eating...".
Am I the only one who's fill in the missing word doesn't work? It doesn't give me any options, so I have to skip the question and get it wrong.
We are eating many potatoes. This sentence was'nt excepted. Why?
I don't know why; that sentence should have been accepted. Can you show us a screenshot of that sentence being rejected?
787
Hello dear mizinamo, how can I fill in a screenshot? Sorry , but I don't know how I should do that. :(
how can I fill in a screenshot?
Upload it to a website, please (for example, imgur), and tell us the URL to the image.
I wrote we are eating a lot of potatoes and the answer is we eat a lot of potatoes. There is no difference in German why is this wrong
why is this wrong
It isn't.
You may have been shown the other version as "another correct answer", meaning yours is also correct.
Please see the other comments on this page, e.g. the comment threads started by rasharoo and Polo465883.
a lot of = several Yet, my answer has been rejected - may you please correct this? Danke!
I think "a lot of" and "several" mean different things. "A lot" is more ambiguous than "several". It's just making the statement that lots of potatoes are being eaten. not anything more exact, because it doesn't need further elaboration.
I am sorry if I am wrong, good luck! :]
"a lot" is the amount that fit into a lot, but nobody really knows how large the lot is.
It's much better to learn viele as "many." "Several" is certainly more than one, but not many.
I would have preferred an answer making reference to some dictionary or thesaurus, but even if it does resolve the problem, I can only accept your version. Thank you for the effort.
A lot of = A lot of, several = several. Two different things. Use mehrere for several/various.
Its the US it is standard to write 'alot', its not required for the two words to be separated, more often than not it is written as - alot. Thus it is a correct answer in proper English.
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It may be "standard" for some, but it is a misspelling, and therefore not a correct answer. "A" is an article, and writing "alot" for "a lot" would be the same as writing "'acat" for "acat" would be.
1.) http://grammarist.com/spelling/a-lot-alot/ 2.) http://writingexplained.org/a-lot-vs-alot-differences
Simple Definition of lot
: a small piece of land that is or could be used for buiding something or for some other purpose
: a small object used to choose the person who will do or receive something
So you see "a lot" refers to a known amount of something. In english we refer to a piece within an auction as a lot because it is a piece of the whole.
'Alot' must be an accepted choice since it is proper english in the US to place the a and lot next to each other. The UK still separates them, thus does not reflect what is standardized/ proper in the US.
If "alot" is a standard and proper spelling wherever you live in America, I, as an American, implore this of you: Please correct the people who, together, have given you the impression that "alot" is a perfectly normal word.
