"Ich sehe den Mond."
Translation:I see the moon.
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The articles change according to the case. This is the accusative case.
See here:
OK, I looked at that article and it also states the following: Den Mann beißt der Hund is translated to "The dog bites the man" but if you take it word-by-word it looks like "The man bites the dog".
Der Mann is the object here, not the subject. The article "den" indicate this.
Den Mann beißt der Hund = Der Hund beißt den Mann - The change of word order does not change the meaning, because the articles tell you who is doing what to whom.
At least in US/UK English which is the basis for Duolingo, we don't usually use "see" in its basic sense (see something with your eyes) in continuous tenses such as "am seeing". It's a stative verb.
Similarly with other verbs such as "think, believe, hope, love; have; hear" as well as "feel, taste" when describing (involuntary) perception.
Continuous tenses are possible in extended meanings of those verbs, e.g. "I have cherries" (they are in my possession) / "I am having cherries" (I am eating them) or "I see Paul" (with my eyes) / "I am seeing Paul" (I regularly meet him, I go out with him or date him).
Nothing; it's not the recipient and it's not in the dative case.
It's in the accusative case, because it's the direct object -- it's the one that "undergoes" or "suffers" the seeing, the target or object of the seeing, the thing that is seen.
The gender of nouns in German is mostly arbitrary. There's basically no rhyme or reason to it.
Is it correct to say 'I am watching the moon'?
It's grammatically correct but not a translation of the current sentence.
"I gaze at the moon" was disallowed. I assume that "I behold the moon" would be also. Why?? Does Duolingo require that every expression be stated in its most basic (or least interesting) form in order to be judged as correct?
"I gaze at the moon" was disallowed.
That's not a translation of Ich sehe den Mond; it doesn't convey the same idea.
Gazing at or looking at something is a more active thing than just seeing the object.
Does Duolingo require that every expression be stated in its most basic (or least interesting) form in order to be judged as correct?
Duolingo doesn't actually understand English or German. It can only compare answers against a list of accepted translations that some poor human typed in one by one.
Those lists will generally only contain the more obvious translations.
So in general, it's not a good idea to get adventurous. Use a basic form to show that you've understood the sentence, not a "more interesting" form to show off the breadth of your vocabulary.
I have no interest in "showing off my (personal) vocabulary." However, the vocabulary of the English language is exceptionally vast and IMO tends to have MANY more ways to express an idea than other Western languages. My thought on "I see the moon" was, Why limit ourselves to the most basic, boring translations possible. Now I know. Thanks for your answer.
