"Es gibt vier Äpfel."

Translation: There are four apples.

[CodyWillKing]

Is there a historical reason behind "es gibt" translating to "There are" or is it just one of those quirks of languages?

[quis_lib_duo]

All languages have such "things".
What you call there is in English, is in other languages:

es gibt = (literally) "it gives..." (German)
il y a = (literally) "it has there..." (French)
hay = (literally) "it has there..." (Spanish)
det fins / finnes = (literally) "it finds..." (Norwegian)

There is probably no real historical reason for each of this set phrases.

[NatyAlonso4]

In Spanish
Hay (literally) here/there it is (exists)/ here/there they are (exist).
Just to make it clear.

[RichardCor912224]

If "es gibt" = "it gives" then why does Duo not accept "It gives four apples" as an acceptable translation?

[mizinamo]

If "es gibt" = "it gives" then why does Duo not accept "It gives four apples" as an acceptable translation?

Because es gibt is not used literally here; it's used as an expression to indicate the existence of something. We use "there is" or "there are" for this purpose in English. (Which are also fixed expressions and not meant literally -- the "there" does not indicate a location and something like "there are three buttons here" makes perfect sense.)

[mizinamo]

That's just how German expresses it. French has "it has there", German has "it gives" - and some German dialects even use "it has"! ("In meinem Land hat es viele Berge." etc.)

[Tommy1977]

'Es sind' is also used to mean "there are" in German.

[mizinamo]

I wouldn't use it like that without an explicit location, though.

Es sind vier Äpfel im Schloss - OK, "There are four apples in the castle".
Es sind vier Äpfel hier - OK, "There are four apples here".
Es sind vier Äpfel - I would only understand this as "They are four apples" and not "There are four apples".

[bynny2015]

Can't "es gibt" mean both "there are" and "there is"?

[mizinamo]

Yes, it can.

[Tommy1977]

Quite right, mizinamo - I had a feeling there was more to it.
Danke sehr und mach's gut mit dem weiteren Studium.

[Tommy1977]

By the way, I think the word 'Äpfel' sounds like it is pronounced 'Apfel' (singular) in the normal speed audio.

[arukasch]

I heard Apfel too

[Aaron601190]

There! are! four! lights!

[ThomasClarke9]

I came looking for this comment, and was not dissapointed!

[GeoSchribs]

I would rather say: "Es sind (noch) vier Äpfel da." "Es gibt vier Äpfel" is more like "there exist four apples."

[theupandup]

Sounds like "viele Äpfel" to me...

[SchnauzerDad]

There's four apples should work and doesn't

[JameezDuol]

nope, because "There's four apples" is a shortened version of "There IS four apples," and that's incorrect because it's supposed to be "There ARE four apples". The error was in your English, because it didn't register with Duolingo as a grammatical English answer.

[JAK7Qc]

There are four lights!

[Lisa913758]

The audio does not sound like there's any el at the end, even in slow.

[Moxxie5]

it sounded weird to me too and I've been speaking german my whole life XD

[JameezDuol]

I can clearly hear "es gipt feeuh apfil" so im not sure why you heard no 'el' at the end. .-.

[milkcrate]

I put "4" by mistake and it worked! I guess we dont need to type out the word on the English side

[Moxxie5]

is it just me or does it sound like jibberish at the end? like my first language is german but I just could not understand what it said at the end lol.

[richardc316]

Audio seems to cut off. I only hear 'Es gibt vier Ap...."

[FOOTG60]

Anyone else here a native english speaker and keeps saying "There is" when in situations like this it'd be "There are" due to it being plural? Lol