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- Topic: German >
- "Sie fahren um die Ecke."
58 Comments
I feel like 'they drive round the corner' should be accepted. 'Round' is a common contraction of 'around' in the English version of this sentence.
Hmmm... I'm not sure I agree. It certainly isn't cut and dry and, therefore, should probably be given benefit of the doubt. Certainly shouldn't penalise someone for using a natural sounding sentence.
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Absolutely, 'round the corner' is perfectly acceptable and is in the dictionary as an equal alternative to 'around the corner'.
collins dictionary : around the corner/round the corner. If you say that something is around the corner, you mean that it is very near. In British English, you can also say that something is round the corner. My new place is just around the corner.
I'm british so i have submitted that 'round the corner' be accepted.
I think that, while travel is strictly correct, the far more common translation in this case is to drive (a vehicle).
Traveling implies a long distance. Driving around the corner is only a few meters, not enough to be considered "travel."
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People now travel many miles by bicycle. It may easier to cross London in anything but a car! Without context my first thought was travel,- all we have,- it is peculiarly vague but at least it not just a likely guess.
Yes, why, indeed not "they drive round the corner"? I'm a native British English speaker and am sure that is what 99% percent of Brits would say. Even if it is a contraction of "they drive around the corner", it is unambiguous. Isn't that the point of a good translation?
Native Brit also. If I'm driving around something then I'm avoiding it like a stalled car or a traffic cone. I would only drive round a corner.
Why aren't "going around" accepted, when duolingos 'help' says, that I can translate "fahren um" to "going around"?
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Agree strongly with Big_See.Definitely not a slang expression. Around sounds unnatural. May be american- which sometimes reflects old-fashioned English usage
In english "they drive round the corner" and "they drive around the corner" are exactly the same meaning. So why are you marked wrong for using "round"
In this case, "round" is perfectly interchangeable with "around" in normal modern educated English speech
Fahren doesn't always refer to driving and there isn't more information to draw on, so to say "They travel around the corner", should be acceptable.
Way back, I was told that um die Ecke was (part of) slang in German for murder or death. "I took" or "they went" "around the corner" being I killed them or they died. Though, my source wasn't really reliable. Is it nonsense?
not sure mate, but I also have a feeling the sentence is describing a drive-by
For me it didn't accept "They are riding around the corner." Shouldn't this also be considered a correct translation?
They are presumably not on horseback. At any rate, "riding" sounds more like being a passenger. But I would guess it's to not confuse it with horseriding.
I wrote: "They drive around the corner." It was NOT accepted. For example, "How do they find a parking place?" "They drive around the corner." Have no idea why this wasn't accepted. (26 Apr 2019)
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In English with movement you use "round" and when things are static you use "around". So "they are driving round the corner" to the parking meter which is "around the corner".
You know, milbern, I think you're right!
There has been a lot of discussion on this page about where, when and whether to use "around" or "round". Like a lot of grammar evolution, MISUSE over time eventually becomes ACCEPTED USE and we have confused these 2 words so consistently, for so long, that we have forgotten the difference. But what you say is consistent with the old english practice of forming adjectives of position from nouns by prefixing them with "a" (probably a contraction of "at"). So "abed" would mean "in bed", "aloft" would mean "in the loft" ( or, simply "above"), "away" would be "at a distance".
If nothing else, you've given me a way to remember it! Thank you very much!
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Thank you Attila. I had not thought of those excellent examples but you are right on all of them and it does give an easier way to remember what the rule was and therefore where best practice came from. Now I will never listen to “Away in a manger” the same “way” again (with “way” meaning removed). I hope it also helps others. Now the hard part is to convince Duolingo that in this context “round the corner” is the right translation and must be accepted and “around the corner” is common usage and should also be permitted.
I put drive around the corner and it was still wrong! Duo must be insisting on driving around for some reason.
Should ride around the corner be excepted ? After all, only one person can drive.
I see you point ...... in German, "fahren" does not only mean "to drive" in the sense of sitting behind a steering wheel, but "to travel by some means other than by foot". "They are going round the corner by some means other than by foot", however, does feel a bit OTT ! Most often, a good translation for "fahren " is simply "going".
capital 'Sie' is 'you', lowercase 'sie' is she/they. You can normally distinguish, HOWEVER: this is at the beginning of the sentence, so it HAS to be capitalized; therefore it can be you/she/they, so the hints weren't wrong. "But how can I tell which one it is?" you ask. Duolingo almost never uses 'Sie' as you, so it comes down to she vs they. You can tell by the conjugation of the verb, e.g.:
"Sie fahrt" = "she drives"
"Sie fahren" = "they drive"
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Pronunciation is so inconsistent in this course and is sometimes so terrible! At normal pace it sounds like he's saying 'Eicke' instead of 'Ecke'. It's only until you slow it down that it's pronounced correctly. Don't even get me started on their two pronunciations for the word 'orange'!
Ecke = 'eh-kuh'. Orange = 'oranjuh' (the r is pronounced as a 'gh' in correct German, however the sound 'gh' is never used in english)
... ohne = 'o-nuh' , while um die = 'oom dee', so you mistook a long u for an o, m for n and 'dee' for 'uh'. You can't blame that big of a mistake on the speaker.
Why is "They ride around the corner" not acceptable? In one of the previous lessons I was penalized for translating "fahren" as drive and duolingo listed the correct translation as ride. I thought fahren could mean drive or ride.
