54 Comments
Can someone explain why "keiner" is used as opposed to "kein" or "keine" or "keinen"?
'Keiner' is a pronoun, like 'niemand'. Both mean 'no one' or 'no body'.
'Kein' is the stem ('kein'-no). It is an adjective that undergoes declension (like any other adjective).
Hope this helps :)
my english is not good and i start to learn the german i confuse these three works keine. keinen kein can you give me short formula please!
It looks like "kein" is taking the genitive plural form. But I still am unsure why it is taking this form.
You are mixing up ein/kein as indefinite article (in that case it would be in genitive case) with the indefinite pronoun. Remember, there has to be a subject in the sentence - the indefinite pronoun is the substitute for that. The forms of this indefinite pronoun in nominative case are keiner, keine, keines and keine. So it's nominative masculine: "Not a single dude speaks"
I am not 100％ sure, but I think some words ending in "er", like keiner and schöner are talking about a person.
Totally different game. You mean the "Hallo schöner" sentence. In that case it's an adjective. The word dude is missing: hi, beautiful dude.
With keiner it's different. It's not an inflicted adjective, it's just an indefinite pronoun.
Difference between "no one" and "nobody" by the sound of it. Functionally identical, just different words.
Yes. The only difference is that keiner keine so on... can show gender, where niemand can not.
Not the same job as with the no one and nobody. We use nobody for people and no one for things. It's a cheeky semi-insult to address people as no one. "Nobody can beat me up" sounds respectful and educated, where "No one can beat me up" is a small bit insulting and unrespectfull.
In UK English, nobody and no-one are both fine - neither is insulting.
For the love of God fix the damned text-to-voice. I cannot tell if it's saying "Keiner" or "Keine". Same thing with anything ending in "er". It's annoying.
I feel the same way, but I wonder if the difference is really that subtle in spoken German. Anyone know?
To me it is sometimes. I have lived in bavaria for 7 months now and though its easier for me to tell the difference because I am more aware of the grammar, it still is difficult for me to tell. And you can get away with just kind of mumbling the end because they do sound very similar. Like the difference, at least for me, with lieben and leben.
It can help if you are to watch German NEWS and feel the (slight) difference between these sounds. The slight difference is that in words ending in R, that R is formed somewhere at the base of the neck and it is actually a soft echo; just like the French pronounce sometimes their R or a British the R before a final consonant.
It should be "None speaks" which is identical to No one speaks. None speak is grammatically incorrect, since None is singlular. However, Duolingo marked "None speaks" incorrect as well, even though it is correct. I have submitted a report.
Because none and no one are two different words. In this case, its saying that no person is speaking. None speak doesn't really make grammatical sense in English.
Umm... well, 'none' literally means 'not one'. It has identical etymology to 'kein'.
One valid dictionary English translation of 'none' is 'no one'.
True...hm now that i reread the sentence "none speak" it does make sense XD oopsies.
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"No one talk" would be a command in English, so you would have to use a different form of "spricht" to say that.
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In English you cannot say no one talk. "No one" is speaking about one person, so it is singular. It's the third person singular, like he, she and it. He talks, she talks, it talks. I talk, you talk, but he talks. Or one talks. Or no one talks. It's the same with nobody. You have to say nobody talks.
Not true. You can say: "No one talk!" It's a command to a group for everyone to shut up, like in a classroom of interrupting children.
As another said one can certainly say "No one talk" . This is often said to children in school when the teacher wants them quiet
I don't think so. That looks like you're trying to say "one doesn't speak", but that would be "Man spricht nicht."
Keiner in this case means nobody. So no talking would not work, as the correct answer is "nobody is talking"
"Nobody's talking" should be an acceptable answer here. Kinda annoying that it's not. :-(
None speak does make sense as the word "none" can take on either singular or plural meaning and the verb matches: http://data.grammarbook.com/blog/singular-vs-plural/none-were-vs-none-was/
Is it more like an imperative way of speaking? No one speaks!! or just stating that nobody speaks at the moment.
Hm, 'no speaking' rather sounds like 'no smoking', an order or imperative. But 'keiner spricht' seems like a neutral observation, they're all silent. Doesn't fit, if you asked me.
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I agree with Menschenkind. If you wanted to say 'no speaking' the expression would be something like 'Sprechen verboten!'
Or "Kein Sprechen". Either way, just as in English, "Sprechen" has to be a noun.
spricht is conjugated, so it is the verb of the sentence. In your sentence there is an implied "(there is) no speaking" or "no speaking (is allowed)" and the verb wouldn't be 'spricht'.
