"Ich bin ein Junge."
Translation:I am a boy.
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Check out the lesson tips (on the web version): https://www.duolingo.com/skill/de/Basics-1
They explain when to use them, and some other helpful hints.
Notes - these should be helpful for everybody in ein and eine!
*Always try and learn the gender of a noun when you learn the noun. e.g - learn 'die Katze' = cat. rather than just 'Katze' It will save you time and effort in the long run!
*Try and keep a vocab list and practice new vocab that you've learnt regularly, there are some helpful patterns as I've said but the way to really get nouns and their genders fixed in your head is through old fashioned rote memorisation (really duolingo should have some kind of flashcard feature, they may well add one at some point)
The following are typical Masculine endings of nouns with examples.
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'ig' = 'Der Honig' (The honey), Der Konig (The King)
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'er' = 'Der Computer' (computer), Der Sprecher (The speaker)
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'ismus' = Der Rassimus (racism), Der Kapitalismus (capitalism)
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'ant' = Der Passant (the passerby) Der Elefant (elephant)
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'ist' = Der Polizist (police), Der Optimist (optimist)
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'ich' = Der Teppich (rug)
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'ing' = Der Fru*hling (spring) * = the u should have an umlaut.
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'or' = Der Motor (Motor)
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'ast' = Der Palast (the palace)
The following are typical Feminine endings of nouns with examples.
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'e' = Die Karte (the map), Die Katze (the cat)
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-'heit/keit' = Die Minderheit (the minority) Arbeitlosigkeit (unemployment)
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'schaft' = Die Freundschaft (friendship), Die Wissenschaft (science)
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'ung' = Die Meinung (opinion) Die Bildung (education)
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'ion' = Die Lektion (lesson) Die Inspektion (inspection)
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'ik' = Die Logik (logic), Die Panik (panic)
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'age' = Die Etage (floor/level/storey)
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'anz' = Die Toleranz (tolerance)
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'ei' = Die Metzgerei (butcher)
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'enz' = Die Existenz (existence)
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'ette' Die Diskette (floppy disk)
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-'tat' = Die Realitat (reality) *( again, those a's should have umlauts)
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-'ur' = Die Figur (the figure)
The following are typical Neuter endings of nouns with examples.
1.'chen' = Das Kaninchen (rabbit), Das Madchen (girl) 2.'lein' = Das Buchlein
2.(booklet) Das Fraulein (miss) 3.'um' = Das Datum (date) Das Geburtsdatum
3.(birthday) 4.'ium' = Das Stipendium (grant/scholarship), Das Aluminium
4.(aluminium) 5. Collective nouns beginning with 'Ge-' = Das Gepack (the luggage)
5.Das Gemu*se (the vegetables) 6. 'at' = Das Referat (department/unit) 7. 'ett' =
6.Das Skelett (skeleton) 8. 'icht' = Das Licht (light) 9. 'ma' = Das Dogma (dogma)
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'sal' = Das Schicksal (fate) 11. 'tal' = Das Tal = (valley)
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'tel' = Das Hotel (hotel) 13. 'tum' eigentum (property)
N.B = I've used * to substitute for umlauts here, but usually in written German you would simply put an extra 'e' after the vowel, I chose not to to make the spellings more clear.
N.B = There are some exceptions to the above patterns, but they are a very good general guide so that you can get in to the habit of being able to make an educated guess about the gender of a noun without having to look in a dictionary every time.
The word "ein" is used to indicate a singular noun the same way "a" is used in English. The sentence here doesn't mean to stress quantity, rather the fact that the speaker is a boy.
When you wish to convey "I am a boy." to a German, you would say "Ich bin ein Junge."
If you wanted to say "I am only one boy" in order to stress quantity, you would say "Ich bin nur ein Junge"
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Remember to always capitalize "junge" so that it is spelled "Junge," that also goes for "mann," it has to be capitalized," "Mann." Otherwise it is not correct. In German, ALL common and proper nouns are capitalized. In English, the pronoun "I" is always capitalized whether it is at the beginning, middle, or end of a sentence, otherwise it is incorrect. In German, all nouns are capitalized whether they are at the beginning, middle, or end of a sentence, otherwise it is incorrect.
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Literally, "der Junge" can mean "the young one" as well as "the boy" – these are just two different meanings of the same, say, 'sequence of letters'. Grammatically, they behave differently, as mizinamo pointed out. And: youth = Jugend, yet another related word.
Is there any German equivalent of 'I'm' instead of 'I am' or does the German language have abbreviations?
eine is used before words that are grammatically feminine.
All words in German have a grammatical gender, not just words referring to people; and the grammatical gender of an item generally has nothing to do with the item itself.
For example, der Rock "the skirt" is grammatically masculine even though it's something usually worn by women; das Mädchen "the girl" is grammatically neuter even though girls are female; der Löffel "the spoon" is grammatically masculine even though spoons aren't alive; das Pferd is grammatically neuter even though horses are alive; die Person is grammatically feminine even though a person can be male or female; and so on.
I did not have the period and it counted as incorrect.
Duo ignores commas and periods completely, as far as I know.
If your answer was marked wrong, you probably had some other mistake.
Do you have a screenshot of your answer being marked incorrect, so that we can see exactly what you typed -- not what you thought you typed or what you intended to type?
I know this is what i typed because I KNOW what the words are. I also kept double, triple checking if i jad a type-o but what I did not double check was the instructions, I believe what had happened is I was instructed to type what I heard, not what the translation is. So I should have answered in Deutsch not English.