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- "Haben Sie eine bessere Perso…
136 Comments
342
In this case, I'm pretty sure we know it's you-Sie, not they-sie, because Sie has been capitalised. If it were "Do they have...", I believe the sentence would have to start with "Haben sie".
2040
I'm not sure what you mean. German doesn't distinguish formal vs. informal for "they"; there's only a special formal form for "you." "Sie" meaning "they" is never capitalized (except at the beginning of a sentence, of course).
"Sie" is not a polite form of they for 1 person. "Sie" with a capital letter is the polite or formal "you" which can be used for 1 or more people. "sie" can be "they" and with a different verb form it can be "she"." http://german.about.com/library/anfang/blanfang02.htm
1689
But when the clue is audio-only, like it was for me, you can not tell if the Sie is sie. I agree that "Do they have a better person" is also a correct translation from the audio version.
2040
"Sie" can be singular or plural. It's the formal way to address people, whether you're talking to one person or multiple people. "They" would be "Haben sie" (lowercase "sie").
I'm from the UK, and I'd definitely say "Have you got a ...". This one really got me thinking...
You might use "Have you ..." for ultra-formal situations, but you'd never use it in everyday speech: "Have you any further questions for the witness" in a court of law, but only ever "Have you got a pen" in normal conversation, or even when being very polite, like a job interview. "Have you ..." feels Victorian.
I think, although they look the same, the informal version ("Have you got a ...") is actually using "have" in another way, to indicate the past tense. So there's this form in English;
"Have you got a better person?"
"Have you seen the movie?"
"Have you understood it?"
where "got," "seen," and "understood" are the verbs, and "have" is an auxilliary verb indicating something happening in the past. It's the same in the German perfect tense;
"Hast du deine Hausaufgaben gemacht?" - "Have you done your homework?"
So, in summary, I think "Have you a better person" is just something you would not say in spoken, modern, UK English.
I don't think it is wrong! In farmafil's suggestion, I can just see someone saying this? (Possibly more likely to be UK, & "Have you got. . ." might be another way of saying it. "Do you have. . ." is more likely to be US). I don't htink it's that old-fashioned in the right context - just a bit formal!
She, lower case 'sie' is never used with verb form like 'haben', then it would mean 'they'. Due has marked 'Do you have' wrong when written "Haben Sie" when duo means 'they' contextually and formally. So, as in speaking, formal use of "Sie" is ambiguous, as German formal is always expected, until informal is agreed upon!
This avoids the occurrence, as happens in English, of the accusatory "You!" ex: You should not" vs the formal "One should not"
Ambiguity exists in most, if not all, languages. Except perhaps math, where the parentheses clarifies! ;-)
Adjectives must match the noun they are describing in gender, number and case and for whether the noun is preceded by a definite article (weak declension or inflection), an indefinite article or possessive pronoun (mixed declension) or no article (strong declension, as the adjective must show everything for the noun as if it were the definite article), and also change endings for comparisons. At this site, you can click on the British flag to see explanations in English. http://www.canoo.net/inflection/gut:A
Here the noun is preceded by "eine" so it is mixed inflection or declension, the noun is singular, feminine and in the Accusative case and a comparative form is needed.
2040
"Haben Sie" is you-formal (capital "Sie"). "Haben sie" is they (lowercase "sie"). They would be the same when spoken, but you-formal is capitalized when written, so we know here that it's "you" and not "they."
"Habt ihr" is you-plural (informal).
23
This question was spoken to me. How am I to know if it references "you" or "they" when I cannot hear that "Sie" capitalized?
2040
You can't tell from the sentence itself. In the absence of context (which would of course usually make it obvious), "Sie" could be either. Thus Duo will accept both translations.
Only in this case they didnt, as it's not unusual for them to mess up, just to get us talking... Me thinks :-) But, I agree Formally, as in formal speaking, capitalized 'Sie' means you or they only understood in context and often means both you and they as to a group. For lower case 'sie' always look to the verb form... Always!
2040
Capitalized "Sie" means only "you," not "they." "Sie" meaning "they" would be lowercase. Duo should not accept "they" for the written prompt; that would be wrong.
2040
In German? It is: "Haben Sie eine bessere Person?"
If you mean the English sentence, English doesn't capitalize nouns like German does.
2040
I'm not sure what you mean by "formal noun." Nouns don't have formality. All nouns are capitalized in German.
No, first thing, the "ein" doesn't change ending for neuter accusative, so the adjective ending indicates the gender, thus: "ein besseres Haus."
See: http://www.canoo.net/services/Controller?input=gut&features=(Cat+A)&dispatch=inflection&lang=en
Second thing, "Person" is feminine, genders just defy logic.
2040
Gender doesn't necessarily match the concept of the word. As another example, "Mädchen" ("girl") is neuter.
Yes, "haben" is used for "sie" which is plural "they", for "wir" which is plural "we" and for "Sie" which is formal "you" and can be singular or plural. So, it is not always plural. When "sie" means "she", the verb would be "hat". When "sie" is not capitalized and is followed by "haben", it means "they", but you are right if "sie" is the first word of the sentence then it will be capitalized anyway. "Sie" meaning "you" is always capitalized. When you see "Sie" capitalized and it is not the first word in the sentence then you know it means "you". If it is the first word in the sentence and is followed by "haben", then Duolingo will accept "they" as well as "you" unless there is something else in the sentence that will indicate which is meant.
354
This is just one of the random sentences used by Duo. The context could be something like "Do you have a better person for this task that I need doing, because this person I already have will fail abysmally at it". Hope that helped :)
Yes, the konjugation of "Sie" is the same as it is for "they" (sie) or "we" (wir) which is the infinitive of the verb.
wir essen - we eat
ihr esst - you (informal) eat
sie essen - they eat
Sie essen - You (formal) eat
Also, the formal version You/Sie can be used both for one person and for more people.
2040
This question has been answered several times on this page (e.g., under lapidshay's, ItsLeAshton's, and kristina.f1's comments). Please read the other comments before posting questions.
Interesting - in the English of that period, "Thou" was used exactly like Modern German "Du" - so singular, and only if on familiar terms; the formal "you" was just "You" plural whether speaking to one or more than one. Does this mean we're ahead of Germany, or just that they're more polite than us?
Ugh, "eine" translates as one, but it says "a" and I get it wrong?
"Personality" =/= human being. "A better person" could be someone more qualified. Literally a different human. In English, "character" can be used to mean either a person ("a character in that show") or a person's demeanor ("that upbeat guy has a good character"). In the second example, "character" is describing an abstract noun. Substituting "personality" in makes sense. In the first, it does not.