"She does not have to eat it."

Translation: Sie muss es nicht essen.

[warrickball]

Does the suggested answer not mean: "She must not eat it."?

[FisherLiz]

I've been misled by this false friend too! In English, when we negate "must", we mean that you absolutely MUST NOT do something, because "must" = very definite positive compulsion; however, in German, negating "muessen" changes it from "having to do something" just to "not having to do it". It helps to use the "have to do" translation first in your head in order to see the difference.

[white7mage]

I took a German audio course (not sure if I can say which was it here at duolingo) and its lessons deal with this matter and I remember a close example to this exercise. It was something like: how to you say "X does not have to Y" and the "audio teacher" explicitly said that one should use "Sie braucht es nicht zu..." instead of "sie muss es nicht..."
The latter really sounds like "She must not..." instead of "she doesn't have to..."

I don't know whether there are any variations of this in German speaking countries but I would side the German course I took.

[GrasshopperPie]

Yes! "She does not have to eat it" (in the sense, it is not required of her) is commonly expressed as: "Sie braucht es nicht zu essen". "Sie muss es nicht essen" is also OK

[Basbouss]

Hello. What is wrong in "Sie muss nicht es essen?"

[JakeZukowski]

There is nothing wrong with this answer. You should report it, like I did.

[BBBThunda]

Why was "Sie muss nicht es essen" marked wrong?

[JakeZukowski]

See above. Should be a correct answer. It is grammatical to say it either way. I reported it.

[vossbert1]

It is wrong! Right is "Sie muss es nicht essen"

[PWkXZCsm]

But why?

[Niborus]

What is with this word order? In other examples the (nicht) comes straight after the verb. E.g. Du musst nicht sofort gehen. Kann jemand mir helfen?

[Dr-lekker]

'Sie bracht das nicht zu essen' is incorrect, why?

[JakeZukowski]

Sie braucht nicht das zu essen. Your corrected sentence "She doesn't need to eat that" is a little different than the model sentence, "She does not have to eat that".

[Chriddl]

But "Sie darf das nicht essen." would be totally perfect.. still you loose a heart, because the owl wants it to be "Sie darf es nicht essen"..

[margusoja]

For English speakers it is better to remember these translations for "müssen" and "dürfen":

ich muss - I have to (=I must)

ich muss nicht - I do not have to (but I may, if I want)

ich darf - I am allowed

ich darf nicht - I am not allowed (=I must not)

As you can see - the similarity between English "must" and German "mussen" is confusing and they do no match exactly with each other. They are false friends :)

[deboutwest]

Thank you for this explanation!

[deactivated user]

See the comment above -- "Sie darf das nicht essen" would be "she must not eat that"; the sentence asks for "she doesn't have to eat that".

[Alpog]

I think because it's "eat it" rather than "eat that"