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- Topic: German >
- "Ich trinke. Ich esse."
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Hi. Out of curiosity : In the right context, those two English sentences mean the same as "I have a drinking problem, I have an eating problem. Is that true for the corresponding German sentences?
Trinke for 1st person ("I") Trinkt for 3rd person or plural ("you all'' or ''he/she'') Trinkst second person (you )
It is because in german you don't have the "present simple/ present continuous". You use "trinke" for both "drink" and "am drinking".
I have a query. And would like to ask you only. trinkt- is it for simple present tense and the addition of -e, -st,-t in their respective uses represent present continuous tense? and if yes, how it will be used in simple past tense and past continuous tense?
From English grammar.
In English, we need a helping verb to talk about most actions that are taking place right at the moment; we cannot (in standard English) say "I eating" but have to say "I am eating".
German does not need a helping verb in this situation.
So when translating from German to English, we have to translate not only the words but also the grammar -- for example, from German present tense to English present continuous.
Sometimes this requires adding words that English needs but German does not.
Another example is "do" support for negative sentences and questions, which English needs but German does not.
For example, Gab er dir das Buch? Nein, er gab es mir nicht. cannot be translated to "Gave he you the book? No, he gave it me not." because that is not correct by the rules of English grammar. Instead, it has to be "Did he give you the book? No, he did not give it to me." with the helping verb "do" inserted, which is not a translation of any of the German words but is simply required by the rules of English grammar.
How will I differentiate between "I eat" and "I am eating"?
They're the same in (standard) German.
Without context, both translations will usually be reasonable and will be accepted.
The speaking example audio do not work! The beep chimey sounds do work, as when clicking continue. Ive checked settings, troubleshooting, cleared cache, restarted app, restarted phone, nothing works!
If anyone is confused about the different accusative cases, why not hit the light bulb before you start the lesson and have a read. I swear to God it has helped understand all the differences.
Is it correct to say iche trinke wasser und ich eesse brot
No.
- "I" in German is ich, not iche
- "water" in German is Wasser - the capitalisation is part of the correct spelling
- "(I) eat" in German is esse, not eesse
- "bread" in German is Brot - again, capitalised
The correct version of your sentence would be Ich trinke Wasser und ich esse Brot.
Is "I drinks. I eats." also correct?
Of course not. That's not correct English.
What is the difference between I drink. I eat. Instead of Iam drinking. I am eating
What is the difference between I drink. I eat. Instead of Iam drinking. I am eating
They're the same in German.
Please always quote your entire answer when you have a question.
Even better: provide a screenshot. (Upload your screenshot to a website somewhere and tell us the URL of the image.)
I put: I drink. I am eating. It was marked wrong
That would be an unusual thing to say.
Keep the statements in the two joined sentences in the same tense:
- I drink. I eat.
- I am drinking. I am eating.
