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- "Sie sind unter uns!"
62 Comments
This is just an example sentence to demonstrate everything we've learnt about German grammar so far. Both meanings are correct here, so write it however you want.
If it was a "type what you hear" exercise, make sure that you type what you hear -- if you hear German words, you have to type German words.
Otherwise, check your spelling.
If you're still sure it was the same, please post a screenshot.
Can someone explain why a correct translation is "They are among us!". I didn't know that "unter" could be translated as "among", or is it just in certain phrases? or idioms?
Are you sure? Zwischen would seem a better word for "among".
Under and among are two very different things.
zwischen is between.
It's not a coincidence that zw shows up in both zwischen and zwei, or "tw" in both "between" and "two" -- it's used when something is between two things.
"between" and "among" are thus also rather different things.
For "among", use unter.
Context will let users understand whether unter means "under" or "among", much as native English speakers can tell the difference between the meanings of "on" in "He gave a lecture on a table" and "He gave a lecture on physics".
If we understood all these comments then WE would be the illuminati and would be among ourselves.
But the truth of the matter is that we are playing a game of "stacks on the mill" and you are under us.
Can this sentence mean 'they' are not worthy, as in 'it is beneath me!, or does it just refer to literal positioning?
To me, that is actually the first reading in English. "They are underneath us" would probably be my translation to capture the literal positioning reading (though that could also mean 'they are not worthy').
1758
I would rather think "they" is a group of people/aliens/zombies that are among the population of a city/region/country. That sentence is often a subtitle of mystery series or movies.
- 735
Here I immediately visualized the Graboids from the Tremors movies when I interpreted the sentence as "They are under us."
You can't translate "out there" literally. "nebenan" is probably a better option.
- 2100
I agree I can't translate literally, but this phrase was written in an episode where Mulder travels to the past: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triangle_%28The_X-Files%29. Anyway, I just posted because "Sie sind unter uns" needed this joke :-)
They have already breached our defenses! You see what they have done to our colleagues. And worst, they could be any one of us...they could be you! They could be me! They could even be--
How in the world are the phrases "among us" and "beneath us" mutual concepts? If this isn't a mistake, then a LOT of German foreign policy throughout history just started making sense to me lol.
Stop treating German as if it's just English with all the words replaced. There are lots of things in English that have dual meanings which English-speakers just take for granted as "natural". Every language has them.
- 1762
I translated the German as "They are beneath us" and it was marked correct. But obviously the sense in English is not the same as "They are among us." So, just how would you say "They are beneath us" (i.e. a phrase of contempt) in German?
- 1762
Taking a stab at answering my own question re "They are beneath us." How about "Sie sind unter unserem Niveau."
I assume that "uns" is the dative here, not the accusative. Am I right?
In my opinion, yes. 'Unter', in this case is not expressing movement, therefore it is the dative case and 'uns' is the dative pronoun.
- 371
It seems that I was wrong to believe that "zwischen" could only mean "between" (two other elements), and not "among" (several other elements).
If it does mean both "between" and "among", I would really like to know when I should use "zwischen" or "unter", too.
"Zwischen" is much more literal and physical than "unter". They're generally not interchangeable. You use "unter" for among / between when it's referring to group membership rather than physical position.
"Sie sind zwischen uns" would mean rather that they are physically located between you and me, and "Let's keep this between us." is translated using "unter", like "Das bleibt unter uns."
Wait, unter means under and among at the same time?
No, not at the same time, but at different times.
In any given sentence, it will mean one or the other depending on what the speaker wants to say.
That does not make any sense!
Prepositions in general don't "make sense".
Why do you "listen to music" but "look at a painting"? What not "listen at music" or "look to a painting"?
Why do we meet "at Christmas in December on a Wednesday"? Why "at midnight" but "in the evening"? Wouldn't it be simpler if the same preposition worked for all of them?
Mizinamo, you are so correct! Prepositions do NOT make sense in ANY language! I believe the worst of all languages is Russian regarding prepositions but I only know 8 languages so there may be another language worse than Russian.
- 1758
Well, English has different meanings for words, too.
Something LIKE this. - Etwas WIE das. Something I LIKE. - Etwas das ich MAG.
Or "The vampire came with his bats." versus "The baseball player came with his bats."
Why not "They are below us!" ?
That's another possible answer, and is accepted as well, but is a less likely interpretation of unter uns than "among us".
We don't often talk about someone being below us but we talk about someone being among other people more often.
- 1758
Why not? "They are among us" only reminds me of a horror movie. I use the sentence more often in the meaning of "They are below us". Sie sind (eine Klasse) unter uns. Sie sind (ein Stockwerk) unter uns. Sie sind (in der Highscore) unter uns. Sie sind (an der Kletterwand) unter uns. And there are many more.
