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- "Ist ein Arzt unter uns?"
120 Comments
407
I agree, it should not teach us the wrong usage. When someone types that answer (like I did as well) it should be flagged with a note like a spelling or accent error. That way we learn and move forward. Saying that you have a doctor or any person under you in English implies that they are working for you as a subordinate. As if you are their boss which is a completely different meaning than this DL sentence.
48
It does also mean "is there a doctor under us", as far as I know. In any case, Duolingo tells you the more plausible translation even if you enter the literal one. I think it's a general policy to accept all valid translations, even the unlikely ones -- and given the bizarre nature of some of DL's sentences, that's only fair.
I've never heard "unter" used in this manner- to mean "among". I agree that if it is supposed to mean among us, it should alert. I don't always read the translation when it a green bar since I assume I am correct.
It would be good to someday see something that shows how different prepositions are used. I would never have thought this would have been correct given my understanding of unter.
"Is there a doctor in the house?" I know this is a very old comment but I just wanted to reply to say the "House" in the English expression means a theatre. If someone is taken ill at a play or even something like a conference, this would be asked (I have heard it done in real life). The "House" would translate to the French word "Salle", or probably the German word "Saal".
Of course English is full of puns, so "Doctor in the House" was the name of a TV series about a Doctor called Dr House etc etc.
1982
You'd have to figure it out by context. In most cases, only one really makes sense, or at least, one makes more sense than the other. And, when it's confusing, ask.
1982
It's just something that you'll have to clear up with context. The grammar's the same in either case. There's a duolingo sentence on here that says: "Wir sind unter Frauen." Now, supposing there are actually no women above you, or possibly on the top floor of the building but there's no reason even to mention women on a higher floor, then most likely it will be the 'among' unter. But, if you are in the room with one other dude, and you hear noises from upstairs, then "Wir sind unter Frauen" would most likely be the 'under/below' unter.
376
That sounds a little odd to me, I would usually say "among us." But I'm not clear on the rules for when one would use amongst vs among.
1355
Organizations that provide spell check of any kind almost always use prebuilt third party libraries. Most of the easily available English language ones are U.S. English.
Duo will add constructions to the library over time as the number of reports draws their attention. Of course, taking time out to include non U.S. usage takes time away from other efforts to make improvements. Therefore they do not appear to deem it a priority to make such accommodations.
1982
I'm from Texas, and I've heard amongst and said amongst. I prefer among in most situations, though.
804
I've never heard of anyone saying "Is anyone under us" here in the US before, to ask if anyone is "among" us.
193
I'm a UK speaker. I use either amongst or among, though some might say amongst sounds a little archaic. My tendency is to use amongst with a following vowel to make the elision easier, though it's not a rule.
214
Goggle translator gives dative (when "them" gives ihnen instead of "sie"); not that it might imply whether it is correct or not
"unter" has another meaning besides "under, below, beneath"....it can also mean "among, between, in the midst of" so now we can (English ears) understand the phrase *Is there a doctor -among/in the midst of -us! You can check this at t https://www.dict.cc/?s=unter Just an odd way Duolingo threw this in without other reflections to bring this point out
1982
Maybe you're on the top floor of a building, and you hear strange drilling noises and screams from the floor below, and you're asking if perhaps there's a doctor operating on a patient in the floor below: Is there a doctor under us?
or, maybe you're on top of a big pile of people, and one of you is hurt, and you're wondering if perhaps you're standing on top of a doctor who might be able to help: Is there a doctor under us?
But, the normal understanding would be to translate this as: Is there a doctor among us?
Problem here is people are trying to be too literal with the translation into English. "Unter" means "under" in German but used in the above sentence, it means something else. In the sample sentence, this is just the way Germans indicate proximity of a person. "Ist ein Artz unter uns" - can be translated to "is there a doctor here/with us/among us". Simple. Really no further explanation needed.
Don't take it so literally. In English we say idiomatic or quirky things all of the time and they wouldn't translate word for word into German very well at all. Try making sense of the following phrases in a literal fashion or translated into German:
"I'm getting my snack on." "He flew by the seat of his pants." "What the hell?"
Lesson (repeated): quit taking things so literally. You will be stuck forever "learning" German rather than integrating it into natural usage.
540
In English 'under' is often not literal too. In fact, there are relics of this sense where it crossed lines with the root of 'inter' in current English too. "Under the circumstances", "under the name of Sanders", "under their aegis", "under our jurisdiction", . . . You can even almost get there: "under those gathered here", "under 'us'" (as a categorization), . . .
1982
'zwischen' is more like 'between' -- you use 'between' rather than 'among' when there are only two people. The 'zwi-' in zwischen comes from 'zwei'.
And, 'unter' is more like 'among' -- you use 'among' rather than 'between' when there are more than two people. But, you can also use 'unter' to mean 'between' sometimes: "unter uns gesagt -- between you and me"
That's only true when you're talking about somebody's past, present, or future occupation in sentences of the kind Peter war Arzt, Hans ist Lehrer und Julia wird Wissenschaftlerin.
It's not the case that indefinite articles are always omitted before occupations; only when you're describing the role that somebody has, as the complement of that sort of sentence with sein "to be" or werden "to become".
1982
"gibt es" would be used when forming a question, or when you put something other than 'es' before the verb in a sentence. "Es gibt ..." would be the standard "There is ..." construction, with 'es' in first position before the verb in second position.
"Gibt es einen Arzt in der Nähe?" -- "Is there a doctor nearby."
"In der Nähe gibt es einen Arzt." -- "There is a doctor nearby." -- "Es gibt einen Arzt in der Nähe."
1355
You can start by thinking about when you choose between ...is there..... and ....there is.... when speaking English.
1982
"Ist ein Arzt zwischen uns?" would be "Is a doctor between us?".
So, "zwischen" would be wrong if you wanted to mean "among". It would be right if you wanted to mean "between".
980
What does MOD by a name indicate? Is the person a moderator? Is the person part of Duo staff?
980
Thank you for your rapid response. I recently completed the Spanish tree and there were no moderators there. I think this is a great addition to Duolingo and I hope they use it in more courses in the future.
220
That's not good English. "Is there a doctor" would be better, or "Are there any doctors" (although the latter might be too much of a drift away from the sentence we were asked to translate).
2018
Is there any doctor among us is also correct. i disagree that in this case the only correct answer is :Is there a doctor among us. Am I not right?
1982
In that case, it would have to be 'einen Arzt', since there the doctor is 'being given' by 'it' - so, accusative: "Gibt es einen Arzt unter uns?"
1982
I don't believe the 'there' in the English is the location-"there", but rather the existence-"there is". So, it seems like matching German translations for this existence-"there is" would be:
"Gibt es einen Arzt unter uns?" and "Ist ein Arzt unter uns?"
Also, the 'there' in the English translation is actually not even necessary: "Is a doctor among us?" has exactly the same meaning as "Is there a doctor among us?"
ein translates as "one", but it means "a" here? it wasnt like that in the first couple of lessons .. gg
Eins is a number, ein is a preposition. If someone says "ein Haus" you could translate it as "a house" or "one house" because you can't really say "einS Haus" in German. Also, "a house" means it's just one house, not more of them (you can't say "a houses"). Would love if somebody could confirm what I've just said since I'm not 100% sure about all this.