- Forum >
- Topic: German >
- "Sie müssen nicht sofort gehe…
61 Comments
Need not. For "must not" you should use "dürfen nicht", see christian's answer here: http://duolingo.com/#/comment/171892
109
Same here. That probably shouldn't be accepted. Unfortunately, the report button has no "My sentence shouldn't be accepted." option.
for the English speaker muss nicht and darf nicht seem to be swapped over must not = darf nicht, but if you remember that "must" is part of the verb with the infinitive "to have to" then it makes sense
I wrote 'you mustn't go right away' and it was accepted as correct, but the DL answer doesn't mean the same at all. So this leaves me a little confused, but further research suggests that I was wrong, and that the sentence denies that there is any obligation to leave, rather than saying that there is an obligation not to leave. (Though apparently some native speakers are sloppy about this.)
As far as I know "must" ~ "have to" and "must not" ~ "may not". German "müssen" ~ "must" but "nicht müssen" ~ "not have to" and "nicht dürfen" ~ "must not".
"they" should be okay. Maybe they didn't like the "go"? In such a context "gehen" means "weggehen" (= leave).
My question also. How would one know whether Sie mussen is formal you or third person plural?
First of all, it is "müssen", not "mussen".
And you're right. Without context it could be both "you must" (formal) or "they must".
And since there is no context here, both versions are accepted.
On a mobile you can keep the letter pressed until a menu comes up. On a computer you can install an international keyboard layout.
- 508
An Americanism I suspect. Despite their attempts to correct things like US spelling they do slip up on colloquial or ordinary usage in other parts of the English speaking world. The lack of a way to report errors like this is one of the more irritating features of an otherwise excellent way to learn.
- 508
In Australia and the UK "go" is more commonly used than leave in this situation. The Americans I know are more likely to say "leave". The distinction is blurring though.
That's hilarious. I use both, probably "go" more than "leave", but if I had to guess I would have put money on "go" being more common in the States and "leave" being more common in the Commonwealth. But I'm Canadian, so we get a very unhealthy mix of "UK English" and "American English" which can cause some confusion at times.
@professorjd
I didn't call her comment hilarious. What I thought was funny was that I would have thought the opposite of what helen said was true, as I indicated:
...if I had to guess I would have put money on "go" being more common in the States and "leave" being more common in the Commonwealth.
But thanks for your input.
- 235
Actually, they have a way to report it. However, that mechanism is only available on the web version. Right under the answer, you can "report" problems, among them that your answer should be correct, and that there's an issue with the answer as they've presented it.
They have not to go right away. In the sentence Sie refers as They since the verb müss is in plural.
- 415
Here "Sie müssen" can be "They have to" AND "You (formal!) have to" as well.
It can't be "She has to", because that'd be "Sie muss".
Without context or "Sie" being not the first word of the sentence you can't say if it is meant to be "they" or (formal) "you".
Only sentences like "Ich denke, dass sie nicht sofort gehen müssen." or "Ich denke, dass Sie nicht sofort gehen müssen." are unambigous.
You can easily see it from the verb form. "she must" is "sie muss".
But that cannot be used in this sentence, because "they must not" means "sie dürfen nicht" in German.
The male audio version is terrible. The regular speed sounds singular "Sie muss nicht sofort gehen." while the slow speed matches the answer give, "Sie müssen nicht sofort gehen."
Because that means something different. "Sie müssen nicht" does not mean "You must not" (= "You are not allowed to"), but "You need not"/"You don't have to".
No, that's not the meaning of the sentence (That would be "Sie dürfen nicht sofort gehen" in German).
The negation of words like "must" works differently in English and German.
I wrote "You needn't go so soon." Is this not an appropriate translation?
"they must not" is the same as "they are not allowed to". But the German "sie müssen nicht" doesn't mean that. It means "they need not"/"they don't have to".
- 193
What makes it obvious the the Sie is the "polite You" rather than They as in They must not go immediately oir They must not go right away
In the beginning of the sentence there is nothing that "makes it obvious". Without a context it could be both the "polite you" and ordinary 3rd person plural. That's why both "you" and "they" are accepted as an answer.
I put 'You have to no leave right away'. This seems to me to be moderately correct.
Actually, neither of those sentences is correct English. What is your native language?
"have to no leave" is not correct English. It is "don't have to leave".
ehm, "You don't have to leave right away" is the standard solution (see top of page). Do you have any objections to it?
I was referring to the expression "moderately correct". The word "correct" is boolean. Oh, and just so that you know, one doesn't object against :-) I have German guests in my holiday home at the moment. I was looking forward to a bit of practice, but it turns out they speak better English than I do and have been away from Germany for so many years, they no longer have the confidence to speak German. Funny old world.
Of course you're right. I already suspected that.
Edited my comment.
I put "they" instead of "you". It marked me wrong, what is the issue here?
What was your complete sentence? There must have been some other error. "they" is of course accepted.
Definitely not standard usage lol. It's said, but they can't predict 100% of the answers people would give. Just stick to the more standard textbook usage and you should be fine.
My answer was "You must not go immediately." Yet it corrected me wrong. This app really irritates me sometimes ugh.
Duo is right in this case, even if they may not have explained this. So don't be frustrated, but rather take this as a learning opportunity. This is how languages are learned; you try new things, make mistakes, get corrected, and learn from these corrections. In my opinion, if you never get anything wrong, then you're not doing it right.
As for this sentence, müssen is often thought of by English speakers as being "must". However, this is not true. It is a false friend and means "to have to". Since "must" and "have to" mean the same thing in affirmative sentences, this often goes unnoticed, but when we get to negative sentences, "must not" and "not have to" definitely do not mean the same thing. So this would be "you do not have to go immediately". For "must not", you would need to actually say "may not", which is "nicht dürfen".
As long as you don't tell us your answer, this kind of comment is of no use for anybody.
