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- Topic: German >
- "Ich bin gleich wieder da."
28 Comments
1476
We are in the realm of idioms here. "I'll be right back" should be accepted.
Although the German does say "I am", we only ever say "I will be back in a moment" in English.
As a native English speaker, I'd translate "Ich bin gleich wieder da" as "I'll be right back." BTW your streak is awesome.
Thank you! The hardest part was actually the first 100 days or so. After that, I managed to include it into my daily tasks. With a streak of 548, I'm sure you know how hard it is to keep it going;).
The other thing is that English is not my mother tongue (which is Portuguese). So, I study both English (from Portuguese) and German (from English). That improved my English skills a lot, but also made it much harder to learn German. I had to do this way because when I started, there was not yet the pair "German from Portuguese". When it was created, I was already used to practice both languages at once...
Very interesting. Thank you, English is not my mother tongue so I was confused by a Duo detail. The correct answers included one stating this: "I am back in a minute". Hence, I was thinking: if this sentence is correct, then it would be reasonable to say "I am back in a moment". On the other hand, this was something I never saw anyone saying before in English. Now I know why: it's not something someone would naturally say. And then I'm stuck in a bit tricky choice: either to deliberately practice unusual expressions (to enrich my skills) or to avoid them (to prevent learning wrong sentences). Anyway, thank you very much for your help! Appreciated!
In english (native speaker) we would say,"
I will be right back. or I will be back in a moment.
This implies that you are with someone, and have to leave for a moment.
For example: Your with friends at a restaurant and need to go to the toilet. You would say, " Excuse me. I'll be right back." or Excuse me, I'll be back in a moment."
In your example: "I will be there again soon. Doesn't make sense.
You could say: " I will be there soon."
For example:
You and a friend have decided to meet to see a movie and you are on your way. You call your friend to let him know your on your way and you would say, " I'll be there soon."
Hope this was helpful.
Ah, OK. Maybe I missed the point of this idiom then. I was thinking it might be a reply to someone who asked ''when are you coming back [say, to Germany]?'' In that circumstance I might reply ''I will be there again soon''. Just shows how tricky these translations can be. I'm a native English speaker so my problem was with understanding context. Would be interested in how a native German speaker might view my interpretation.
What you originally put makes sense and is what I wrote as well, it is just that the context is missing. If you were telling someone about how you had been to Germany and that you will be returning to Germany for a second visit (saying this to someone who is not in Germany), wouldn't one say this exact sentance (except with 'da' replaced with 'Deutschland' and saying 'right away' instead of 'soon')?
- 1125
How do you say "I am right back"? As in "I got back very quickly and report the fact happily."
Agreed, in English, one would rather say "I'm back already" or similar. Auf Deutsch "ich bin schon zurück" oder "ich bin schon wieder da" would be more or less interchangeable.
I think of it like this: "I'll be right back" -- I will return in a short amount of time (minutes at most usually)
"I'll be back soon" -- I will return in a short-ish amount of time (from a few minutes, to a few months/years. "Soon" can depend greatly on context).
Is there the same subtlety in this phrase and another similar one? If so, what are they? Thank you!
- 34
'I shall be back in a minute' is also correct, indeed better English at least here in the UK, but is marked wrong: https://screenshots.firefox.com/ASEX6ChKsh5xBeRZ/www.duolingo.com
- 1281
The English is 'back in a minute' not 'I will be back in a minute' if we are doing expressions.
- 41
What's the purpose of the "da" here? Would "Ich bin gleich wieder" work as well?
- 172
How would one say ''I almost there again'' then? Don't we need any context to do the right translation?
