"Without the newspaper we never would have found out about it."
Translation:Ohne die Zeitung hätten wir es nie erfahren.
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It seems to me that sometimes this is a question of whether or not you're translating exactly what they have requested, versus a translation which conceptually could work basically to make the point.
What standard should be used? I think it would depend on for whom the translation was being made. So, yes, on one hand, but not to classroom learning standards on the other.
Sufficient might be a good comment, but not specifically what was requested...
440
Thank you. I'm still struggling with word order. It keeps slipping away from me, but eventually I will win. ;-).
Typo on my part re "erfahren" vs. "gefahren." [Smacking head on desk.]
1008
Is this the only grammatically correct word order, or is this just a case of Duolingo requiring an exact translation? Normally, Duo allows you to mess with order a little bit, since German is less strict (word order, save a few strict rules, is mostly about emphasis). But for this exercise, absolutely no order except starting with "Ohne die Zeitung" was accepted. It's somewhat annoying, as I often play around with word order even when it is not as literal of a translation in order to gauge what is and is not grammatically acceptable.
"niemals" is fine, but "es" has to come first. Also, be careful not to forget the umlaut in "hätten".
Generally, Duo expects you to translate "it" as "es," even though the object could potentially be grammatically masculine or feminine. If you were thinking that "it" in the English sentence is referring to the newspaper, I would say that's not a possible interpretation; the "it" is something else previously mentioned.
1246
The sentence in English is wrong. We must write it this way. "Without the newspaper, we would have never found out about it".