"Er war Mitglied der Akademie."

Translation: He was a member at the academy.

[sduckwor]

Shouldn't this translate as "of the" rather than "at the"?

[ethan.murdoch]

He was a member of the academy is also accepted.

[Lou408365]

Didn't let me have "of the "

[MeiaSala]

Claimed my 'of the' was wrong as well. Disappointing as so often.

[BillJim]

Yes. "At" implies something else. For example, "He was a member (of the choir) at the academy."

[collectedsoul]

The german sentence doesn't need an indefinite article before 'Mitglied'?

[Pfiff]

Correct. FOr this or professions or stuff like that, you just say the word without the article. "Ich bin Arzt"; "Sie sind Mitglied"; "sie war Bibliothekarin"; etc..

[abulgher]

Never remember this rule, arghhhh!

[chrysaphi]

This was an iOS app question, where the available prepositions were "at" and "in"; "of" was not an option. I think "at" and "in" are both suboptimal, and it is best translated with "member of", but I had to guess and was marked wrong for choosing "in". I wish reports could be made from iOS!

[PoTingLim]

Of course I know it sounds unnatural without an article in english...

But there are so many times you mark my answer wrong because I subconsciously added a 'the' to make a sentence more natural.

Why don't you just prompt a "Other correct answer:" in this occasion?

*End Rant.

[Paul886]

I agree with the comments about using 'of' instead of 'at'.

[Paul886]

One should use 'of' rather than 'at' here.

[milleronthebass]

Is this genitive case?

[AlexanderK218814]

Too "voluntaristic" translation. Does not accept nothing just one...

[stevemc51]

the comment stated that I should use "an" before academy ,but "a " was the only selectable word

[DonTeorino]

It is a correct answer and it sounds natural even without the article!!! haven't you ever heard about that economy of words in the language?, you always want to make sentences longer arguing unwritten laws!!!!