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- Topic: German >
- "Das kannst du laut sagen!"
61 Comments
I don't understand how was I suppose to know that there is a phrase like this in German, and why the literal translation: "You can say that loud!" can not be accepted...
It's an idiom. I don't think anyone would use this phrase in its literal sense.
1732
'Das' is the object here; the subject is 'du'. Putting the object first like this is fine, as long as the verb comes second.
It's a way to emphasize the object, like how in the English version we would normally give the word 'that' extra stress ("you can say THAT again").
"You can say that loud" is not a proper English sentence. It would have to be "You can say that loudly".
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Yes, "You can say that loudly" was accepted for me. It's an adverb, thus requiring the -ly.
"Say it loud" would be more natural sounding in English, especially if you're black and proud.
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It wouldn't be grammatically correct though. It's like saying "do it good" rather than "do it well". Some people say it but it isn't correct.
"Loud" is an adjective (which can qualify a noun, for example). In this sentence we need an adverb because "aloud" is qualifying the verb "say".
First idiom that I managed to pick up by myself! I feel like that's a milestone.
Sometimes idiomatic expressions between german and italian are very similar. In this case, we italians say the exact same thing ("Puoi dirlo forte")
Yeah but then again, "puoi dirlo forte" is "you can say it loud" otherwise you would have to say "puoi dirlo di nuovo" or "puoi ripeterlo", which would sound very clumsy. And as for loudly instead of loud, yes it would be grammatically proper being it an adverb and not an adjective but I believe nobody would say it today.
Here in the UK, people definitely do say "loudly". It is still considered incorrect to use adjectives like loud, quick, heavy, high, complete and short as adverbs.
"Aloud" is used when someone reads out a piece of writing so that everyone can hear it. "He reads the book aloud."
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The last word of this sentence is entirely unintelligible.
Is anyone else having difficulty with this word?
- 165
Emphatically yes! Some of these words are completely unintelligible to me. I made a wag at that last word of lagen, of course which was wrong. They did give me credit though, just a spelling error!
Yes. I got it wrong because even having it repeated slowly multiple times, it did not sound like two syllables to me.
Is there a usage difference between "Das kannst du laut sagen!" and "Das kannst du wieder sagen!" or are they equivalent in meaning?
- 1214
Yes, there is. The first is an idiom meaning you can say that again and the second is an odd sounding sentence with no deeper meaning. Idioms often cannot be translated word for for, at least not if you want to keep the meaning.
So it is an idiom. Is it really asking someone kindly to repeat themselves so we can hear, or does it have some other meaning, like passive-aggressive, dunno? (Obviously non-native in English.)
used for expressing strong agreement with what someone has said
‘This is so boring!’ ‘You can say that again!’
https://www.macmillandictionary.com/dictionary/british/you-can-say-that-again
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It's an idiom. But duolingo should mark it as a idiom or give a hint.
If duolingo does not " you can say that loud" cannot tell that it is wrong.
How can anyone know?
can you say that loud(er)?
How can you say it louder than the first time you said it if you don't say it again?
makes perfect sense again
- 248
Fine. It's idiom. But without knowing this, why can I not translate as: you can say it outloud / aloud / loudly?
Because you would miss the point, which is that this is how this phrase is used by real people: not whether it is grammatically correct. This is German not English and when they say it they mean something other than the dictionary version.
So you lose a point in a million point game. That's how people learn by making mistakes.
- 248
Hmm. Well, in a learning space devoid of real people, using what you already know - grammar and vocab - is all we have. Anything other than that is a shot in the dark. And because it's idiom, you don't actually learn it because idiom works with memorization and practice.
Additionally, in the iOS apps, you're only allowed to be wrong five times a day. So you burn one not knowing that this idiom. Then later, you forget what the actual idiom is, or mix it up, and boom, you lose another. So that's two chances blown "learning" idiom and you have 10 more sentences ahead of you to finish your lesson. This is not a competition. It's supposed to be learning. Any gamification should be limited to keeping you interested in practicing and not penalizing you for learning.
It would be great if DL would somehow mark the sentences with a circled I or something to notify us that it's an idiom.
- 1214
That doesn't mean anything in german. Idioms are seldom translatable word for word. You just have to learn them as a whole.
Das kannst du laut sagen - you can say that again
- 730
"That you can say again" as opposed to "you can say that again". Because "das" is at the beginning, I am inclined to say "that you can say again"; however, Duo will not accept this. If this is a idiom, would it be proper to say "Kannst du laut sagen"? The word order is throwing me off on this one...
You're thinking about this the wrong way. German is more flexible with the location of the subject of the sentence. It can come before or after the verb. These two sentences mean the same thing, they just have slightly different emphasis:
Das kannst du laut sagen.
Du kannst das laut sagen.
The difference here is that when the object (das) is placed before the verb, it is given more emphasis. i.e. "You can say that again" instead of "You can say that again (if you want...)".
Remember, not all things have a 1-to-1 translation between any two languages.
Yeah, those and prepositions are always the hardest.
Also, note that I just edited my earlier comment. I meant to say that das has greater emphasis when it is before the verb.
I think translated idioms should accept a literal translation but add a note saying that it has similar meaning to an idiom in english.
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Why isn't it "wieder sagen’? The correct answer apparently is "You can say that again"
Can you also say a more direct translation? If so, what would that be because I tried "Sie können das wieder sagen", and it was not accepted.
Can you use, "Du kannst dass wieder sagen"? or is that just plain wrong?
"You can say that again" means "I agree!" Is that really what "Du kannst das laut sagen" means? Everybody is getting hung up on the literal meanings and not learning the idioms.
This has already been explained in this very discussion.
Please always read the previous comments. Asking questions that have already been answered is a massive waste of everyone's time.
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Christian: But so is scrolling down through all the comments? Not being rude, but just saying.
Furthermore, when other people are asking the same question, it makes me feel justified in asking the question in the first place.
