11 Comments
35
Is this translation correct? I said "They are various opinions," and was rebuffed.
German 'einer/der Meining sein' means to have an opinion about something, so you aren't the opinion itself, but see something a certain way. In the sentence 'Sie sind verschiedener Meinung' they disagree about something. 'einer/derselben Meinung sein' means they agree. I don't think your translation reflects that, does it?
- 35
Thank you. So, it sounds like an idiom, such that "Sie" and "Meinung" are not equivalent, as I had surmised from "sind." Might it translate as "They are of different minds""
Yes, this translation sounds more appropriate to me. Edit: Huh, why was this answer downvoted? Did I say anything wrong? I'm always open for discussion and criticism.
No problem! I was just a little puzzled about the reaction, since it came out of nowhere. Ask and thou shall receive. Anytime, Soglio.
You mean, as to say: this is thesis a, this is thesis b. Those are various/different opinions? You would say: Sie/Das sind verschiedene Meinungen. At very first, you need the plural, unlike in duo's example. But that's all context-dependend, one would especially use other words than 'Meinung' then, probably.
What you are actually missing is the grammatical case. 'verschiedene Meinungen' is a predicate noun, the ones you check for equivalence, as you already tried. Here they are. Sie sind - what are they? - verschiedene Meinungen. You use the nominative in this case. When it's the dative case, like in the example, it refers to the idiom, that's the only and not even very obvious difference in this example. I hope I'm not completely mistaken here, somewhere. That's really nothing you think about every day.
- 35
Sorry, I meant to upvote and hit the wrong button. I fixed it. (Geez, I wonder if I've done that anywhere else.) Having screwed up, dare I ask another question?
- 35
Thanks. Again, my profound apologies.
So, if I dare ask one more--how WOULD you say, instead, "They are various [differing] opinions?" What did I miss here?
- 35
Thanks. You're right, I missed the case indicator in the adjective. I'm still not attuned to looking to those for meaning. I've been caught that way before; this example might set that need in my head. And because this example doesn't translate word-for-word literally, it suggests another possible difference between German and English grammatical structures--one I should watch for. Cool! Thanks again.
Maybe that's the hardest part about german. It's full of irregularities and still, everything that changes the nominative the slighest way must be considered. Just like here, a simple 'r'.
- 35
Yes. Well, the same thing is true of English; one simply gets used to it. And in many ways, perhaps German grammar is more logical than English, though more complicated.
