"Ihr habt einen Apfel."
Translation:You have an apple.
110 CommentsThis discussion is locked.
289
True for most standard varieties of English, but 'you all' (y'all) in Southern US English dialect has the same function as Ihr - a simple plural you.
"Ihr" is "actually" "you" when it is a subject (nominative case).
However, it is "actually" "she" when it is an indirect object (dative case).
http://www.learn-german-language-online.com/german-pronouns.html
- Level of formality
- Number of people "you" refers to
- Grammatical case
See this table here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_pronouns#Personal_pronouns
2513
Singular vs. plural-- i.e., "du" is if you're addressing one person, and "ihr" is if it's multiple people.
These are both informal versions, however, for when you're talking to people you know well. If you don't know the person/people you're talking to, you use "Sie" for both singular and plural.
Both ein and einen are singular. Apple is the direct object here (it receives the action instead of doing the action) and it is singular and masculine, so its article becomes "einen" instead of "ein."
The tips section of Duo should tell you more about the accusative case. This page has more information as well: http://german.about.com/library/blcase_sum.htm
Yes; habt sounds like hapt -- the voiceless t causes the voiced b to assimilate into a voiceless p sound.
(The same kind of process that causes English words such as "kicked" to sound like "kict": the voiceless /k/ sound assimilates the following voiced /d/ in the past tense -ed ending into a voiceless /t/ sound.)
37
Ihr is you all or ye, now I am used to using the word ye but it is not expected for some bizarre reason
2513
Just as in English, German verbs conjugate based on the subject of the sentence. English says "I have" but "He has"; German says: "Ich habe - Du hast - Er/Sie/Es hat - Wir haben - Ihr habt - Sie/sie haben."
In short, "habt" is used with "ihr" and "haben" with "wir" and "Sie/sie." ("Haben" is also the infinitive form, used in situations like "Ich will das haben.")
For the same reason that we sometimes say "we" in English and sometimes "us" -- grammatical case.
Subjects are in the nominative case and objects are in the accusative case.
In German, the accusative case for masculine nouns is different from the nominative case. (While feminine, neuter, and plural nouns have an accusative that looks like the nominative.)
So you need ein Apfel when it's in the nominative case (e.g. as the subject of a verb) but einen Apfel when it's in the accusative case (e.g. as the object of a verb, as here with the verb haben "to have").
2513
For the same reason we say "I have" but "He has." Different subjects use different conjugations for the verb.
2513
It can also be the dative form of "sie," yes (usually translates to "her," not "she"). "Ihr" can be nominative "you" (plural, informal) or dative "her," so you have to figure out which case it's in based on the structure of the sentence.
"Ihr" must be nominative here, so it's "you," not "her." (We know it's nominative because the sentence must have a subject and nothing else in the sentence could possibly be nominative, or because "haben" doesn't allow for a dative object, or because the verb form "habt" means that the subject of the sentence must be "ihr" (or something equivalent like "du und er")).
2513
Both are "you." German has three different words for second person: "du" is singular informal, "ihr" is plural informal, and "Sie" is formal (both singular and plural).
So you address one person you know well as "du," multiple people you know well as "ihr," and one or multiple people you don't know well as "Sie."
I understood the acc.case but what confuses me is what is "a" and what is "an" in German (ein,eine,einen) and can same word in German mean a or an at the same time please answer me.
2513
The words "a" and "an" have exactly the same meaning, the only difference being that "a" is used when the next sound is a consonant sound and "an" when it's a vowel sound.
German doesn't make this distinction; it doesn't change the article for what sound the next word starts with. However, which article you use does depend on the case and gender of the noun it's attached to, hence our differing "ein/eine/einen/...."
So yes, "ein" for instance is going to translate to "a" sometimes and "an" sometimes, depending on the pronunciation of the next English word. "Ein Apfel" = "An apple" but "Ein roter Apfel" = "A red apple."
2513
No, there's no such rule. The "wir" and "sie" verb forms do both end in "-en," but the ending for "ihr" is "-t."
2513
"Du" is perfectly fine. "Du" is singular informal, "ihr" is plural informal, and "Sie" is formal (any number). The English sentence doesn't define which situation is the case here, so all three versions are accepted. "Ihr" happens to be the default answer for this sentence, but the others are accepted too.
2513
Normal is they have
It's not, actually. "They have" would be "Sie haben." "Ihr" never means "they."
"Ihr habt" does in fact mean "you have."
2513
For the same reason we have two different forms "have/has," or four different forms for "be/am/is/are." You use a different form based on the subject of the verb (i.e., whether it's "I have," "you have," etc.).
English usually only has two different forms for present tense ("have/has"; "eat/eats"; "walk/walks"), but German conjugates a little more thoroughly than English does. For the most part you have a different verb form for each possible subject:
- Ich habe
- Du hast
- Er/Sie/Es hat (this also applies to any third-person singular usage, like "Hans hat" or "Der Hund hat")
- Wir haben (or, e.g., "Du und ich haben"; "Hans und ich haben")
- Ihr habt
- Sie haben (both "they" and "you-formal"; also any third-person plural, e.g. "Hans und Karl haben")
2513
Yes, it's a mistake. We need the accusative form here, since "Apfel" is a direct object in the sentence, so "einen Apfel."
Using "ein Apfel" would be equivalent to saying something like "You have I" instead of "You have me" in English.
289
If you want to emphasize the 'all' aspect, (i.e. "all of you have an apple") rather than use "you all/y'all" as in Southern US English, where the 'all' just helps to distinguish plural, then I would guess something like this:
Ihr habt alles
But I am just a beginner, so it is just a guess. Don't shoot me if I'm wrong, please.
2513
"Du" address one person; "ihr" addresses multiple people. In this exercise, there's no indication of whether you're talking to one or multiple people, so both "Du hast einen Apfel" and "Ihr habt einen Apfel" are accepted. (And also the formal version "Sie haben einen Apfel.")
2513
The conjugation you use depends on the subject of the sentence, just like in English we have "I have" but "He has" or "I am / You are / He is / etc."
In German we have: "ich habe / du hast / er,sie,es hat / wir haben / ihr habt / sie,Sie haben."
2513
Articles and adjectives in German conjugate based on the gender of the noun and its case in the sentence. Since "Apfel" is masculine gender and is accusative (since it's the direct object), you need the masculine accusative form "einen."
"Ein" would be the nominative form, so if "Apfel" were the subject of the sentence, that's the form you would use: "Ein Apfel ist rot."
2513
Feminine: "Ihr habt eine Banane"; Neuter: "Ihr habt ein Bier."
These conjugation charts give a more comprehensive list of the endings. ("Ein" follows the pattern of "mein" in the Type 2 chart.)
2513
Simply because the "ihr" form of the verb is "habt." The "-t" ending is the usual ending for "ihr" verb forms, in fact ("ihr geht / ihr esst / ihr arbeitet" etc.).