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- "Ihr habt einen Apfel."
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ihr does not necessarily mean "you all" (= "ihr alle"). It refers to a group of poeple.
I get what you are saying, but I will say thag Duolingo offers "you all" as a translation for "ihr", so it is kind kf confusing.
2340
Speaking about one apple to a group of people:
Imagine a teacher standing in front of a class of Grade 1 students to whom she has given an apple each. Then the teacher says, "You have an apple. After you draw a picture of the apple, you can eat the apple."
"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
Does this sentence mean 'You all have (1) apple' or 'You all each have an apple' or both? How would you distinguish between saying each person has an apple as opposed to the group as a whole has 1 apple?
What's the difference between du, ihr, dich, dir and sie? All I know it can be translated to 'you'
- Level of formality
- Number of people "you" refers to
- Grammatical case
See this table here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_pronouns#Personal_pronouns
du implies "you" and ihr implies "you all" sie can be "she/her" or plural for "they" depending on the context and verb conjugation
- 1838
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.
"You have" and "You are having" are semantically different in English. It's a hairs difference, and I would have trouble articulating the difference, but there is one.
You have (thing) = you are in possession of (thing)
You are having (thing) = you are eating (thing)
it's a difference in aspect. "You have" is simple (Aorist) aspect, "You are having" is continuous (Imperfect, or Present) aspect.
- 1838
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")).
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.
- 1838
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."
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
- ich habe - I have
- du hast - you have (singular/informal)
- er/sie/es hat - he/she/it has
- wir haben - we have
- ihr habt - you have (plural/informal)
- sie/Sie haben - they have/you have (formal you, singular & plural)
Did he sound like he wasn't pronouncing the "-el" at all to anyone else? I guessed Apfel bc "Apf" isn't a word, and I know the "-el" can be soft...
Just wondering if anyone else had trouble hearing any "-el" at all. Thanks!
See the table of pronouns above.
Balamcat (below) is only partly correct.
Ihr is you all or ye, now I am used to using the word ye but it is not expected for some bizarre reason
I wrote you have an apple ? how's it you all ?... you have is correct right ?
- 1838
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").
- 1838
For the same reason we say "I have" but "He has." Different subjects use different conjugations for the verb.
- 1838
I don't know what you mean by that. Are you asking about inflections of "haben"? Something in English?
- 1838
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."
In turtle speed, I could not hear the "b" in "habt." I could hear it in normal speed. Anyone else?
I thought plural forms are followed by -en e.g. kommen heißen. Why it isn't 'Ihr haben'?
- 1838
No, there's no such rule. The "wir" and "sie" verb forms do both end in "-en," but the ending for "ihr" is "-t."
- 1838
"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.
Ich habe Du hast Er, sie hat Wir haben Ihr habt Sie, sie haben ??? Why ihr habt is you have??? Normal is they have
- 1838
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."
Why "have " is written in so many ways in german like hast, haben,habe and on what basis Please explain
- 1838
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")
- 1838
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.
Now since 'ihr' is used for both you and you all,what would be the translation for 'you all have'?
- 1838
"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.")
Ihr can mean you or them or her. Here we know it is you, because the verb is habt.
- 1838
"Ihr" cannot mean "them," but it can mean "you" (in the nominative) or "her" (in the dative).
- 1838
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."
How do I know if i have to put ,,den" or ,,einen"?
den is "the".
einen is "a" or "an".
Pretty much like in English.
So is "ihr" plural you?
Yes.
(At least in the nominative case, when it's not before a noun.)
why not du hant einen apfel?
- Apfel is a noun and has to be capitalised
- hant is not a German word
If you were speaking to one person, you would say du hast einen Apfel.
But Duo is speaking to several people and thus says ihr habt, not du hast.
How do you know when to say "ihr habt" vs "du hast" to say "you have"?
- Use du hast when you are talking to one person.
- Use ihr habt when you are talking to several people.
- 1838
Please see idshanks's reply to ruk21 on this page, where that question has been answered already.
- 1838
That simply is the correct conjugation for "ihr." The "ihr" conjugation will often match the conjugation for "er/sie/es" but in a number of irregular verbs will not. For instance "er weiß" but "ihr wisst"; "er kann" but "ihr könnt"; "er schläft" but "ihr schlaft."
