"Don't you want to introduce us?"
Translation:Magst du uns nicht einmal vorstellen?
18 Comments
154
We use (ein)mal a lot in coversation, as a filler or because it just feels right sometimes, but this sentence is correct without the einmal, especially as a translation of "don't you want to introduce us?", e.g. if:
You and the person you’re with bump into a friend of theirs and they don't introduce you to their friend, so you say “magst du uns nicht vorstellen?” It's perfectly fine without the einmal in this case.
I thought of a context in which the einmal would make sense, but in my opinion the English sentence doesn't indicate that this is what's meant:
You talk to someone about a friend of theirs who sounds really awesome and you’d like to get to know that friend. - “Magst du uns nicht (ein)mal vorstellen?” = “Don’t you want to introduce us sometime?"
(Note that even in this context the sentence is still correct without the einmal, it just sounds more complete with it.)
- 253
Thanks for the reply. I knew about "mal" being used as a filler, I hear it all of the time, but never connected it to "einmal"!
"Wollen Sie uns nicht einmal vorstellen?" should be ok, in my opinion, even though I'd rather say: "Möchten Sie uns nicht einmal vorstellen?" in order to be more polite.
Exactly. If "Willst du uns vorstellen?" is accepted, then there's no reason why "Wollen Sie uns vorstellen?" should not also be accepted.
Because the verb in question is "want", not "would like". Möchten is subjunctive
I don't quite grasp the placement of "nicht" sometimes- when does it go as close to the last verb as possible ("Willst du uns nicht vorstellen") and when does it go right after the first verb ("Willst du nicht uns vorstellen")?
I just learned this yesterday, but when there is an infinitive verb (in this case, "vorstellen"), the "nicht" comes before the last verb in the sentence. I am not sure why it comes before "einmal" though.
It comes after the direct or indirect object.
See here, search down on "placement of nicht": http://www.dartmouth.edu/~german/Grammatik/WordOrder/WordOrder1.html
I thought that, since the english sentence is "Don't you want to introduce us?", it would require a "nicht" somewhere. I put "Willst du uns vorstellen nicht?" and got wrong. Am I right?
