"Do not fall asleep."
Translation:Schlaf nicht ein.
78 Comments
Playing poker and starcraft has really altered my personality - being punished unfairly by the game just seems so normal to me I didn't have any reaction at all.
Me too. That's why when DL has asked me to translate I came here through the search engine ... They should not ask unknown matters because this makes people cheat ....
Yes, maybe it wasn't fair. But now you taught this sentence for a life, didn't you?
lol, I guess it was a month ago and ... DL has not asked it again, so I forgot it. Maybe your replay will make me learn it. And I'll put the idiom in memrise as well. I've seen that using flashcards together with duolingo increases my retention.
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And it's usually the curveball they throw at the end, the last question of a session.
I thought the same thing! I do not know the imperative nor the verb to sleep.
Hehe, it's 3am for me as I'm doing this... for a moment, I though Duolingo was just giving me some friendly advice!
The imperative is "einschlafen" and it is a seperable verb, so when conjugated, the "ein" goes to the end of the clause. So, "ich schlafe ein" = I fall asleep. I don't think this has been taught much yet.
Is there a lesson in duo that teaches separable verbs or would I have to learn them from an outside source?
When I come across sentences like this, I get discouraged and give up for the day :/
Take heart! One of Duolingo's teaching strategies is to have us guess and get it wrong -- and if you just take note of the correct thing and keep going, it actually works quite well.
It's how little kids learn -- they make a mistake, are not bothered at all, take note of the mistake if they can -- and just keep going.
When I tutor people in math, it's often a challenge to teach them it's OK to make mistakes -- just know how to check them, correct them, recheck... and keep going. It's often the biggest reason people are completely stuck in learning math, they think they absolutely have to be right the first time or the guy with the black robe and the sickle is going to come calling.
I do this all the time, even though I've studied German for ages, I have no one to speak it with. So although my vocab isn't bad, Duolingo plonks down a word I've never heard pronounced, and I'm thinking holy cow! What's that??? Then I guess, get it wrong and move on!
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I disagree, that's not how kids learn.
If anything, kids expect to get penalized when they haven't properly learned things they are expected to have learned because they have been properly exposed to it; they do not expect to get penalized because of failing at arbitrary things beyond their level that they are sure not to have an idea of yet.
Penalizing mistakes at things that have not been taught is like asking kids for a word that you know they don't know; then if they don't answer properly (which is the most likely scenario,) suddenly they lose something they had taken for granted, let's say they can't play with their videogame that day, or they get grounded that weekend. That would certainly bother them, because that indeed would be unfair and absurd, but that would not teach them anything, except possibly something about arbitrariness and unfairness.
Penalizing us Duolingo users (making us lose one heart, and therefore possibly forcing us to repeat an entire lesson) for failing at something beyond the current level, and moreover, unrelated to the lesson, is simply poor pedagogy, absurd and unprofessional.
If you want us learners to guess and "take note" of whatever mistakes we make at wildly guessing the answer for these beyond-our-level, more advanced challenges, and yet not be bothered by failing at them (the way you claim kids allegedly learn,) then we should not be penalized when failing at those particular types of questions.
But in my opinion, those types of questions are absurd in the first place. They in fact seem to completely ignore and go against Duolingo's roadmap/cumulative skill tree.
Update: if anything, answering correctly a question that is clearly beyond our current Duolingo level ought to give us back a lost heart, sort of as rewards for guessing it right. And such questions ought to be identified as special in that sense, sort of bonus or "lesson saving" type questions. The student could even voluntarily invoke such types of questions when risking a lesson because of silly mistakes. In any case, the beyond-our-level questions make sense to me only in that scenario, when getting a reward if answered correctly; never when getting penalized if answered wrong.
We said little kids. When a 2-3 year old says: "We goed to the park." You don't slap him you probably smile and repeat, "We went..." Then one day he says it right. Even in the class when an older student makes an error you ask him to learn it. What's so bad about retrying. I'm never sure I really learned something the first time around and recycle all my skills even the full gold, frequently.
I agree with you mostly. I really love using Duolingo. I do not object to the"guessing method". However we shouldn't be losing hearts after the wrong guesses. That would be penalizing all the other correct answers. It is annoying. It never stops me from moving on though.
Exactly. If it doesn't stop you moving on they must be doing something right. Maybe it's that they trust us to search our brains for the correct answer instead of just telling us.
I agree, they push our brains to learn. But my point is, if you see the word for the first time, most likely you will not be able to get it right. And there are times which you have to restart the whole lesson because of this. Actually, when I come to think of it, this may be the element that put some excitement to the lessons. But it is a fact that this has various effects on people. Some move on, some lose interest.
@Mechanigenic I guess it's because I restart lessons so often I'm not surprised. :- ) to do it again. The funny part is that when I see a new word I try to imagine the meaning, or see if it relates to another language. So, again the little gray cells get some exercise. Usually I lose a heart even when I'm sure I figured it out. And I agree it never stops me trying again.
I agree with Jaye16 and Mechanigenic completely. I also am having loads of fun with Duolingo. I've always liked school anyway, and I adore puzzles, so Duolingo German is right up my alley. This is how you learn a language best...if you were living in another country, without knowing the language, or even knowing it just a little, you would learn to speak it by trial and error. I spent years studying Italian...then I went to Italy, and after 2 weeks of asking my husband to translate, suddenly one day, I realised I had understood everything that was being spoken. So I know from experience that this is the best way to learn languages.
@lorenagay Thank you. Your backup is inspiring and energizing. It's so good to know you understand. Two weeks is phenomenal even if you had done lessons before.
How the crap am I supposed to know that einschlaufen is the whole word when they never tell me?
Now you shall tie your emotions to this sentence and you can never forget it.
Off the top of my head, German commands are made by retaining only the root of verbs - for example, "Go!" is "Geh!" and "Sleep!" is "Schlaf!" The verb for "GOING to sleep" (instead of just "to sleep") is einschlafen; you retain the command portion, which is "schlaf", and the separatable portion, "ein", goes at the end.
Hence, "Schlaf nicht ein."
In this case "Nicht einschlafen!" is perfectly correct though and a legitimate alternative to "Schlaf nicht ein".
So "schlaf nicht" would be "don't sleep", but "schlaf nicht ein" means "dont fall asleep", is that right?
agree - I looked it up in an English to German translation and that was the answer
Google Translate is not good enough to provide correct translations in all cases. Don't use it if you want to be correct.
Google Translate uses statistical translation, not necessarily paying much sufficient attention to grammar and dictionary meanings.
Why is there no pronoun? I still don't know much about the imperative, but shouldn't it be something like "Schläfst du nicht ein" to make it clear it's second person?
The imperative does not need (in fact, it doesn't have) a pronoun. Think of it as a command, like "Go!" or "Do!" That's what "imperative" means.
So, the core form here is "Sleep!" - "Schlaf!" (Imperatives tend to come with exclamation marks). In the imperative you are addressing/commandeering another person to do something. It doesn't require a personal pronoun.
"Schläfst Du nicht ein." is not quite the same. It's second person. Not quite the same as imperative.
I hovered my mouse over "asleep" and it signed the third meaning of it "entschlafen". I wrote it in the sentence ("nicht entschlafen") and lost one heart. Why wasn't it a correct answer? And if it's not correct, why is this solution signed as a possible translation?
You sure it said "entschlafen" and not "einschlafen"? The former means "to pass away", i.e. a euphemism for "to die". Would find it hard to believe if the translation really said that.
Hey guys, I see way too many people upset because of this question! Yes, it is true that we were not taught this yet, but it is by failing when you think it is easy that you learn the most. I also lost a heart on this one - don't take it that seriously and keep pumping!
Exactly. I've been here for so long and have reached a good level and losing hearts has become routine. I know I've learned a lot. So, thank you Duo. And thank you rhjpires for encouraging other learners. Have a few lingots and best wishes for a happy journey on Duo. Because it is fun, no?
Its a bit more than fun... its a little bit adictive... but don't tell anyone I said that! ;-)
You took the words right out of my mouth. Today I saw someone carefully recycling and I thought: "He needs a lingot." :-) Shhhhh...
I put "Fallen Schlaf nicht" It was wrong, I most certainly don't see how the given answer is right? Would love some clarification.
I cannot get it ... what is the role of ein in the "Schalf nicht ein"? have we been taught that?
"einschlafen" itself is the verb! and it means to fall asleep. It is a separable verb, a group of verbs which are very common in German. When you use this verbs in a sentence, ein and schlafen separates, ein goes to the end of the sentence and becomes like "er schläft ..... ein." The problem is the fact that such kind of verbs are not mentioned in DL. You are supposed to investigate these I guess. May be another strategy of DL :)
Can anybody give me a link on seperable verbs (such as einschlafen etc) that explains how and when to use them thanks.
Why did they want third person? I used second person and said "Schlafst nicht" (with an umlaut 'a') for the imperative.
Imperative is completely separate from the regular six conjugations of a tense. For a verb there are only two imperative forms: singular and plural, and no tenses.
Imperative singular of schlafen is "schlaf", plural is "schlaft" (no umlaut). Don't mingle these with the regular conjugations. They have nothing to do with them, even though for some verbs some imperative forms may be identical to some conjugation(s).
For instance, for schlafen, the imperative plural (schlaft) is identical to second person plural in present tense.
The imperative singular (schlaf), however, is not found in a conjugation.
Are you asking what the plural form of the sentence translates to? That would be "Schlaft nicht ein."
Your attempt, although incorrect in word order (correct would be "Geht nicht schlafen!"), is also not correct due to meaning. "Schlafen gehen" (to go to sleep) is not quite the same as "einschlafen" (to fall asleep).
