"Ich bin ein Besucher."
Translation:I am a visitor.
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Besucher can be just any visitor. Gast = guest, someone who is welcome or even invited.
This is sooo funny, in Italy, in Genoese dialect, "Besugo" means "jerk, idiot". Actually, people from Genoa are popular for their lack of hospitality :D
I though the same thing! haha Sounds like "bez ucha" in Czech, "without an ear", so I ended up imagining a visitor who talked my ear off about something or another.
Shouldn't this be, "Ich bin Besucher," because when using the verb sein there isn't an article added when describing themselves.
I think the same. Yet, it's probably no serious error (the "Kennedy-error").
However, sometimes, the use of article for titles can make a slightly difference of meaning. For example, in my mother tongue Danish, 'He is a clown' means that the person behaves like a clown whether 'He is clown' means that it's his profession.
In this case, I think that we in Danish only say 'a visitor' (with article) when we want to emphasize that it's one visitor out of several (e.g. at a museum). I think that these examples are also valid in German.
Yes -- Ich bin Besucher would seem a bit as if it's that person's role or profession.
On this same topic, is there a difference between 'Ich bin Artz' and ''Ich bin ein Artz'? Is the second one even allowed?
I love how German sounds so much like Dutch, it makes it a lot easier to learn :D
If the sentence describes a subject using sein, then the description is in the normative form.
I/He/She/It/They/We am/is/are = normative.
Eg. 'Ich bin ein Vogel.' compared with 'Ich habe einen Vogel.'
German grammar is hard! Don't give up trying.
When you say "normative" I think you mean "nominative", the case usually used for the subject of a sentence? I remember this by the fact that when using "sein", you are saying both things are the same so in
"Ich bin ein Vogel"
I, and the bird, are the same thing therefore the subject, whereas in
"Ich habe einen Vogel"
I am the subject and the bird is the object
We actually use the same style of grammar n English, ie nominative, accusative, dative and genetive without realising it - English is a germanic language.
Learning German grammar has helped me understand English better - I wasn't taught English grammar at school. Various things which previously didn't make obvious sense about English, fell into place quite easily after I started learning German.
I wouldn't say that it is hard. For me it seems logical. (Not trying to criticize your opinion, coldsilver87. Just expressing the way I find German grammar.)
If I as a foreigner (from say the States) was visiting Germany would I use Besucher, Gast, or something else?
I was taught in school that basically all words describing a person have a masculine and feminine version, i.e. Lehrer, Lehrerin; Freund, Freundin; Kellner, Kellnerin; Busfahrer, Busfahrerin; Deutscher, Deustcherin; Mitschüler, Mitschülerin. But Duo is only introducing the masculine versions (Besucher, Gegner Mitgleider, etc).
Is it because masculine is used when the gender isn't known, a default, and it'll introduce the feminine versions later (if so that's kind of sucky since a woman wouldn't be able to describe herself accurately until later)?
Or is it because German culture is beginning to move away from so much gender specific vocab and just using the masculine default?
Or is it not true for all describing nouns, as in there is no Gegnerin, Mitgleiderin or Besucherin?
But Duo is only introducing the masculine versions (Besucher, Gegner Mitgleider, etc).
Is it because […]
I don't think anyone who reads this knows what was on the mind of those who designed the course, nor what the current crop of course contributors has in mind for the future of the course.
is it because German culture is beginning to move away from so much gender specific vocab and just using the masculine default?
No -- if anything, the opposite is true.
German used to use the "generic masculine" when the sex of the person was not known or was not relevant (as in ich gehe zum Arzt "I'm going to the doctor" when the role was more important than the sex of the concrete person filling that role for this particular doctor visit). But now, it's becoming more and more common to include "both genders" (i.e. both masculine and feminine words, to describe male and female people -- agender, genderqueer, and other nonbinary people are still mostly ignored, even if a nonbinary gender called "divers" is now available for passports).
People used to write things such as Lehrer und Lehrerinnen, but since that gets wordy, various other spellings such as LehrerInnen ("Binnen-I" with capitalised i in the middle), Lehrer_innen ("Gender Gap"), and Lehrer*innen ("Gender-Stern") have been used. The newest iteration I've seen is Lehrer:innen (with a colon) which is supposedly more accessible because it's supposed to be more screenreader-friendly than the previous spellings.
Job advertisements usually use something like "Lehrer (m/w/d) gesucht" to indicate that they're looking for a teacher of any of the three genders (männlich "male", weiblich "female", divers "none of the above").
(Before divers was recognised, they would write "Lehrer (m/w) gesucht".)
Or is it not true for all describing nouns, as in there is no Gegnerin, Mitgleiderin or Besucherin?
There is no Mitgliederin. das Mitglied is grammatically neuter, so it doesn't have specific male or female forms that are grammatically masculine and feminine, respectively. (Though I'm sure you'll find *Mitgliederin or *Mitgliedin in texts of people who feel very strongly that female humans should always have a grammatically-feminine word to describe them.)
Similarly with das Opfer (the victim, e.g. of a traffic accident).
Deutscher, Deustcherin
This one doesn't exist like that, either, because we use an adjective here: der Deutsche, ein Deutscher; die Deutsche, eine Deutsche. The endings are those of adjectives, not of nouns, and so we don't have -in for the female version.
But you have die Engländerin, die Französin, die Spanierin etc. for most other nationalities, which use nouns rather than adjectives.
Why " Ich bin EIN Besucher" when a previous question was "Ich bin EINE Person"- The sentences seem to have the same structure- why "ein" in one and "eine" in the other?
Because the word Besucher is grammatically masculine and the word Person is grammatically feminine.
The Gender of words is often arbitrary. Best to learn them along with the word -- e.g. learn die Person rather than just Person so that you will know that the word is feminine. A good dictionary will be useful here.
Can i say "Ich bin Besucher" just like when you say "Ich bin Turk"
No.
That form is for permenant "roles" (e.g. I am a father, I am a Turk) or professions (e.g. I am a teacher).
But being a visitor is not a permanent role or profession; it's a temporary thing that you can't identify with.
