"Er mag seinen Kaffee schwarz."
Translation:He likes his coffee black.
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"coffee black"???!
why isn't it "black coffee" (schwarzer Kaffee)
*I am not an English native speaker ^^"
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I am, and there is a type called "black coffee." But maybe this sentence could mean 2 things:
- He likes his coffee when it is black.
- He likes his coffee black style.
I thought this might help you understand the sentence better. Sometimes you can talk like this in English. This is correct grammar and correct format.
Hope this helps!
"black" is a way one can order or make their coffee. Meaning it is unsweetened or has no cream or anything.
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In English "He likes his coffee black" is idiomatic. Can native speakers confirm if it's idiomatic in German too?
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no. To express this, you need to put the adjective infront of the noun: "Er mag seinen schwarzen Kaffee." (der Kaffee, [die Kaffees rarely used]). Only adjectives infront of a noun they refer to are inflected.
If you were to put an -e at the end of schwarz, would it become "He likes his black coffee"?
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Can you even say that? I doubt it and when I googled it I only found 507 results (presumably people translating the English phrase literally).
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Actually you can http://forum.wordreference.com/showthread.php?t=2894576&highlight=Mag+seinen+Kaffee+schwarz