"Die Mädchen essen Kartoffeln."
Translation:The girls are eating potatoes.
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I'm guessing the only way to know if Mädchen is plural is through the verb? (e.g. essen, not isst). Nonetheless, still got it right!
You can also tell by the article. "Das" = singular, "Die" = plural. Good job on getting it right through the verb!
I wrote the correct answer and it shows wrong: "the girls eat potatoes" - also the correct answers it shows that is correct but it shows it wrong...
How is Kartoffel pronounces as compared to Kartoffeln? They sound the same to me. So I typed Die Mädchen essen Kartoffel
you can hear the "n" sound at the end. it's hard because the "l" sound puts your tongue in a position to very easily say the "n"sound.
You can deduce that it is plural because there is nothing before it (such as an article)
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I noticed that all plural masculine and neuter nouns end with "e" while plural feminine nouns end with "n"(if the word ends with l) or "en"....
Sorry, but I have bad news for you. I wish it was that simple. BUT, there are many endings depending on the word gender, or the own singular ending. Ex: der Apfel - the apple. die Äpfel - the apples. das Buch - the book. die Bücher - the books. der Student - the student. die Studenten - the students. So, you should see the plural form of each one, and you will end remembering instinctively. BTW, there are some rules that may help you: https://deutsch.lingolia.com/en/grammar/nouns-and-articles/plural Take look at that and search for others, it can be very helpful. Ps: sorry about any errors/unnatural english, I'm not native.
You click the blue circles containing the non-english symbols under the textbox to insert them
If you're using a Mac, you may be able to alt-_ or alt-shift-_, since the alt-____ gives special characters. (I haven't memorized which letters produce what, and it may only work with certain vowels) If you're running Windows, mobile, or Linux, there is no other way, though you may copy the most used one (probably ü) and press ctrl-v anytime you need it. No built-in shortcut, though.
For Windows i believe that there are various combinations using the number pad as well.
When it speaks you can't clearly understand whether it is saying Kartoffel or Kartoffeln. It is indistinguishable even on slow speed.
Why does the plural of Kartoffel require an -n ending while the notes for this section explicitly state that -el, -er, -en words do not change endings to form the plural? Is Kartoffel an exception to the rule?
The notes say that this is true for masculine or neuter words, but that feminine words with those endings take -n.
Kartoffel is feminine.
if I translate " Die Mädchen isst kartofeln" then it'll be " the girl is eating potatoes". anyone tell me i have translated correctly or not ?
if I translate " Die Mädchen isst kartofeln" then it'll be " the girl is eating potatoes". anyone tell me i have translated correctly or not ?
It is not correct.
die Mädchen is "the girls" -- plural
das Mädchen is "the girl" -- singular.
And Kartoffeln has a capital K and two -ff-.
How is "The young girls eat potatoes" incorrect?
The German sentence says nothing about the girls being "young".
Here are the three definitions from Duden (https://www.duden.de/rechtschreibung/Maedchen) 1 a Kind weiblichen Geschlechts b junge, jüngere weibliche Person 2 Freundin (eines jungen Mannes) 3 Hausmädchen, Hausangestellte, Hausgehilfin
You'll note that both relevant definitions here (1 a and b) do imply the notion of youth. Mädchen and girl are not exact synonyms. So yes, I would say that the German sentence indeed says that the girls are young, and translating it merely by "the girls" is, in fact, incorrect.
Here are some definitions from dictionary.com ( https://www.dictionary.com/browse/girl ): 1 a female child, from birth to full growth. 2 a young, immature woman, especially formerly, an unmarried one.
Kind weiblichen Geschlechts and "female child" seem pretty similar to me.
Are you French and having jeune fille influence your word choice?
Actually, although I, indeed, am French, I live in Scotland, and, in fact, it's not the French that influenced me here, but the slight difference, in English, between the singular and the plural for girls. Without context, "the girls are eating potatoes" would more probably be "my female buddies are eating potatoes", hence my "the young girls". Also note that Merriam-Webster does have "a single or married woman of any age" as one of its definition of girl. But I think we could argue forever on this…
my "the girls eat potatoes" was also marked wrong.
It seems that you had a listening exercise -- those are labelled "type what you hear".
So if you hear Die Mädchen essen Kartoffeln, you have to type Die Mädchen essen Kartoffeln.
If instead you type the girls eat potatoes, that's a mistake, because that's not what you heard.
I can't understand the difference between singular mädchen or plural mädchen
I typed: Die Mädchen essen Kartoffeln.
No, you didn't. You typed Die Märchen essen Kartoffeln.
Märchen are fairty-tales, not girls.
Very poor pronunciation of Kartoffeln. I put plural as it made sense but re-ran the dialog several times as I could not understand why he was saying only one potato. So I changed plural to singular and got it wrong because it is plural. It was not even an accidental miss-hear as I was specifically trying to hear the plural but he did not say the final letter 'n' ever. I wish they would speak clearly and distinctly in here. I pity those who do all of this aurally and I see many complaints of bad pronunciation.