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- "Die Mädchen essen Kartoffeln…
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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.
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.
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…