"We are warm."
Translation:Uns ist warm.
76 Comments
"Uns ist warm" may be an idiosyncratic way of saying this, but there's no reason "Wir sind warm" shouldn't be acceptable considering what we've been taught up to this point. These type of curve balls without warning are incredibly frustrating.
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No, wir sind warm is wrong.
German uses dative for the person "affected" by warmth or other sensations.
Mir ist schlecht. = I feel sick.
Ihm ist kalt. = He is cold.
Ihnen ist langweilig. = They are bored.
Thanks - what I was trying to get at was not that the translation was wrong, but that it was a trick question since Duolingo doesn't see fit to educate the user before asking for a blind translation of a turn-a-phrase that isn't contextually obvious. It's just bad gamification.
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Yes. We haven't even been introduced to the dative yet. Trick questions represent bad or lazy pedagogy.
Totally I agree, too difficult for the point we are now. I live in Germany (and I'm using Duoling as a complement of other self-learning methods) and even though that structure "Mir ist schlecht" are indeed more than just "common", such structure to me sounds a bit more difficult than just "dative".
Dative forms (as akkusative) as far as my knowledge goes, are used only in "object" elements, not in the subject. So to me, the confusing part of that sentence is... where is the subject? Do we have a subject taking a dative form? or (to my understanding more probable) are we dealing with some kind of impersonal form?
I think I will remember this phrase much better than some of the ones I have been spoon-fed. Maybe it is part of a test to see how we learn.
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When frustrated by these things, and i am too, it helps to remember that this is free, they put tons of work into it and ee should be grateful to have it.
Free? Yes and no. If you don't pay, they harass you with requests to upgrade. If you do pay, there are perks, but it's not free.
We all "pay", in our own way.
But this is how Duolingo works - it doesn't explain anything (unless you read the lesson notes). It is obviously a weakness of the system.
Just remember, this is a free app that is aiding you in a life skill. I find it difficult to criticize something, for a service of which I do not have to pay for.
Just remember, sensations one feels that are derived from something else are generally going call for the dative. I cannot generate cold, that is something the snow or wind provides. I cannot generate warmth, that is something the sun or fire provides. I cannot generate pleasure if nothing provides it, that is up to a concert, a gift, or a new puppy (gefallen). I cannot generate boredom if nothing provides it, that is up to a monotone professor, or watching the grass grow (langweilig).
If you think about it "Ich bin gut." and "Mir geht es gut." sort of have a different meaning even though they both arguably mean "I am well."
You can think of "Ich bin gut." as "In my current state, I am on the positive end of things, life, etc."
You can think of "Mir geht es gut." as "All that is affecting me at this point, I am currently well."
Its subtle and a listener wouldn't think much of it, but the difference is you are specifying where your state of being 'well' is coming from: you vs. what is affecting you
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Because that would literally mean "It is tired to me." We tend to speak of warmth as a personal quality, when it is actually an environment issue. This is why a literal translation of this German phrase would be "It is warm to me."
From what I've learn so far, "Mir ist schlecht" means "I am bad", so that sounds funny to me lol.
This is definitely super confusing without having been taught this though.
Not really... although it does have a Middle (or early Modern) English, Shakespearean, feel to it. Sounds very olde English.
It is the subjunctive form, we haven’t learned that in German yet. I wonder if that would be “wäre “ ? No that is the past subjunctive form. “I were”, so maybe “ich sei warm.” would be closer to “I be warm.” This is not commonly used in German for Ist person pronoun either. It gives the impression that maybe I am warm and maybe not - I think that I am warm, but I cannot verify it.
In some languages, like Spanish, the subjunctive is very much in use when something is felt rather than known, but most people in English have more confidence in stating how they feel as a fact. Even in Spanish, how someone feels is often a fact in Indicative mood rather than subjective or subjunctive mood. In German, this form is used to state what someone else has said as an unverified quote.
http://conjugator.reverso.net/conjugation-german-verb-sein.html
https://www.thoughtco.com/the-subjunctive-in-german-1444485
https://www.thoughtco.com/how-to-recognize-the-german-subjunctive-4085474
However this is not used for this purpose in German, they prefer to say “It is warm to me.”
“wir” = we
“uns” is used for accusative “us” and for dative “to us” or “ for us”.
This expression uses dative and “es” though not normally expressed is the hidden subject.
Wow, that's exactly how Russian functions, which also uses the dative case to express feeling and state of being.
- Мне плохо. = I feel sick.
- Ему холодно. = He is cold.
- Им скучно. = They are bored.
I know it's not German, but I just couldn't help but make the connection.
Thank you!! That also happens in Spanish: " A mi me da igual" (To me is just the same)
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(But I hear and check: that's "Mir ist kalt". So, is this a not grammatically correct way to speak, or something else?... )
Yes, it is something else. You don’t want to bring sex into it if you are simply feeling that the temperature is warm. “Ich bin” is not going to be used with feeling warm or cold which would use “Mir ist kalt.” This sentence uses the dative “uns”.
But "wir sind warm" CAN have the same sense with "we are warm", as far as I understand and as I don't see a reason why it may not. Just with more literal meaning whivh is the same for both.
Thank you for the explanation. That question shouldn't be on a quiz for our level.
There's an implied "it" in the statement. The direct translation to English would be "it is warm to us," but Germans just infer the "it" without having to state it.
I did a lot of research after receiving this question, since Duo doesn't explain. "Wir sind warm" is apparently colloquial for "We are gay" and seems to have been extrapolated from an older sexual phrase "Wir sind heiß." Neither are things you probably want to say when you just need the AC turned up a bit.
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Whoa -- need a section like "land-mine phrases". What I remember from long ago is that "Haben sie zeit" might be more than a question about the time.
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We haven't learned the dative at this point, but I'm guessing that 'warm' is the subject. So the sentence means something like 'warm(th) is to(ward) us'.
I am getting this sentence in the Dative section, so perhaps the location of the sentence has been fixed.
I agree I gave for answer "wir sind warm" and it marked wrong. Wow german is not like english or italian, the sentences follow a rule.
I'll level with you here, this is probably the most confusing thing I've come across in this course.
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This is the first thing in this course to make me look at comments for help. Glad I did.
I was also told early in language classes that ich bin heiss or ich bin schlecht can have sexual connotations, so I never use those, even though they make total sense to an English ear. But now I have learned the reason for saying mir ist heiss has to do with the object of the sentence, just shortened. Es ist mir heiss, mir ist heiss, it is hot to me, not I am hot, which can have another meaning!
HAA! Yeah, I can see how that is. I suppose, "Du bist mein Papa" (You are my daddy) could also be considered a sexual connotation, too.
But, your examples and mine also have a litteral (normal meaning) as well: "Ich bin heiß." (I am hot) - You look sexy OR you are extreamly warm.
"Ich bin schleckt" (I am bad) - ...and need a spanking OR ...because I did something mean.
But, yeah, the dative case seems to eliminate that double meaning....which I kind of enjoy, actually. Double meaning always gets that pregnant pause and double glance from those you're speaking with as they try to figure out which one you meant.
For anyone that speaks french, would this be something like "on est _" in place of saying "nous sommes__" ?
I don't believe so. "On" is a colloquial way of saying we, our "nous". Wir/uns would be more of a parallel to "we/us". And this structure seems to be something different (and more complicated) altogether.
French, like English, has retained case in pronouns.
You can't say Je tu aime or Je aime tu, for example -- you need to use the accusative case form te for the object (which gets shortened to t' before the vowel): je t'aime.
Similarly, in English, you cannot say "she loves I"; it has to be "she loves me".
French does not name the cases, but they have direct object forms (accusative) and indirect object forms (dative) for their pronouns and "nous" and "vous" are the only pronouns that use the same form across all the cases. https://www.thoughtco.com/french-pronouns-1368927
German pronouns are declined on this page, but you must scroll down for a while: https://www.thoughtco.com/the-four-german-noun-cases-4064290
Du wuerdest sowas nie mals sagen. Es hoert sich bloed an! Wir sind warm stimmt auch, aber leute sagen so was nicht.
I have the same question. I understand why one uses "Uns" but then why don't you use the correct conjugation of sein?
The verb is third person singular (ist) in this kind of expression.
There is no explicit subject; the implied subject might be something like "the general situation".
A bit like "it is raining", where the (singular) "it" does not refer to anything in particular -- we don't say "the clouds are raining" or "the drops are raining", it's just singular "it", referring to "the general situation".
Is it what is implied, though? Like how we wouldn't say "I feel that I am warm" but mean that when we say "I'm warm" in English?
Yes, technically "Uns ist warm" is literally ("It is warm to us."), but it is idiomatic and must be worded this way in German and in English the idiom would be "We are warm."
How do you say then "The soup feels warm to me"? Suppe ist warm....where should I put "me"?
i think it is "die suppe fühle mich warm." if you are using 'feel' as it feels that way (not as in touching something) you put fühle mich (as it is accusative).
anyone correct me if i am wrong.
That is a rough one, because "to feel" is a reflexive separable verb in German that I am not ready for "sich anfühlen" https://dictionary.reverso.net/german-english/anf%C3%BChlen http://context.reverso.net/translation/english-german/it+feels+warm http://context.reverso.net/translation/english-german/it+feels+warm+to+us.
I have always used es ist mir warm or es ist uns warm and have heard it used that way. Duolingo did not accept that, I guess this is a short version of that.
Why is uns singular? I understand to use the uns but not its number
It is not singular. The implied es (the subject in this sentence) is singular, which is why sein (to be) is conjugated to ist (3rd Person Singular).
The reason uns can go where it is because you know it can’t be the subject, or that which is performing the verb (in other words, it isn’t nominative). When you see uns you must assume that it isn’t the subject, unless there is an explicit “Wir” in the sentence as well.
Your explanation is both logical and helpful. I had forgotten that uns is an indirect object pronoun, and not the nominative which would have been wir. Thank you, and a lingot.
wir bist warm is right out, because the verb form bist is only for the subject du.
And wir sind warm is grammatically correct, but not what we say in German.
No, I meant "right out", as in "completely out of the question; completely impossible".
This may be British English.
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Must be idiomatic. To my American ear, it sounds like "flat out" to which I expect the whole phrase to be "flat out wrong" -- the opposite of the desired meaning.
