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- "Studieren Sie oder arbeiten …
14 Comments
2235
Would it be possible and correct in German to say "Studieren oder arbeiten Sie?", maybe in a more colloquial form?
why won't it accept "do you study or are you working"?
reported 27 August, 2019
actually I couldn't report it as there was no "my answer should be accepted" option in the report facility.
Sehr seltsam.
I thought I heard somewhere that "studieren" specifically meant "to attend University" and not merely "to study" in the general sense. Is this correct?
"Do you go to university or do you work?" Was not accepted 11/8/2018
BTW, a more natural way to say this in (American) English would be "Do you go to school/college or do you work?" (or "work for a living" or "have a job").
"Do you study or do you work?" is probably technically valid, but sounds awkward for a native speaker.
Yeah i put "are you a student or do you work" which i know isn't 100% accurate, but the meaning is close enough, right?
- 190
On a cultural note, most American students have to work to pay for school and living expenses whereas most German students don't work (at least much) until they graduate. (at least in the 90s it was so). The "or" struck me as odd since it is not an either or premise in America.
- 326
"Do you study or work?" was rejected. Sounds much more natural to me in English than "Do you study or do you work?"
The question for me is what is the context. When you say "Studieren Sie" are you asking if the person is studying something this very minute, or are they a student at a university/college? So, is the person asking "are you going to school or are you working in some trade/occupation" or, are they asking "what are you doing right now." To me, the goal of translating something is not to merely translate words, but rather to express the meaning of the first language into a natural expression in the second language.
