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- "Dieses Kind bist du."
64 Comments
Because the emphasis is on the child. It's just another way of stating the sentence, allowing more flexibility in voice and writing style.
Imagine going through a photo album, and you don't recognize yourself in a group photo. Somebody comes by, and says, "this child [here] is you". You 'could' say "you are this child", but because the focus is on the child in the picture, it makes a bit more sense (at least to me) to say, "this child is you".
Duolingo is unfortunately not meant to teach you the entirety of a language, especially not one that is useful to any particular individual. Instead, it is a guide.
Duolingo should not be used alone. One should read books, magazines, internet posts, in the target language, listen to music, podcasts, the news, and speak with other speakers of the target language.
This should be a disclaimer for everyone to read, before they even start. It would help a lot of learners to know this.
A friend told me it was like this: Masculine:Das .sg noun (That),Dieser .sg noun (This), Das .pl noun(Those), Diese(These) .pl noun Femenine: Das .sg noun(That), Diese .sg noun(This), Das .pl noun (Those), Diese (These) .pl noun Neuter: Das .sg noun (That), Dieses .sg noun (This), Das .pl noun (Those), Diese (These) .pl noun
Dieses Kind bist du - 1. On either side of the verb sein we use the nominative case 2. One could very well say to a child, holding up a picture of that child, "Dieses Kind bist du." 3. HOWEVER: "bist" is the second person singular indikativ präsens form of sein. 4. Duolingo's translation here is incorrect. "This child is you" would be "Dieses Kind ist du." 5. Dieses Kind bist du = This child are you / You are this child.
Duo's translation is correct. English and German differ a little here. In English the subject can be either "this child" or "you". In German, "du" is the subject and it has to agree with the verb, "bist". I cannot see any other possibility.
I don't know if there is an explanation but I think the order in the sentence has nothing to do with it. (If I am wrong, please somebody say so.)
I am a native english speaker and i find that this sentence makes perfect sense. Imagine looking at childhood photos and your parent points to a child and says, "that's you". To say that this phrase has no practical use is silly. Even if you don't think YOU will use it (or a sentence structured similarly), that is not to say you won't come across it at all.
1583
you all have good points and i finally had to figure out that a lot of this is a matter of translation; in german, as well as french and probably all languages there is often no direct translation and we must interpret the english meaning for ourselves. best example; book titles. choose a favorite book and look at the title translations in german and in another language; you learn right away that some books may look like they are even about different subjects if based on translation to english alone.
Yes, wrong.
You could say "You are this child", but if you start with "this child", "this child" is the subject of the sentence and therefore it needs to be "is", not "are".
This is different in German. Because of having cases, German often has more flexibility in word order. The "du" can still remain the subject of the sentence, even if placed at the end.
This child is you. was the given answer.... In English, technically the answer should be 'This child is yours?" Q: Dieses Kind bist du should be rephrased as Dieses Kind warst du? [PAST TENSE] (Translated to "You were this child?") Because in English they do not say "This child is you." They ask someone "This child is Yours?"
1583
this doesn't make any sense. is the speaker talking about a picture of the 'you' to whom he is speaking?
155
This is a weird sentence, at least in English and I would never use it in speach. "This child is yours" is a sentence i would actually use in real life.