49 Comments
To me, "Ihr esst" sounds like "Er isst". How can I tell the difference when speaking?
In case of "Ihr esst" the verb "esst" starts with an "a" as in "ate" or an "e" as in "end" when she pronounces it. In case of "Er isst" it is a clear "i" as in "in". You have to listen to how she pronounces the verb and then decide the subject.
This is my problem. My ear isn't trained well enough yet to know for sure what she's saying! Any suggestions?
Its not your ear thats the problem, is her voice. They should see to get the voices done naturally like a human being rather than a bloody robot.
Same problem here. I knew I had to choose between the two of them and I chose the wrong answer. Can anybody tell us the difference in pronunciation??
In another discussion, someone noted that "Er sounds like "ear" & "Ihr" sounds like "air". Clearly, this has been proven wrong here.
If I had to compare to English words, I'd say you (or the person who said it in the other discussion) have the "ear" and "air" mixed up. Er - air, ihr - ear.
I'm always confused about "er". I think it's logical to sound like "air", but I somehow have the feeling that some people say "ear". I don't think ihr is pronounced as ear though. It's more like the ea in weak to me.
Another minor detail about pronunciation, I think that in English vowels are pronounced slightly differently than in German. In German it is one sound but in English it changes quickly from one into another. For instance, the English air is like a fast e-ö-r (might also have to do with the way in which the vowel flows into the consonant). Please comment when you have a better way of explaining this (or when I'm wrong).
Your German is better than mine, so you probably shouldn't be asking me for advice. ;-)
I remember a month long discussion on the pronunciation of "im Bett" for which I was in the wrong (but I'm still not completely satisfied and I swear I'm hearing different audio than everyone else!).
I am not good with comparisons, but the er-air and ihr-ear comparisons seem to be prevalent on Duo. I wasn't suggesting to pronounce the German words as the English words, but just giving an English approximation. The ea in weak does fit better. I can't think of an English or French sound/word that compares to the er or ihr. I have this problem with my wife when she asks me how to pronounce French words with multiple vowels like "écureuil", "brouillard" or "oeil". There isn't really any English equivalent and piecing together sounds from various words doesn't always work.
As for people saying "ear" for "er", I have no idea. You'd have to ask someone from Germany.
There is nothing wrong with English approximations. They are very useful for remembering things and accents can always be improved over time. Maybe I shouldn't have mentioned it, because it just makes things more complicated.
Wiktionary has two sound clips for "er" as well as two IPA transcriptions. Good to know I'm not completely crazy.
I checked out the pronunciation on the wiktionary page and I was wondering if the two slightly different pronunciations are due to different regional accents?
No, it isn't. It's actually the software cutting the first part of the first word when it says the sentence as a whole. If you listen to the slow version, you can hear Ihr is pronounced like ee-err.
If instead of ihr, I would have used "du", what should have substituted esst? Also when are du and ihr used?
ihr is "you guys" or "y'all it doesn't matter you, her, or it. The esst would be esse if it was referring to a singular he, she, it.
I think it should be accepted, but maybe they forgot to add "you all" to acceptable answers.
I think it should be accepted, too. I'm using this to supplement an actual German class. I live in the South, so the teacher told us it's fine if we translate ihr directly to y'all.
Different opinion here. I would just say "you". If I was just addressing a crowd to let them know that what they are eating is soup (I don't know why I would do this....maybe they're blindfolded and don't know what is going on) I would say "You are eating soup" or possibly "You are all eating soup." If I wanted to stress that everyone in the crowd, without exception (just in case there was a doubt or someone thought they heard someone bite into an apple and started to complain or something), is eating soup, then I would say "You all are eating soup." (with stress on the "all"). While "you all" and "y'all" may be frequently used in Southern states and in so-called "ebonics", it is a colloquial address and shouldn't be taught (to second language learners). Similarly, I've heard people say "yous" (think NY mobster talk). This is another colloquial term and probably shouldn't be taught/encouraged. The terms and usage is fine in certain areas of the world, but seeing as there are people learning English through German they probably shouldn't be accepted. Just my 2 cents.
Yes, I actually agree now that I see this topic again. It is interesting to see how people change their English to match the language they are learning. English normally doesn't distinguish between singular and plural "you" but people start using different forms to match the German difference. I've seen similar things with people learning French. "Tu bois du lait" means "You are drinking milk", but people want to translate "du" so they change it into "You are drinking some milk". That "some" is often unnecessary, but it seems as if people need it to understand how French works.
English already has a second person plural pronoun. The problem is people no longer use the second person singular anymore (i.e. Thou).
Around here, German teachers use "y'all" as short for "you (informal, plural)." That is not the same as saying that "ihr" translates into "y'all." There's a difference, and DL's marking "y'all" wrong serves to remind us of that.
yes ihr is you I got it wrong saying something else (I can't remember) and I got it wrong and saw that it said "you" so I was like ok now I know
No. If you use a spoon, then you "eat" the soup. If you're drinking the soup, then it's in a cup and no utensils are involved.
LouiseEnglish's idea about the accent could be spot on. I was showing Duolingo to a German speaking friend of mine and she noted the accents...but did not show her this particular lesson.
The way she said it sounded like she said soupe when it was Suppe luckly they wrote it of as a typo
Could you explain what you mean? I don't think German uses the diphthong "ou"; is it possible that you were using English spelling by accident?
no I literally said soupe just like she said it and they said it was a typo so I slipped by clean
You are right about s being pronounced like z (unless in front of t, p, ch). The clip sounds fine to me though, maybe you could compare it to other examples of Suppe https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Suppe
Have you come across any German words using "ou"? I still don't think it's used in German spelling.
BTW, can anyone explain me one thing, why does the auto translation show, "to eat soup", like Bengali language? I am sure, I will not be able to eat soup. Please could someone explain this irrelevant logic!!
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It's too hard to hear the difference between, "Ihr esst Suppe and Er isst Suppe". The bot voice does not do a good job of distinguishing the difference between the sounds.
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I think "you eat Suppe" and "you are eating Suppe" are true for this sentence. Isn't it?
