"I have a few books."
Translation:Ich habe ein paar Bücher.
39 Comments
Because the key word here is "few", not "some". By using the word "manche", the statement becomes "I have some books."
The correct translation would, therefore, need to have either the word "wenige" or the expression phrase "ein paar", both of which mean "a few".
Note: The word "paar", when uncapitalized and used together with its definitive article in the expression phrase "ein paar", is an adjective/pronoun meaning "a few".
Hope this helps.
Haben Sie Spaß-Lernen, Jeder! :@D
I remember using "ein bisschen" in the same manner as paar. Is there a difference in the say this is used?
Probably German "ein paar" would correlate to English "a couple", whereas English "a few" would correlate to German "einige" better
"etwas" is used for uncountable words - as milk. Trink etwas Milch! (=Drink some milk!). Books are countable goods, therefore "etwas" does not work.
I am confused. Why ein and not eine? Books is plural! Pair/paar isn't capitalized?
Paar is a noun meaning a pair.
So ein Paar Schuhe would be a pair of shoes.
But we often use ein paar to mean not specifically "a pair" (i.e. exactly two that belong together), but "a few, a couple" (a small number, not necessarily two, but perhaps between three and eight or so).
In that metaphorical usage, paar is written with a lowercase letter. But the ein before it still stays neuter singular to match the noun Paar; it doesn't turn plural or change for gender.
Often not even for case -- I would say mit ein paar Büchern rather than mit einem paar Büchern.
But paar does not start with capital P. I think only names, which start with capitals, can have articles. If paar is a name why does it starts with small letter. What am I missing?
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If you were talking about a pair, leaving out the bit about the books, it would be "ein Paar". Here, "paar" is used to help describe the books, as part of the descriptive phrase "ein paar".
"wenige" = few, little, not much
"einige" = some, a few
I guess you could say that the difference is the same as with English few/a few. Though using them together as "einige wenige" also means "a few", so I might be wrong on the whole idea.
Any native speaker care to elaborate on this one?
The other "solution" is "Ich habe wenige Bücher". I chose "einige" for a few. I think that is better than "wenige"
I wrote weniege Bücher and it's wrong. Einige is what they want.. i dont know the difference...
I believe that "einige" should also work, although I think that "einige" is slighly more thatn "wenige"? (Perhaps a native or near-native speaker can confirm or deny this.)
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No, einem is used for dative words (eg. He is walking with a boy -- Er geht mit einem Junge), but Bücher here is accusative. "ein paar" is right.
Ein paar Bücher is what gender?
From what I read here I assume this "ein" is a neuter one. Is it right?
it seems to me that the question needs more clarification for non-native speakers, why not 'manche' etc. I've read all the comments and I'm even more confused. Perhaps the start of this topic could have a 'tips and notes' section to clarify this in a table?
Two facts are wrong.
1st "ein bisschen" has two alphabetic characters named "s".
2nd only before things which can be splitt into two or more parts can stand "ein bisschen".
"ein bisschen Buch" is bad. "ein bisschen Käse" is good.
"Ein bisschen" is to mean "a little bit" or "a small amount". So, no you wouldn't want to use that phrase here.
As Abendbrot said, it would not be correct to say "ein bisschen Buch" ("a little bit of book"), but it would be correct to say "ein bisschen Käse" (" a little bit of cheese").
Why is it telling me I missed the numeral 1 from my answer? Ein, sure, but 1 seems like poor grammar.
My Nominative and Possessive Pronoun groups go up together. Is this the same for everyone else?
How are you to correctly answer when you have it been given the new words
How are you to answer correctly when you have not been told the new words
