"Das Kind trinkt."
Translation:The child is drinking.
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"The child drinks" is totally fine. I think you're just offered an alternative translation in "The child is drinking."
I wrote the child drinks and it said that was wrong.
Do you have a screenshot showing that answer being rejected?
If so, please share it with us -- upload it to a website somewhere such as imgur and tell us the URL of the image.
Thank you!
Excellent! Screenshots are always helpful.
Can you upload it to a website somewhere, please? For example, imgur, flickr, Google Drive, Dropbox -- anywhere as long as you can get a URL that will let anyone see the image. (Depending on the site you choose, you might need to enable sharing settings.)
Then post the URL of the image in a comment here, please.
Thank you very much!
Not really. Most of the time you "just have to remember it".
I recommend learning new nouns with their matching article. In other words, learn das Kind instead of just Kind.
der is for masculine nouns
die is for feminine nouns
das is for neuter nouns
As you go through the course, you will learn more details and might start to notice some patterns. But for now, just memorise them this way.
Thank you az_p, all the das, die and der's were confusing me. But this makes sense . Thank you
Thanks for the explanation. How do you know if a noun is masculine feminine or neuter? Is there any termination or sign that might indicate it?
How do you know if a noun is masculine feminine or neuter?
You have to look it up in a dictionary and memorise it.
Is there any termination or sign that might indicate it?
In general: no, I'm afraid not.
There are some patterns (e.g. abstract nouns in -ung are feminine, agent nouns in -er are masculine, mass nouns in Ge- are neuter), but for most nouns, there's no indication.
And then you have things such as der Leiter (= leader: agent noun from leiten "to lead) versus die Leiter (= ladder)....
Can you say Die Mädchen?
In the plural, yes -- die Mädchen = "the girls".
In the singular, it's das Mädchen "the girl", since Mädchen is neuter.
Damn thats confusing, because you say "Das mädchen", so I thought Das is femenine, and not Die.
There's rules but they are very extensive so I recommend just googling german definite articles and their 4 cases.
Yes, Die if for a woman. Der is for a man, Das\ein is for girls and boys, Das is for an unknown boy and girl Ein is for a know girl or boy.
From what I understand, Der can also be used for a boy... but thats just what I find :]
Both are correct: the child drinks water and jus for exemple if we want to show his habits, but if we are saying what he is doing in the moment of speaking we'll use the present countinous tense:" the child is drinking". Here the point is to learn a morphology of forms not yet the semantics
Nouns in German have a grammatical gender: Either masculine, feminine or neuter. This often doesn't have anything to do with biological gender at all - it's just a characteristic of the word for the purpose of grammar. We just have to remember which nouns have which gender. Eventually it becomes more natural, but at the beginning you will need to practice often to remember them.
The gender of the noun affects many things in the sentence. For example, there are (at least) three ways to say "the" in German! Each of der, die and das mean "the", but you need to use the matching one for the gender of the noun. Otherwise you might be misunderstood. The matching forms are:
der - masculine nouns
die - feminine nouns
das - neuter nouns
We can see from Duo's example that it's das Kind. We should always memorise das Kind = "the child" instead of just Kind = "child", because it helps us to remember that the grammatical gender of Kind is neuter. This is regardless of whether the child is a boy or a girl - it's just to do with grammar, not biology.
That also works here, but you should probably learn that das Kind = "the child". The word "kid" is almost like slang, and might not be accepted as a translation sometimes.
in German boy is "Junge". so if you want to say boy instead of Kind yes you should change it to Der Junge. but with Kind it's always Der ;)
The gender of nouns aren't related to the noun itself (for example, Mädchen is neutral, even though girl is female. Which is why it's das Mädchen and not die Mädchen). So it would always be das Kind, since Kind is neutral
That's "just how it is". Languages just develop gradually over time, often without anyone really deciding...
When there's a der, die or das in front of a word, the best translation is usually "the".
When you're speaking to someone (outside of Duolingo, for example) you can give more emphasis to the word to mean "this" or "that": "Das Kind trinkt" = "That child is drinking".
On Duolingo, maybe some of the sentences won't accept that option - so best to learn that it means "the".
Is there a reason for a lot of random words being capitalized in German? Just now getting into this language and it is throwing me off guard.
Is there a reason for a lot of random words being capitalized in German?
Please go back and read the tips and notes for the very first lesson unit: https://www.duolingo.com/skill/de/Basics-1/tips-and-notes
Pay special attention to the second section, "capitalizing nouns".
If you are using a mobile app, you may see "tips" rather than "tips and notes" or may not see anything at all. I highly recommend visiting the website https://www.duolingo.com/ to read the tips and notes before a new unit, even if you later practise the exercises on a mobile app.
You can find the tips and notes by clicking on the lightbulb icon or the "tips" button in the window that appears when you select a lesson unit:
what is the different between 'the child is drinking' and 'the child drinks' by German
Das, Die , and Der are all like la, le, and les. except Das is neutral, Die is feminine, and Der is masculine. You just have to memorize them.
hope he's over 21... but then he's not a kid right?
Fun fact: drinking age in Germany is 16 for beer and wine, 18 for spirits.
Though children may drink beer or wine at 14 if their parent or legal guardian is present and consents.
(And, of course, trinken need not involve alcohol at all.)
I can't kick the habit of writing D instead Of T in "trinkt", Knowing English can hold you back sometimes.
For y'all saying "why is 'this child is drinking' not right", it is BECAUSE "das" is THE, not THIS. See? And you CAN say "the child drinks", but if you think that's an error, I can see right now a very clear red banner hat says DO NOT REPORT MISTAKES HERE. Really people, if you think that's how it should be, submit it, don't "clutter it up", as the banner says, but put that stuff in the right place.
And now for my real question: How do you say "children"? Just curious even tho it will probably come up later.
When should we use capital letters for das, der and die??or when should we not?
Der, die, and das should only be capitalized at the beginning of a sentence.
What is the diff between trinket and trinkt ?! What is this used for and that used for ?
"trinket" sounds like a German conjugated verb. So:
https://conjd.cactus2000.de/search_en.php?q=trinket
Here in the above website they say that it is for you (plural) = ihr, the second plural person.
(And here in Duo we have learnt here "trinkt" is for "he/she/it" = er/sie/es, the third singular person.)
in the above website they say that it is for you (plural) = ihr, the second plural person.
Yes, and they say that it is Konjunktiv I.
I don't think we teach the Konjunktiv I mood here on Duolingo.
In the regular indicative mood, it would be ihr trinkt.
Die Kinder trinken. (Die indicates the plural and "they" makes the end of trink "en")
If your microphone is not working, you can turn off speaking exercises in the settings. You will have to restart the lesson, but just enjoy the extra practice ;)
It would be repetitive. That would mean the child is is drinking or the child is drinks.
"Is drinking" is a different construction than "drinks." There's no "to be" form in the sentence.
There is no "to be" form in the German sentence because German doesn't have a separate present continuous tense (formed with the verb "to be") like English does.
So das Kind trinkt can be translated either as "the child drinks" (regularly) or "the child is drinking" (right now) -- the German would be the same in either case.
No, not at all -- that sentence makes no sense in German, just like "The child is drinks" makes no sense in English.
German doesn't have a separate present continuous tense, so "The child drinks" (regularly) and "The child is drinking" (right now) would both be Das Kind trinkt.
No.
"boy" means a male child.
Kind (capitalised!) means a child -- either a boy or a girl.
der translates into English as "the" -- but you can't always translate "the" into German as der.
German has grammatical gender, and you have to use the appropriate article that fits the gender of the noun.
Thus "the man" is der Mann, "the woman" is die Frau, and "the child" is das Kind -- because Mann, Frau, Kind have three different grammatical genders in German.
Also, Kind has to be capitalised, since it is a noun.
I want a sentence in German that says the childs are drinking ?? or the children are drinking because there is no word like childs in English so plsss??
So basically in english we have mashed together "is drinking" into 'drinks' and German doesnt mash words together like that so you end up with Das Kind trinkt. Which in english translates to The child is drinking which our language can simplify into the child drinks. So neither are wrong....right?
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Duo makes it so I can't use capital letters to type Germann nouns on my tablet. Why would they do that? How can I complain to Duo?
How to differentiate between usage of der die das (apart from the general rule that der for masculine die for feminine....) I mean not clear with where to draw a line between them?
No.
das Kind = the child
ein Kind = a child
And kind (lowercase) isn't a word in German at all.
So kind would follow the same path as madchen an require a neuter pronoun before it?
Nearly: it's Kind, Mädchen (the capitalisation is part of the spelling!).
But yes, both of those nouns are neuter and so both take the neuter article das.
Instead of drinks, they've done it drinking which is making me get it wrong..
There is no difference in meaning.
Which one to use depends on the grammatical gender of the noun it belongs to, and that's simply something you have to memorise -- it doesn't generally follow any logic.
I would recommend not memorising e.g. "Hund = dog" but instead "der Hund = the dog" so that you know that "Hund" is masculine and takes the article "der".
why can I NOT Say die kind trinkt
Because the word Kind is neuter, so you need the neuter article das in front of it, not the feminine or plural article die.
Also, since Kind is a noun, it has to be capitalised.
For the phrase "is drinking", can we use "ist trinkt"?
No.
English needs a helping verb for the present continuous tense, but German does not.
Why the child drinks is wrong ?
"the child drinks" is one of the accepted translations.
Do you have a screenshot of that sentence being rejected in a translation exercise?
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no, I could not use these words, because the words were given. And so it was only accepted: the child is drinking.
why did u consider it wrong?
Impossible to say from your comment.
Please show us a screenshot where we can see the question and your answer -- upload it to a website somewhere and tell us the URL of the image.
There is no option about drinks you know that the the child drinks is the right way to say it but there is given not drinks there is giving drinking
Why is it die Kinder as in the children, but das Kind as in the child. Because Frau is die regardless.
In the nominative case:
- masculine nouns have the definite article der
- feminine nouns have die
- neuter nouns have das
- plural nouns have die
Thus der Mann, die Männer (masculine/plural); die Frau, die Frauen (feminine/plural); das Kind, die Kinder (neuter/plural).
The fact that feminine and plural both have die is a coincidence.
Most likely yes. Or perhaps milk or herbal tea -- ideally unsweetened.
(One of my cousins had really bad cavities in her milk teeth from having a bottle of sweetened tea in her mouth all the time.)
it dings me as wrong
Then your answer was probably wrong.
Nobody can see what you wrote, so it's best if you can show us exactly what you wrote.
The next time this happens, take a screenshot showing the question and your answer, upload it to a website somewhere such as imgur, and put the URL of the image in your comment.
It's easy to miss typos or other mistakes in things you write yourself (as I've found on my own many times), so just claiming "I wrote the correct answer" is not helpful in finding out what happened. Show us, please.
Is it just me or is it the audio very glitchy in between Kind, and trinkt?