- Forum >
- Topic: German >
- "Are you cold? Take my jacket…
"Are you cold? Take my jacket!"
Translation:Ist dir kalt? Nimm meine Jacke!
61 Comments
In German you don't ask if "[you] are cold" - that would be like asking if your body is cold like a corpse. Instead, you ask if "it is cold to [you]": Ist es dir kalt? The dative case for "you" basically means "to you", and is hence asking more how you feel about the temperature, rather than about the actual temperature of your body. Even when the weather is cold, your body usually regulates its temperature quite effectively, unless you have hypothermia.
I thought the "es" was missing... Ist dir kalt is used but technically incorrect right?
No, I think it's fine.
es here is a dummy object that's only needed to "fill the space" before a verb in a statement; if there is something already before the verb (e.g. mir) or of it's a question and the verb can go right at the beginning, the es is not needed and so is not present.
ist es dir kalt? sounds wrong to me.
686
On a related note, how would one say "are you hot" [tempature-wise, not using "hot" as slang for "attractive"]? I would think "ist dir heiß" oder "ist dir warm".
"Ist dir warm?" is more like "is it warm for you?" or "do you feel warm?". You don't ask if they actually are warm.
I don't know. I think bist du kalt probably is understood by native speakers when a foreigner asks the question.
"Sind Sie kalt?" is definetly wrong. "Ist Ihnen kalt?" would be a correct alternative (if you want to address the shivering person in a formal way).
And the second part would then be: Nehmen Sie meine Jacke.
You can use sind Sie kalt but it is for formal you and plural you like to older people you want to show respect and people of higher social status. Informal you is du/dich/dir second person singular.
- 2626
You cannot use Sind Sie kalt? It would be Ist Ihnen kalt?
My understanding is that if you ask 'Sind Sie/bist du kalt?' you are asking if the person is frigid.
- 2046
"Ihnen" needs to be capitalized, or else it means "them." But I don't think Duo checks for correct capitalization, so probably you had a mistake elsewhere in your answer. What was the rest of your answer?
(The correct version with formal "you" is "Ist Ihnen kalt? Nehmen Sie meine Jacke.")
- 616
25 June 2020 "why is "Ist ihnen kalt" incorrect??"
The pronoun needs to be dative. Ist Ihn kalt?
- 2046
That's not right at all. "Ihn" is accusative and means "him"; it is not a form of "Sie" or any other version of "you."
- 616
You are right! That's what I get for replying before 8 am. Thank you for catching that. Sind Ihnen kalt should be correct, right? With sind?
- 2046
It's still going to be "ist," since the subject is an implied "es." "Ihnen" is not the subject and doesn't affect the verb conjugation.
- 616
12 January, 2018 - Is Hast du Kalt? really incorrect? Is Ist dir kalt? the more common way to say this?
- 686
Ja, "Hast du Kalt" ist wirklich falsch.
The construct "hast du . . ." means "do you have . . . ", so you would be saying "do you have Kalt?" But Kalt is not a noun. It almost sounds as if you would be saying "do you have a cold?", but that is not what's meant here ("a cold" being an illness).
The similarity between "cold" as an adjective and "cold" as a noun may be causing confusion, so change the question a little to "are you hot?" One wouldn't say "have you hot" oder "hast du heiß".
- 686
It appears that the es is simply not used in this phrase. See the responses above to sinekonata's comment, especially mizinamo's.
It makes more sense with an es than without one. If it fell out it must have been due to laziness.
- 686
I would translate your first sentence as "Is there for you cold?", which doesn't seem to make sense.
In the second sentence, it's odd that you switch to French with the word "jacke." Perhaps you meant the German noun "Jacke."
Capitalization matters.
"gibt es" is often used when you are talking about something in general. Like are there cookies. As in if you dont know who may have put cookies there but you think someone might. "Ist es dir kalt" sounds more natural, but I think most germans would understand what you mean if you used gibt.
- 686
See the comments from az_p and mizinamo in response to justmegan99's question from a year ago.
I'm confused by the word order. Why is the first sentence ist dir kalt rather than ist kalt dir?
- 2626
The following is a quote from this website: http://www.nthuleen.com/teach/grammar/reflexexpl.html
In statements, the reflexive pronoun should occur directly after the conjugated verb, or as close to the subject as possible (while maintaining verb-second word order).
Ich wasche mir jeden Tag die Haare.
Jeden Tag wasche ich mir die Haare.
Ich habe mir heute die Haare gewaschen.
Ich kann mir heute die Haare nicht waschen.
In questions, the same rule applies: the reflexive pronoun stays as close to the subject as possible, allowing for correct verb placement.
Putzt du dir jetzt die Zähne?
Soll ich mir die Zähne putzen?
Hast du dir die Zähne geputzt?
- 2046
Roughly "to you" (dative form of "du"). The word-for-word translation is "Is [it] cold to you?" with an implied subject "es."
- 421
"Ist es dir kalt? Nimm meine Jacke!" Was not accepted although it appears to be grammatically correct. Perhaps the Germans never use this option.
I think you are right. There should be an es. It sounds sloppy without it.
Sind Sie kalt? Nimm meine Jacke. Is this wrong? I'm comfused. Help me! Thank you!
- 2046
Please read the first discussion on this page, where your question has already been answered in detail.
In this question, It is 2 persons. One is asking the other "Are you cold?" "Take my jacket" So If I wrote the translation in German "Bist du kalt?" it should be accepted because it involves 2 persons. And the other reply is "Nimm meine Jacke!" for "Take my jacket!" which means they know each other personally... If it were a person which you didn't know or in a group then "Sind Sie kalt?" because it is formal and not 2 persons. and I would reply for "Take my jacket!" in german Formally "Nehmen Sie meinen Jacke!" because it is Formal. Lernt that in Language School.
- 686
The very first exchange in this discussion (between justmegan99 and az_p, a year ago) explains why you were marked incorrect. It is not because of the second sentence, but rather your translations of the first.
- 205
Once again we have a fairly important idiom, the stuff of every day life sprung upon us without warning. PLEASE put this stuff in the tips
