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- "The city is not big enough."
"The city is not big enough."
Translation:Die Stadt ist nicht groß genug.
18 Comments
Is the answer given the right way to say it in German or just a literal translation from English?
It is the most correct way to say it in German, and honestly, no obvious alternative springs to mind (and anyway, any alternative would be less common that the above phrasing)
That's a great question. I often find myself skeptical about the order when it just lines up word-for-word. Like, "that can't possibly be right". But I agree, I think this is correct.
Could nicht go at the end? Die Stadt ist groß genug nicht.
I couldn't find reasons elsewhere.
No - nicht goes before a predicative adjective (one after "to be"), so it has to be nicht groß genug.
That’s just not how we say it — we put genug after the adjective.
As in English: we say “big enough”, not “enough big”.
Der Stadt ist nicht so Groß .. Should not be correct? I flagged, do I get explanation over email? I don't know Duolingo SOP ..
Der Stadt ist nicht so Groß .. Should not be correct?
That is indeed not a correct translation -- you wrote "Of the city is not so big" or perhaps "To the city is not so big".
Which does not mean the same thing as "The city is not big enough" (Die Stadt ist nicht groß genug.)
Reicht is suggested in the hints but not accepted. What is the difference?
Reicht is a form of the verb reichen (be enough, suffice).
For example, Das Geld reicht nicht (The money is not enough; the money does not suffice).
Here, there is no “is enough” and so reichen cannot be used.
I was taught previously that "Die Großstadt" is usually the best for "city" and "die Stadt" was usually closer to "town." But "Die Großstadt" isn't being accepted here. Am I getting the usage wrong, or is this just a glitch in the matrix?
(Edit: I just looked up https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berlin and saw the Berlin is simply "Stadt" - well, and Bundeshauptstadt - so my previous teaching was obviously wrong, but I'd love to know if/when "Die Großstadt" would be used...)
I'd love to know if/when "Die Großstadt" would be used...
Certainly much less than "city" in English.
Usually, both "town" and "city" will be Stadt. (There's no hard-and-fast, uniform distinction between the two in English, anyway.)
Großstadt is probably only used when you specifically want to emphasise that some place is a major city. For example, "There's no hospital in my city; we have to go to the nearest major city to get treated" In unserer Stadt gibt es kein Krankenhaus; wir müssen zur Behandlung in die nächste Großstadt fahren.
