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- "Der Himmel fällt."
38 Comments This discussion is locked.
503
In many other contexts, "falling down" would be ok. But as has been pointed out obliquely, "The sky is falling!" is an idiomatic phrase in English, coming from a nursery rhyme/folk tale about a chicken named "Chicken Little" or "Chicken Licken" or "Henny Penny". That's why an English speaker would never say "The sky is falling down, because in the story, Chicken Little always said "the sky is falling!"
2534
I'm pretty sure that "The heavens" is "die Himmel." Die Himmel erzählen die Ehre Gottes. = The heavens declare the glory of God.
2534
Henny Penny believes the world is coming to an end when a leaf lands on her head and starts shouting, "The sky is falling! The sky is falling!"
You can see the link for more information. :0)
875
Asterix and Obelix knew this would happen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qa8UMICNkbA
I would say that the verb "to fall down" is a different verb to simply "to fall". "To fall" is simply to act under the influence of earth's gravity. "To fall down" is to fall due to a system failure: a house can fall down if poorly built; a pair of trousers can fall down if the support fails; but the word "down" is superfluous for an item falling from an aeroplane.
This sentence belongs to the Pearson part of the course (see https://www.duolingo.com/comment/24066422 if you haven't heard about their influence on the course).
I haven't seen anything so far to indicate that they act on reports or read sentence discussions, but by all means, keep reporting.
1572
Is the "sky falls" and the "sky is falling" wrong because this is a particular phrase (idiom?) That you wouldn't use if the sky was actually falling but as just an expression?