"I am serious."
Translation:Es ist mein Ernst.
57 Comments
Since the sentence is out of context, it could mean that. However, "ich bin ernst" describes rather a character trait, as in 'I am a serious person'. Usually you want to refer to something you said before and reinforce your seriousness about it. In that case it is necessary in German to say "Es ist mein Ernst" (literally: It is my seriousness) or "Ich meine es ernst" (I am serious about it).
So,
- das/es ist mein Ernst = I am serious (about the matter at hand)
- Ich bin ernst = I am serious (in general)
Can we say :"Mir hat Ernst" or "Ich habe Ernst" to say that we are serious temporarily? Isn't it like "Ich habe Hunger" means that we are hungry at a while ?
No, we don't talk about Ernst haben.
Being serious temporarily would be something like Das ist mein Ernst (literally, "This is my seriousness"?) or Ich meine das ernst ("I mean that seriously").
So what if you wanted to say you're serious? Would it be Du bist dein Ernst?
Shot in the dark here, but I'm guessing "Ist es dein Ernst?" given the example.
Can anyone verify?
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Correct. Although you would usually ask "Ist das dein Ernst?" with an emphasis on the "das".
No, that sounds off. That would be something like "to me serious" or like a broken translation of "that's serious to me" but we'd say "I'm serious about that" or "that's important to me." "Mir" in the dative is only used for words (which you kind of just have to memorize) that specifically require dative constructions.
It seems to be a valid, although maybe less common, way to say it: see http://www.duden.de/rechtschreibung/Ernst_Eifer_Bedacht_Haerte and http://dict.leo.org/ende/?lp=endelang=ensearchLoc=0cmpType=relaxedsectHdr=onspellToler=search=ernst
- 788
Ich hatte immer geglaubt, die richtige Antwort wäre: "Es ist mir Ernst". Warum ist das plötzlich falsch?
Ah, I can understand where you are coming from - "Durst haben" = "to be thirsty" and "Hunger haben" = "to be hungry". But there are only very few cases where the verb "to have (haben)" is used to express a condition that is described with an adjective in English. In fact, the only ones I can think of right now are:
Durst haben - to be thirsty
Hunger haben - to be hungry
Angst (vor etwas/jemandem) haben - to be scared (of something/somebody)
Sorgen (um etwas/jemanden) haben - to be worried (about something/somebody)
Hope that helps a little bit.
Yes, "Lust haben, etwas zu tun" = to feel like (doing something; "Lust auf etwas haben" = to feel like eating/doing something.
Not a reply but seriös is in my dictionary. Why is Ich bin seriös not right?
I had the multiple choice version - why is "Es ist mir Ernst" wrong? It sort of makes sense as "it is serious for me" in English. . .
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What does 'es' refer to? If I say that I'm serious it describes me, not some 'it'.
I suppose you could say it refers to what you had said before.
I'd prefer Das ist mein Ernst -- which literally means "that is my seriousness", but in effect means something like "I mean that seriously; I'm serious about that; I was serious when I said that".
With es, it's essentially the same but with "it" rather than "that" in the above glosses.
You could also say Ich meine es ernst. "I mean it seriously."
But Ich bin ernst ("I am serious") is not what Germans say in such a situation -- it would merely mean that you tend to be a serious sort of person (you don't laugh or smile a lot), rather than that you're serious about what you said just now.
- 606
So here "I am serious" stands for "I feel serious about it/this"? This makes sense. Thanks.
That's how I interpret it, yes.
As in, "Don't tell anyone this secret. I'm serious." = I am not joking when I say this particular thing.
Because "ein, mein, dein, sein, kein; ihr" do not take -er for masculine nominative singular.
That means "I am Ernest" (i.e. my name is Ernest, of which the German form is Ernst).
This translation is wrong. "Mein" is a possessive pronoun. The "correct" sentence "Das ist mein ernst" means "That is my seriousness". My Dutch German translation dictionary (Van Dale) gives: "Das ist mir Ernst" which actually means: "That is serious to me" which I think comes closer to I'm serious than the given translation. Duden also gives: "Es ist mir Ernst". Please change this. It's ruining my score.
Das ist mein Ernst idiomatically means "I am serious (about this)".
It has a similar meaning to Das ist mir Ernst.
Translating it as "That is my seriousness" is not a good translation as it does not capture the sense of the German sentence.
The related question, Ist das dein Ernst? is also relatively common -- "Are you serious (about that)?"
You would not ask, Ist das dir Ernst? in this situation.
So knowing this expression with mein Ernst etc. is useful if you are learning German.
This expresion is not in any of the serious german dictionaries I tried. Düden is a big name. Strangly "Dass ist mein Ernst" is in a lot of English books about German, but I can't find it in any German book.
https://www.duden.de/rechtschreibung/Ernst_Eifer_Bedacht_Haerte
Sense "1b" has an example sentence of "es ist mein [bitterer] Ernst".
Wow, your right! Missed that. It still gives "Dass ist mir Ernst" first, so that should be counted as correct as well. It's in 1b before mein and at the top of the article. Never heard your version before.
You gave "This is my seriousness" as a translation yourself in this thread. Are you a native speaker? I'm not, I'm Dutch. German is my third language.
I gave it as a literal translation, not as a good translation.
I'm a bilingual native speaker of English and German. (English father, German mother, grew up in Germany, went to an English-speaking school.)
Maybe Es ist mir Ernst has gone out of fashion. It's been over a decade since I was in Germany.
I know its not common english but would it be the right connotation if i mentally translated this to "it is my honesty"? in other words, what I am saying is the truth A.K.A i am being serious? please respond and put my translating mind at ease :p
