"The cow is not wearing a hat!"
Translation:Die Kuh trägt keinen Hut!
18 Comments
The form of "kein" matches the gender of the noun "hat" which is masculine and it's the accusative case which makes it "keinen".
Oh it has to do with gender lol here I thought it was plural or something weird like that
824
Same question as the not applies to the verb not the noun, as the cow is not doing something, wearing a hat.
I don't quite understand what you're saying. Could you elaborate? Thanks :-)
- 824
If the use of kein, keine, or keinen, is to negate a noun, and nicht to negate a verb, in the sentence, "The cow is not wearing a hat", the part that is negated is the verb. Is the cow wearing? No, the cow is not wearing, hence nicht, yes? "Die Kuh trägt keinen Hut" implies the cow is not wearing a hat but rather something else.
Without context then, the nicht version should be accepted shouldn't it? One would assume the cow is wearing nothing, rather than wearing something other than a hat.
Imagine the sentence to say 'The cow is wearing no Hat'. In german, this is the structure that sentences like this take. In this case you are negating the noun - The Hat.
- 824
Understand, but saying the cow is wearing no hat, still implies the cow is wearing something.
In general, if the object is indefinite, we use a form of kein before it, whether to negate that object or the verb/the entire sentence.
