"Duo's best friend is a duck."
Translation:Der beste Freund von Duo ist eine Ente.
68 Comments
618
So, after all our wonderful German times together, and those lovely motivational messages, the truth finally emerges from the shadows...
... and it is duck-shaped.
How about "Der beste Freund Duos ist eine Ente." (i.e. using the genitive construct)
Thank you! I finished the German tree ages ago and never knew you could say it this way. I would prefer saying "Duos bester Freund" than "der beste Freund Duos", but I always thought it was wrong. Thanks for sharing this info! :)
- 470
If you do use the "Duos bester Freund" form, why do you need to add the s in Duo(s)? Doesn't the genitive form relay possessive meaning?
- 1481
"Bester Freund" is nominative, not genitive. (And it wouldn't make sense for it to be genitive anyway; that would make it mean "of the best friend" or "the best friend's," rather than something of Duo's.)
So the "bester" there got its ending from "Freund" rather than the genitive "Duos"?
I was thinking the same thing: how do you do genitive without the definite article? Is it more common to use von in this case? Only for a person (von Duo)?
I suppose it isn't common to have a possessive for an indefinite object, and therefore it would almost always be 'the s.th. of THE object' or else a named individual 'the s.th. of Bob'. But it is grammatically possible to say, for example, 'the eye of A storm'. How would one say that in German? 'das Auge eines Sturms'? 'das Auge von einem Sturm'?
das Auge eines Sturm(e)s and das Auge von einem Sturm are both possible.
Possessives for people's names are often formed by adding an -s: Tinas Schiff, Julias Buch, Peters Heft, Jakobs Apfel.
(Things are tricky if the name already ends in -s: Hans' Buch, Hansens Buch, Hanses Buch all sound bad to me.)
Is the duck male or female? Would it change it 'die beste Freundin' If one could know the gender of the animal?
Does 'der beste Freund' tell us the duck is male?
- 555
Likewise, how would I convey that my dog is female (or that my cat is male) in typical German speech?
If the gender is important, you can use adjectives, the way you might say "male turtle" or "female turtle" in English: männlicher Hund, weiblicher Hund or männliche Katze, weibliche Katze.
Some animals also have specific words for the male or female, as with Kater for "tomcat (male cat)", Erpel or Enterich for "drake (male duck)", Rüde for "male dog", or Hündin for "female dog".
Can someone explain, for the case of "Duos bester Freund ist...", why is -r needed for bester?
- 448
Die beste Freundin von Duo ist eine Ente!
Duo's bestie can also be a lady duck, in case anyone has been neglecting the lady nouns. For some of the nouns, the female option doesnt seem to come up as often.
I assumed it had to be feminine since Ente is feminine, but apparently both are accepted.
"You used the singular "Duo" here, instead of the plural "Duos" The error seems incorrect as here's singular form present.
What was the entire sentence that you entered?
Perhaps it was trying to tell you that instead of the nominative case Duo, you should have entered the genitive form Duos in German, e.g. if you had written Duo bester Freund instead of Duos bester Freund.
Though I agree that the error message is misleading.
So, I know that in German, the verb has to be in the first, second or last position (except subordinate clauses), I also know "position" doesn't mean "word" necessarily, but how would you divide this sentence (which has no subordinate clause), so that the verb (ist) is considered to be in any of the three possible positions? To me the only possibility seems to be that the sentence is divided like so: "Der beste Freund"-"von Duo"-"ist eine Ente" and the verb is therefore in the last position. Can anyone confirm or correct me?
No.
Conjunctions can determine the position of the verb because a subordinating conjunction such as dass or weil requires the verb to go to the end, for example.
And putting anything before a verb in a main clause will require the verb to come next so that it is the second thing in the sentence -- this anything can be not only a noun phrase but also, for example, an adverb: Heute esse ich Brot "I am eating bread today".
Superlatives are pretty much always definite in German, since they (at least in theory) uniquely identify a particular individual.
So they are usually preceded by the definite article (or a possessive).
Just as in English we wouldn't say "Tom is tallest boy in the class" or "Best friend of Duo came to visit".
Could you use the genitive case for this sentence?
Der beste Freund des Duo ist eine Ente?
- 885
btw how come it is Freund if duck is feminine... shouldn't it be Freundin then
Not necessarily. It may be a male duck, in which case Freund is appropriate, or the gender may be unspecified.
meine beste Freundin is specifically “my best female friend” — not “my best friend (who happens to be female)” but only “the best from the subset of those of my friends who are female”
- 885
so you wanna say you should say "sie ist mein bester Freund" if you wanna say that someone female is your bff?
- 885
well you said that meine beste Freundin only takes into account the female friends... that would mean that you'd have to use Freund if you want to include everyone right?
"Duo has a best friend and he is a duck" would be too much? Trying to figure out when to use the possessive so that I can get the Duo's correctly.
- 1481
You would need "Duos bester Freund." Also I would say that switching the order like that changes the meaning a bit, the same as "Duo's best friend is a duck" and "A duck is Duo's best friend" aren't really making the same point.
- 25
von is always dative and i didn't understand why nominative in this example.
- 1481
Possessives for names in German (usually) don't use an apostrophe; you simply add an "s": "Duos." (The exception is if the name already ends in "s," in which case you add an apostrophe and nothing else: "Hans" -> "Hans' .")
Also, since there's not an article like "der" before it, "beste" should be "bester," with the masculine nominative ending "-er."
Finally, "Freunde" is plural ("friends"). You need the singular, for "friend," which is just "Freund."
So "Duos bester Freund ist eine Ente."
"The best friend of Duo is a duck" sounds like the family of blood talking. I don't know how many of ypu watch David Tennant Dr Whos.
If not, go on Netflix and search up Dr who. From thete, go to series 5 (i think) and find episode saying The Family of Blood. You'll understand what I mean then.
- 1481
You're asking about "Duo's" in the English sentence? It indicates the possessive (the fact that it's the friend of Duo). But Duo wouldn't teach you that here since it's teaching you German, not English. You're assumed to already know English.
- 1481
Ah, I thought you might have meant that, but you put in an apostrophe. :)
German forms the possessive for proper names without an apostrophe. So "Duos" in German means the same as "Duo's" in English-- i.e., "belonging to Duo" or "of Duo."
(Though if the name happens to end in "-s" already, you use an apostrophe with no extra "-s": "Hans' " = "belonging to Hans.")
Why not Duos beste Freunde ist eine Ente. The dictionary literally prompted that solution
- 1481
Unfortunately Duo's dictionary is not quite smart enough to find the correct conjugation for a word in context; the drop-down list of translations is not specific to the particular exercise you're on. In other words, it will give you possible translations for a word, but you have to figure out the right one and conjugate it yourself.
You can use either "Duos bester Freund ist eine Ente" or "Duos beste Freundin ist eine Ente" (as well as some other variations with other structures). "Freunde" is plural "friends," so your translation reads "Duo's best friends is a duck."
- 215
After reading all the threads, I did not see why "Duos beste Freund ist eine Ente" is not accepted? Is it necessary in German for a sentence to begin with a definite or indefinite article?
- 215
Yes, I agree with your findings. I am using two charts. One for attributive adjectives and the other for strong, weak, and mixed inflection. I sometimes get confused on which chart / rule applies.
Why is it not "der bester Freund" rather than beste?
Take your pick of explanation:
1) der already has the -r ending which shows masculine nominative, so the adjective doesn't have to show this fact as well and therefore can take a generic -e ending
2) After a definite article such as der, adjectives take weak inflection, which for masculine nominative is -e. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_adjectives#Weak,_mixed,_and_strong_inflection
"Duos beste freund ist eine Ente" should be accepted as a right answer
The sentence does not suggest gender, so Die beste freundin von duo ist eine ente should be a valid answer as well
I have not read this lesson yet :-/
