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- Topic: German >
- "The cheese is from France."
"The cheese is from France."
Translation:Der Käse ist aus Frankreich.
47 Comments
Previously it was "Die Nudeln sind aus Italien" but now " Der käse ist aus Frankreich" why is one "sind" and this one "ist"?
Not sure, but I think sind would be used for plurals like "are" and ist obviously means "is". Maybe that's why? Still not clear and would love clarification too, though.
Yes, that's exactly why. Nudeln is a plural word, so it takes sind.
Sie (die Nudeln) sind aus Italien.
Er (der Käse) ist aus Frankreich.
Because one is countable and the other is not, in English noodles are countable and cheese is uncountable too.
why does it alternate between "ist" and "kommst" depending on which country they're talking about?
1250
I don't know if that is just a random pattern, but "etwas ist aus" and "etwas kommt aus" are both correct and can be used for all countries.
The 4 grammatical cases are called nominative, genitive, dative and accusative. There are three genders for the "the"-form (defined article) in German: masculine, feminine and neuter.
Die 4 grammatikalischen Fälle werden Nominativ, Genitiv, Dativ und Akkusativ genannt. Es gibt drei Formen für die "the"-Form (bestimmter Artikel) im Deutschen: männlich, weiblich und sächlich.
Here's a pretty good article on the difference between aus and von: https://blogs.transparent.com/german/aus-vs-von/
Can someone please explain the differences between: Der, Die, Das, Der and Den please: I know Der is for masc, die is for fem and das is neut. Very confused about the terms when it comes to something like food though
- 145
A belated reply but someone might be interested. The words for different foodstuffs have different genders, eg der Kaese is masculine, der Tee (tea) is masculine, die Zwiebel (onion) is feminine, das ❤❤❤❤❤ (herb) is neuter.
"Den" is used instead of "der" in the accusative case (i.e. when it's the object), e.g. "Ich esse den Kaese" ("I eat the cheese") - the cheese is the object because it's having something done to it
I have answered "....sind aus .." and have lost a heart because Duolingo says the answer is "kommt aus" but in my opinion this is technically incorrect as the statement to be translated is not "the cheese comes from France", but actually the "the cheese is from France". I think I would like someone to explain, not why my answer may be wrong but why "kommt " is correct when the word 'come' is not actually in the sentence.
Your answer was wrong because the cheese is singular, but "sind" is plural. So had you said "ist aus", you would have been correct. But because "sind" was wrong, it just showed you an alternate translation as the correct answer.
It works the same as in English: it's uncountable when talking about quantity - "How much cheese did you eat?"
If you're talking about types of cheese - "Those cheeses are from France, these cheeses are from England" - it would be "die Käsesorten" (lit. "the cheese-types").
I use Der Kase in one activity and then Den Kase in another and in each activity I was wrong because it should have been Den Kase in the first and Der kase in the second. Why is this? What's the difference between Den and Der?
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Both are "the" used with masculine words. "Der" is "the" in the nominative case (i.e. when it's the subject), "den" is "the" in the accusative case (i.e. when it's the object).
Don't forget the umlaut. If you can't type an umlaut type an "e" after the vowel, e.g. "Kaese". German-speakers consider missing out the umlaut a spelling mistake.
Der Käse kommt aus Frankreich.
Marked wrong? I understand 'ist aus' as well but surely the meaning is the same?
Why is it not accusative, shouldn't it be "den käse ist aus Frankreich"?
- 145
"The cheese" is the subject of the sentence and so it's in the nominative case. Thus it's "der Kaese".
Remember all German nouns take capitals.
Hey Duolingo . You have a glitch in your problem . My answers are word for word correct yet you mark them false.
When do you use "den", and when do you use "der"? I'm confused, and I'm pretty sure that some of you aren't. Please try to dumb it down a little also, because I didn't get the pleasure of learning the fancy grammar terms... XD
It depends on if it's being used as the subject or object of the sentence. The cheese is from France - the subject of a sentence is the person, place, thing, or idea that is doing or being something. The man gave me the cheese - now the man is the subject (he is doing the action) and the cheese is the object.
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All German words have gender: they are either masculine, feminine or neuter.
Edit: I wrote that yesterday and what I should have written was all German NOUNS have gender. Sorry for writing something that could cause confusion.
When a noun is the subject of a sentence, "the" in front of it is "der" if it's a masculine noun, "die" if it's a feminine noun, and "das" if it's a neuter noun. When a masculine noun is the object of a sentence "the" in front of it is "den". When a feminine noun is the object "the" in front of it is still "die" and when a neuter noun is the object "the" in front of it is still "das".
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Do you mean the suggested translations if you hover over/click on the underlined words to be translated? They are just that - suggestions. Or do you mean you've had them as corrected answers and you can't understand why?
Why sometime for kase we have to write den & sometime we have to write der?
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"Kaese" is a masculine noun. Use "der" for "the cheese" if it's the subject of the sentence, "den" if it's the object.
Remember to give the word "Kaese" an umlaut or put an "e" after the vowel. Also remember all nouns in German start with a capital. I hope this helps.
