"Who do you all see?"
Translation:Wen seht ihr?
21 Comments
It probably should.
But the Pearson course uses "you all" in their sentences to indicate that they expect ihr in the answer, and they generally don't accept ihr alle or Sie alle.
You can report it if you want.
505
Why is "wen siehst du" wrong?
I understand that if the subject is "you all", we need the plural, i.e. "ihr". But I read the sentence as if "all" belongs to the people you see, as if "who all do you see?" I am not a native English speaker, so I don't know if it makes sense what I am saying.
I don't even remember "wen" and "wem" being introduced ... what's wrong with "wer"?
- 505
You should use the accusative case, hence "wen" should be used. In this sentence, "ihr" is the subject. "wem" should be used when the dative case applies.
It's correct. Report it if you'd like.
But when you see "you all", you can assume that (a) it's a sentence created by the Pearson editors, not by the contributors to the public course, and (b) they expect you to translate it with ihr.
(not ihr alle or Sie alle)
How to differentiate between Wen and Wenn? From a listening comprehension perspective.
[veːn] versus [vɛn].
wen has a "long E", which is pronounced longer and is also closer (lower), while wenn has a "short E", which is pronounced for a shorter time and is also more open (higher).
If you know French pronunciation, it's more or less like véne versus vènne from the vowel quality (though French doesn't pronounce é longer than è).
I don't know French pronunciation much. So wen is like "Hen" and wenn is like "Hin"? (But with an E sound?)
If you mean English words, then German wenn sounds like "Venn" (as in "Venn diagram"), and wen contains a sound that simply doesn't exist in English. (Unless you're from parts of Scotland.)
The subject is ihr and so you need the verb form seht -- verbs for ihr almost always end in -t.
sehen is the infinitive or dictionary form, or the form used for wir (we) or sie (they).
- 621
Why do they ask the question with "who" and expect "Wen" which I understood to be "whom". I had "Wer seht ihr?"
A conservative English speaker would have asked "Whom do you see?"
Nowadays, the majority of English speakers will say "Who do you see?". The use of "whom" is getting less and less, and this course generally does not use it. (But usually accepts it in translations from German into English, for those who prefer to continue to use it.)
But the question still asks for the direct object and in German it still has to be Wen seht ihr?
If you need to use "wen" because it is in the Akkusativ, then shouldn't the English sentence be "Whom do you all see?" since whom is used as when who is the object?
A hundred years ago or so, you might have been right.
But today, fewer and fewer people use "whom" -- and most people use "who" both for subject and object.
