32 Comments
A potential answer might be, “we were fighting,” or “we fell off the sled,” or similar. Doesn’t have to be a large number of kids— two is enough
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You wouldn't normally use the formal pronoun with children. Ihr is the informal pronoun.
Because there are multiple children, so it's the plural version of you, ihr
In the formal address, singular and plural would both be "Warum bluten Sie?".
But as quis_lib_duo pointed out - and interestingly got downvoted for - addressing children in the formal way is not something anyone would do, neither with their own children nor when they're strangers. As long as you call those persons "children", you use the informal address; once you think they're more adults than children, you'll start to use the formal address (if they're strangers) and stop calling them "children". If they're your own children, you can keep calling them "Kinder" for the rest of their lives, but being family, they would be addressed in the informal way.
I don't think it has to do with the formal at all--the meaning changes. "Kinder, warum Bluten Sie" means "Children, why are they bleeding" ie asking a group of children why a third party (plural or formal singular) is bleeding. "Kinder, warum blutet ihr" is addressing a group of children directly and asking why they themselves are bleeding.
And yet we may never know about the bleeding children for certain. One thing we do know is that ihr and Sie are not interchangeable.
"Why are they bleeding?" = "Warum bluten sie?", not capitalised. If "Sie" is capitalised in the middle of a sentence, as JhonEdisonOrtiz spelled it, it always means "you" (the formal "you" used for one or more grown-up person(s) you're not friends with).
In German we don't use capitalisation in headlines and titles either, by the way, so a movie titled "Children, Why Are They Bleeding?" wouldn't be spelled "Kinder, Warum Bluten Sie?", but simply "Kinder, warum bluten sie?"
It's the guy's totally couldn't care less voice asking this question that cracks me up!
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Guys what are all this comments? Kinder warum blutet ihr, also means - Kids, why do you bleed? - which is accepted I just imagined teacher in primary school asking his pupils that question. So no mystery, no Hansel and Gretel story, just normal question.
Why no mystery?
Perhaps the children have been involved in some kind of international espionage, and they are hot on the trail of a rival spy. The threat to national security is too great to give up and go play. But they also can't tell Mom, for her own safety.
They have to convince her that everything's fine. They have to lie. But the lies are stacking up, teetering precariously, threatening to undo everything they've accomplished. They are so tired of lying. So tired. They'd like to nap. They'd like to crawl into their beds and let somebody else handle it. They want to let the adults save the world this time. But they can't. They have to finish what they started.
"We fell down on the playground," they say to their mother. "We simply fell. Nothing more. We certainly didn't escape from the clutches of a foreign intelligence service, make a daring getaway through the streets of Istanbul, leap from a bridge onto a speeding train, and evade detection at the border, only to find that our own handler had turned on us. It's not like we've been up all night interrogating a turncoat in the basement. It's just an ordinary playground accident. Obviously!"
Their mother leaves, but a skeptical look lingers on her face.
The children wait until nightfall.
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Joey psssssssssssssst..... Mossad told me to be quiet about it, and you're just giving informations like that :O Who do you really work for... KGB, CIA, MI...
You, Sir, get a Lingot for this comment. Which will self-destruct in five seconds...
This conversation never happened.
Why is y'all not an acceptable form of the second person plural pronoun? It makes it less ambiguous.
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While common, "y'all" isn't really standard English.
And actually, "y'all" sounds a little odd to me when used with children. You'd have to be really dedicated to using "y'all" to use it in this context.
You're not wrong, but "y'all" should be more widely accepted than it is, and it's more widely used than one would suspect. I'm a proud supporter of "y'all". Tons of other languages have a "y'all", including German and Texan. I have a Canadian friend who added "y'all" to his vocabulary after studying Greek and finding "you" to be insufficient information while translating. Y'all should all say "y'all", y'all.
So now there's such thing as a "Y'all" supporter? I wouldn't say I'm a "Y'all" supporter, but I feel it should be used.
There's something called AAVE, we all know what it is. It's a dialect of English spoken by mostly African-Americans, and even black people outside of America. AAVE is a language in the making whether we like it or not. It's like how Afrikaans came from Dutch, except AAVE won't be a creole.
"Y'all" will become a complete replacement of "you guys". The verb "to be" will be completely dropped in AAVE. And if needed, just "be" will simply be used.
For example: He is: He She is: She
Example sentence: She at the store for some food.
To show something repetitive, "be" will be used. Example: She be hanging around her friend's house.
Changes in pronunciation can even be heard. For example: For will be pronounced: "Foe" Four: "Foe" There: "Der" The: "Da" Police: "Poelice" Hanging: "Hangin'" Changing: "Changin'" Most words ending in "ing" will lose the "g" sound. And possibly even the "ng" altogether.
Words ending in a "el" sound, as in the end of the name "Mitchell", will become more of an "ul" sound with the "l" at the end almost and even completely disappearing. Some examples: Hopefull: "Hopefu-l" (Again, the "l" might be silent) Thoughtful: "Thoughtfu-l" Cool: Coo-l
Then new vocabulary will make it's way into AAVE altogether. For example: Alright/All right: "Ight" Its/It's: "Iss" It's a/an: "Issa" That's: Dass (Not only will the "th" turn to a "d" but also the end will be just an "s" sound) Though will most likely be spelled "tho". Money: "Bread/dough"
Any so-called "AAVE" words I have listed are not to show spelling of future words but to show a good idea of how AAVE will sound. My examples of AAVE words are for pronounciation.
Anyway, you get the idea. This how languages start. They adapt as dialects and eventually languages.
This reply is not meant to offend anyone.
Texan isn't a language. And there's different dialects. Some people say "y'all" and some "you guys". Look at my reply about AAVE, should be above.
Yes, I have noticed that too. Not necessarily with this question, but with others. When testing out of a level, sometimes there are 15 questions, sometimes there are 4. Frequently the same question repeats several times in the same test set. What’s going on with that?
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“If you prick us, do we not bleed? if you tickle us, do we not laugh? if you poison us, do we not die? and if you wrong us, shall we not revenge?"
"The villany you teach me, I will execute, and it will go hard but I will better the instruction" Maybe. Tough talk. But I prefer "The quality of mercy is not strained". The world needs more of that.
