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- Topic: German >
- "Nein, er ist klein."
64 Comments
Am I the only one who didn't hear the Er in the faster version ?? actually, Er was not pronounced !!!!!!
I heard something like "erst" and figured it meant "er ist", but I wanted to be sure and listened the slower version.
If you look at it logically people wont say "he is" slowly and it would sound somewhat like "heis" to foreigners...
I think "short" should be accepted. The sentence doesn't specify so I would assume it refers to a person. My understanding is that "Nein, er ist klein," could mean "No, he is short." I believe when referring to a person this is preferred over "Nein, er ist kurz." (However I am only a German learner, so I might be wrong!)
The sounds blend together slightly with naturally-paced pronunciation. The slower pronunciations (if you have that option) make it clearer if you ever need to check. But your increasing knowledge of grammar will improve your listening comprehension too ('esst klein' doesn't really make a lot of sense).
Ist er groß? Nein, er ist klein.
"Is he tall? No, he is small (short)."
In German if you want to talk about someone's height, you generally use groß/klein.
There is no way I can hear any "Er" unless I hit the slow button. Or am I the only one having trouble understanding this speaker when he speaks at "normal" speed?
You're not. Be sure to report it. The normal speed audio for this one is absolutely terrible. He is not saying it correctly at normal speed, only at slow speed.
when I listen to the recorded voice I hear "Nein ist Klein", But I know that's not the answer. Anyone else have this problem??
Was just about to throw my computer across the room ………. then thought of hitting the slow speed my prayers were answered. Reported .
Why accepted me "No, it is small" if it puts " Er, ist klein"? ER ist = HE is, right? And ES ist= IT is
Because in German, like in french, russian, etc. they don't say "it" for all things. Choice of pronoun will depend of gender of a noun. F.e. "Ich habe ein Pferd. Es ist schön" - I have a horse. It is beautiful. Since "Pferd" is neuter, you use "es" "Sie hat einen Hund. Er ist schnell" - She has a dog. It is fast. Here "Hund" is masculine, so we use "er" though in english it stays "it". And similarly "Du hast eine Wohnung. Sie ist groß" - you have a flat. It is big. Since Wohnung is feminine, we use "sie"
Came here for the same reason. Where is the 'My-answer-should-NOT-have-been-accepted' button? xD
Please just press "The audio does not sound correct" button, no one reads the comments here.
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Does anyone else remember this way? I only remember groß as tall. The opposite if gross in english is clean. Close enough to klein which is small. Its funny how close these are to these completely unrelated words in English
Could you also use klein for short, like you use kurz, or does it only mean short?
kurz = short (not long) klein = short/small, so yes it can also be used for short, I just think "kurz" is more "direct":)
er, sie, es can also refer to something that you mentioned before and that has masculine, feminine, or neuter grammatical gender, respectively.
Dies ist mein Löffel. Er ist klein. Dies ist meine Gabel. Sie ist spitz. Dies ist mein Messer. Es ist stumpf. "This is my spoon. It is small. This is my fork. It is pointy. This is my knife. It is blunt."
"Groß und dick" as opposed to "groß und dünn". For "groß und dünn" you might also (colloquially) use "lang".
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3 syllables only. Nein, ist klein. Or er to be heard. I listened 3 times. Poor pronunciation, again.
Is it just me or did the audio sound like "Nein, es klein" instead of "Nein, er ist klein" The slow audio was correct but the regular audio sounded like "Nein, es klein"
This does seem like it would benefit from being re-recorded; the "er" is nonexistent in the fast version. We shouldn't need the slow version just to be able to hear each word at all ;)
re-recorded
The German course does not use recordings of real people.
It uses a TTS (text-to-speech) engine, aka a "robot voice" -- an off-the-shelf product.
It pronounces most things decently, but the words where it has trouble, you can't just "fix it" or "re-record" them.
Ok cool, so if the current method doesn't do things properly it's still fine to leave it that way because "that's how it is", instead of creating a manual recording for exceptions like this or changing the program so it doesn't screw up the one job it has? If society in general took the approach of "It's broke but I can't be assed fixing it" to everything, we'd still be in the Dark Ages.
You program won't let me finish the lesson even though I give the correct answer.
How exactly is klein being pronounced? I here sch for the k. Is that correct?
someone should make up there mind ? klein is either little or small or is both . You can not keep marking it down for what you fancy at the moment !
