"I hear and see nothing."
Translation:Ich höre und sehe nichts.
32 Comments
Previously I've seen word order as the second verb goes to the end of the sentence unconjugated. In this case it didn't. Is this because they are separated with und and therefore both become conjugated?
In this case, it's because both verbs are conjugated to go with the subject "I", meaning "I hear and (I) see nothing." The structure that sends the 2nd verb to the end of the sentence is the "Satzklammer" or Sentence-bracket. Bypassing more complicated structures for the moment (because I'm not fluent), you'll see this often with modal or 'helping' verbs. Example: You can speak German. = Du kannst Deutsch sprechen. I have to eat an apple. = Ich muss einen Apfel essen.
You might find this video helpful, especially starting at 2:23. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RI4lOt4riXs
I do not see = Ich sehe nicht. You negate the action itself.
I see nothing = Ich sehe nichts. What you see is 'nothing', so the action itself is done and the result of the seeing is that you see nothing.
(It's a clip from the old TV series 'Hogan's Heroes', set during the second world war, in which a German officer is told of a plan by some prisoners to steal a tank. He doesn't want to deal with the trouble that would cause, so he leaves, telling himself "I see nothing!".)
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Is the speaker's pronunciation of ö typical? It sounds more like ü to me.
Just what is so important about this sentence - it occurs & re-occurs ad nauseum.
etwas / alles—nichts (something/everything—nothing)
jemand—niemand (somebody/anybody—nobody)
irgendwo—nirgendwo / nirgends (somewhere—nowhere)
immer / oft / manchmal—nie/niemals (always / often / sometimes—never)
mit—ohne (with—without)
Am I the only person who finds this sentence extremely awkward and unnatural in English? (When encountering awkward sentences it tends to make the learning process equally awkward and slightly...convoluted?...if that makes sense. Anyone else find it to be the same?)
Does anyone know if there is a reason for this sentence to be repeated a thousand times?
I just read another pay that said keine is for verbsand nicht is for nouns. So why isnt't it keine here? Hearing and seeing are both verbs.
The "kein" is "no" to be followed by a noun ("I see no ships"), whereas "nichts" is like "no thing(s) at all" and not followed by anything else ("I see nothing") - in the latter case the "thing" in "nothing" is a stand-in for whatever noun would follow "no"
