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- "Ohne Mietwagen geht es auch."
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414
I had no clue what this sentence was saying. But then I saw the English translation, and I still have no clue.
Probably it's just a randomly generated sentence. But if you really need to make sense out of it, one could postulate a context like this:
"Where are you going on vacation?"
"Oh, back of beyond. I like it there. We rent a car and drive to a lodge on the edge."
"I hate to drive outside of the city, so I guess that wouldn't work for me."
"Oh, the public transportation there is marvelous. You could still have a great trip. It also works without a rental car."
Context is important a lot of the times. This is just confusing, I translated it to "It goes without a rental car too.", which really makes about as much sense.
It does make sense. In German 'going' (gehen) verb is used in a sense similar to 'how well something is working/going/doing'. As in if the reply to 'Wie geht's?' is 'Es geht', then it means 'It goes (It is going (just) okay'.
There are a lot of sentences on here where I understand all the words but the actual phrase makes no sense out of context. It can be very frustrating.
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Expecting anyone to know what "it" means without the earlier sentence that explained it is guaranteed to confuse. If you cannot grasp the idea in the original language, you cannot convey it, or check that the hearer has understood, in any other. No matter how you treat the string of individual words.
At first I couldnt get it. I put "Without a rental car it is also possible" and it accepted it.
The German does make sense out of context, but if you translate it literally it doesn't seem to be that way in English, I think is the problem. Just a matter of getting more familiar with the language, I suppose.
This is a good response. Sadly the English translation is so awkward that i don't know what this sentence is trying to say, so i really learn nothing from this. Is it essentially saying that 'it's OK if we don't have a rental car'?
Yes, it's something like "We can also make it work without a rental car" or "We can also make do without a rental car" or "We're also fine without a rental car". Something along those lines.
I'd translate it as "it's OK without a rental car, too." Soglio's context is easy to imagine. "Das geht" is broadly and commonly used in German for when something is OK, when it works, when it's fine, etc. Also the opposite, "Das geht nicht".
The German sentence doesn't have an article for "Mietwagen," so I called it for the plural and got the pink flag of failure. Isn't "wagen" also the plural, or did I miss something?
Me too. I would like to know why this is wrong. I had never seen geht meaning "works" before.
"It is also working without a rental car" ??? What is wrong with this translation? "is working" instead of "works" ? Like in a situation where you deliver stuff, like pizzas?
The short answer is that the verb always goes in the second position. "Mietwagen" is in the first position, along with its modifier "ohne". Then comes the verb "geht", and the rest of the sentence after: es auch. I don't know if it could be rewritten as, "Es geht ohne Mietwagen auch", but I think it can. The reason for switching the subject and verb placement is usually emphasis, so the speaker wants to emphasize "Mietwagen", rather than "es". Hope this helps!
Could this be used in reference to a physical or a contractual/conceptual something that ¨works/goes¨? For example, could you say: ¨Ohne Strom geht es auch.¨ when talking about a device with battery back-up?
It is alright without a rental car, is a much more acceptable form than the one above
