"Mein kleiner Bruder glaubt, Pinguine sind Säugetiere!"
Translation:My little brother thinks penguins are mammals!
11 Comments
The English translation of this sentence does not contain a comma. Can someone explain why it is supposed to be there in German?
523
It's a secondary clause, a secondary main clause, to be precise, so it has to be separated by a comma. Both clauses could exist independently, but the second serves as an object here. The comma is also nice because it tells you where to insert a little break.
See also here http://www.canoo.net/services/OnlineGrammar/Satz/Komplex/Form/uneingeleitet.html
Not entirely sure but its due to how German handles causes, basically you know when in english its like X123... That Y456
(Dass follows the same rules)
Could you also write "Mein kleiner Bruder glaubt, dass Pinguine Säugetiere sind" or does 'glauben' already include 'with/dass'? i.e. is 'glauben' like 'suchen', which includes the 'for' that one uses in English w/ "to search for"?
[Sorry, this sounds very confusing...]
A question related to the comparative and to atributive adjectives: "my smaller brother" would also translate to "mein kleiner Bruder" in this sentence? If so, there is no way to differentiate both meanings ?
- 523
Literally "my smaller brother" would be "mein kleinerer Bruder"
Predicative:
- My brother is small = Mein Bruder ist klein (positive)
- My brother is smaller = Mein Bruder ist kleiner (comparative)
- My brother is (the) smallest = Mein Bruder ist der kleinste/Mein Bruder ist am kleinsten (superlative)
Attributive:
- My small brother = Mein kleiner Bruder
- My smaller brother = Mein kleinerer Bruder
- My smallest brother = Mein kleinster Bruder
You can see if "kleiner" is predicative comparative or attributive positive by looking at its position (in front of a noun or connected with a verb like sein/werden).
You say (correctly I believe) that My small brother = Mein Kleiner Bruder
But Duo rejects my translation viz :
"My small brother believes that penguins are mammals"
