"Mein kleiner Bruder glaubt, Pinguine sind Säugetiere!"

Translation: My little brother thinks penguins are mammals!

[stdong]

Saeuge=suckle, tiere=animal

[GalenLanph]

The English translation of this sentence does not contain a comma. Can someone explain why it is supposed to be there in German?

[Max.Em]

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

[IterMercator]

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)

[Jen_the_N]

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...]

[Max.Em]

With dass and sind in the end it's equally correct.

[alanvoe]

Therefore I infer that the sentence becomes subordinate when you add "dass"?

[Max.Em]

Yes, "dass" is a subordinating conjunction.

[alanvoe]

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 ?

[Max.Em]

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).

[pellucidon]

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"

[Woods415]

Since it's only a belief, and not necessarily true, shouldn't this be some form of Konjunktiv? Mein kleiner Bruder glaubt, Pinguine seien Säugetiere! ??

[Alexander994475]

Silly boy, everyone knows they're reptiles