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- "Hast du ein Buch?"
58 Comments
Dear english speakers: This is a completely different language. German has its own syntax. You can't expect german sentences to have the exact same structure as the english ones.
"Have you a book" should be considered a valid answer here in my opinion. https://separatedbyacommonlanguage.blogspot.de/2011/05/do-you-havehave-youhave-you-got.html
213
I wouldn't say "Have you GOT a book" as an American, but I wouldn't be surprised to hear a British person say it. But I'm curious, does anyone actually say, in natural everyday situations, "Have you a book?" without the "got"? It sounds archaic to me.
As a British English speaker, I'd say it's more natural to say 'Have you got', for informal situations and 'Do you have', for more polite occasions.
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Although the literal English translation is 'Have you a book?' and I think should be accepted, it is not the general translation, 'Do you have a book?'. Many German phrases are very oddly literal like this one, but they're that way because they're meant for the German language. Some even don't have an English translation/equivalent because they were made for, and by Germans to understand.
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"Do you have a book" is the "literal" translation of this sentence. "Have you a book" is the word for word translation.
The difference is this. The sentence "Hast du ein Buch?" can be translated into English as "Do you have a book" or "Have you got a book?" or "Have you a book?" (which is archaic and in my opinion should not be accepted, unless someone can show an example of a this being commonly used in modern English.) But if you're translating the sentence "Do you have a book" into German, the only option (I know of) is "Hast du ein Buch?" You can't translate word for word like "Machen du haben ein Buch?" or "Tun du haben ein Buch?" and have it make any sense. Those are word for word translations, not literal ones, and they're nonsense.
"Do you have a book" is a literal translation because it gives the exact meaning of the sentence in the most common way possible, even if the words are in a different order and there's an extra "do" there.
I've heard people say "Have you a book", so I don't think it's all that archaic. Mind you, I'm from Yorkshire, so I've even heard people say "Hast thou a book", or more commonly, "dost thou have a book"..
Archaic or not archaic definitely is English, so it should be accepted so that we can could listen to, just in movies or with our crazy voisin... Although it works. And I think contrary to you, that's more than a literal translation, because in fact literal is not just go on word by word but letter by letter.
NO. That is an affirmative sentence without a subject in it. And if you are saying it as a question, still it needs main-verb to define the action. That is why verbs like "got" is used here. I hope I am right.
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It depends on the subject
Ich habe
Du hast
Er/Sie/Es hat
Wir haben
Ihr habt
Sie (they) haben
It's an irregular verb because the "b" goes away in two of the conjugations. In regular verbs, the "er/sie/es" and "ihr" conjugations are the same.
Ihr means YOU at plural, like "you guys". Du means YOU at singular, like "you kid".
Du means i talking to YOU. ihr means im talking to you and you and you (you guys, y'all) but not wir (wir means im including myself so WE)
I reccomend searching up german verb conjugation sites on the internet. Then you can search up any verb, for an example haben, and then it will show you when to use each conjugation.
MaxGonzale16 just showed you.
haben (to have)
ich habe - I have
du hast - you have
er hat - he has
wir haben - we have
ihr habt - you all have
sie haben - they have
[2019/04/22]
Don't you use "einen" if the noun is a direct object? (Hast du einen Buch?)
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You reverse the order of the noun/pronoun and verb when asking a question.
You have a book: Du hast ein Buch.
Do you have a book? : Hast du ein Buch?
We do this in English with the verb "be," but not with any other verbs.
You are sad / Are you sad?
In German, every verb works like that in questions.
Derp! That makes sense! Thank you for the fantastically clear explanation!
I could easily say, "Will you come wirh us?" Be and will are not the same.
@JaniceMReeder: You're correct in noticing that "will" comes before the subject in a question. In English, this happens with all modal auxiliary verbs (a.k.a. helping verbs) -- will, do, did, can, should, etc. These words are added to convey tense (future, past) and mood, rather than convey verbal meaning. The main verb (a.k.a. principle verb, full verb, or action word) will still be in its rightful place after the subject.
Let's use your example: "Will you come with us?" We can see that "come" is the main verb, and it is right where it belongs: after the subject "you". But "will" could never stand on it's own, such as "Will you with us?" ...this is obviously incomplete. And a simpler, "Will you?" implies the full verb is already known.
To my knowledge, "to be" is the only full verb (excluding colloquial dialects) that reverses the subject-verb order in the form of a question. So MaxGonzale16 is ALSO correct.
To further complicate things, some auxiliary verbs can also be principle verbs! So here are some sites with more detail for anyone who wants to read further, or if my reply is unclear.: Link 1 - Link 2
And now, back to German... :-)
the second one u mentioned is "you have a book." The first one, "have you a book?" is a question, the other one is a statement, a fact
When typing what you hear, couldn't it also be correct to say "Hasst du ein buch" (i.e. "Do you hate a book")?
I am confused to use habt, habe, haben, hast... can any one help me on hints...
ich habe
du hast
er/sie/es hat
wir haben
ihr habt
sie(plural) haben
Ok, Habe - Hast - Hat - Haben - Habt, Someone please explain...I am baffled and confused. :\ --found it explained in lesson tips. dumb me. :P
I dont understand the trinst, isst, and haven's different form and where. To use them. Is it just something you have to memorise or is there a way to understand these?
ich (verb stem)e
du (stem with occasional vowel change)st
er/sie/es (stem with occasional vowel change)t
wir (stem)en
ihr (stem)t
sie(plural) (stem)en
just remember e,st,ten,ten for ich it is e and for du it is st, for er/sie/es it is t, for wir its en, for ihr its t and for Sie its en. say it as E street ten ten.
Curses upon my lack of grammatical knowledge! I don't know what a verb is; I thought that "Hast" would be considered a verb and has to be placed in the second position? I.e. Du hast ein Buch. Is it different here because it's asking a question or am I just missing what a verb actually is?
You (do) have a book. Vs. Have you (got) a book? - like old English? Or like norse idk
I don't get why the verb is not in the 2nd position here. Wasn't that an important rule in German sentences? I mean, 'Hast' is the verb, right?
So in phrase "du hast ein Buch" it's phrased "you have a book." But in a question "hast du ein Buch" it's "have you a book?" Is this typical for german syntax? It makes perfect sense but it's just interesting that the syntax changed in one form. Are both accepted? Any help is appreciated!
