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- "Warum möchten sie mitmachen?"
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What is the most obvious translation of verb "mitmachen" in this sentence? Isn't "to participate" more adequate meaning? Isn't "beitreten" more accurate word to describe "to join" here?
(another modal verb for "join" is "mitkommen." An example is: "Ihr kommt auch mit?" " are you all also joining?" )
658
Spelling? Otherwise they are pretty much synonymous. Mitmachen has a little more casual feel.
OK I guess i need another explanation, why could it not be " why does she not want to join"?
- 658
Interesting . . . on first listen, I processed it as "why do they [do You] not want to join/participate." Only when I started to answer and think through my answer carefully did I notice that not was not part of the sentence.
I thought mochten was past tense. I thought it was "Why did they want to join?" Isn't mogen present tense?
Can I not use "how come" for "warum"? I was under the impression that "wieso" was "why" and "warum" was more like "how come"?
Shouldn't it be "join in" rather than "join" on its own? (The correspondence suggests that Americans often say "join" where Brits say "join in". Is this so?)
Nope.
sie möchten = they want
Sie möchten = you want (formal you is capitalized)
Edit: See the notes below by bf2010 and Levi. It depends on what question you received.
- 2384
The sentence actually is presented in two different exercises.
In the exercise you see here in the discussion it says "Warum möchten sie mitmachen?"; in this case "sie" is, as hohenems pointed out, is the plural form and the translation is "why do THEY want to join".
In the exercise I just did, "Listen and write in German" I wrote "Warum möchten Sie mitmachen?" Then. of course, you have the option to use the formal "you" and your answer can be "Why do YOU want to join"
Right. I did the listening exercise and answered "Warum möchten Sie mitmachen", but it gave the incorrect Translation: Why do they want to join?
Sorry, why could it not be "why does she want to join" why does 'sie' in this case only mean 'they'
Look at these verb endings:
http://www.canoo.net/inflection/m%C3%B6gen:V:haben
sie (they) gets -en sie (she) gets -e
OK, so if the sentence can be translated into the present "Why do they want..." then what is the translation of "Warum moegen sie......" and lets suppose you really wanted to emphasize the WOULD as in "Why would they want to join such a terrible organization?" how would you translate that to get the full meaning.
What is the difference between the versions of to want... wollen, wunschen, brauchen, und mogen?
Those are not versions, but different words:
- wollen - to want
- wünschen - to wish
- brauchen - to need
- mögen - to like (subjunctive form "möchten" is translated as "would like")
There is also another word that is used to express the same idea - gern. For example "he would like to read it" can be translated as "er würde es gern lesen".
- 1225
I thought that much! Therefore why did DL refuses my translation: why would they like to participate? I would have used Teinehmen for joining/ Observations gratefully received.
- 743
I put a space between mit and machen and Duo marked it correct. If it's not supposed to be separated, the answer should be marked incorrect.
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