"I am not the author."
Translation:Ich bin nicht der Verfasser.
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I think they mean the same thing...though there might be some small difference I don't know of, eventhough I'm German^^; I would use "Autor" for almost everything, but would tend to use "Verfasser" more often with scientific research papers and similar things.
I've always thought of Verfasser as closer to "Composer", as in the creator of a musical composition.
Ah yes, of course. I suppose it is better to consider Verfasser and Autor synonymous, with subtle differences depending on what exactly is being authored: it makes sense to compose a letter, but not a novel. Would you ever call the author of a novel its Verfasser?
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well yeah you could, but "Autor" would sound more natural. "Der Verfasser dieses Romans" sounds more formal (at least to my ears^^)
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I don't understand why you say that such order is awkward in this particular sentence. We are negating a noun, aren't we? Something similar ("nicht" at the end of sentence) did appear in my textbook as examples.
"Nicht tends to precede nouns and adjectives following the verb "sein" (i.e. predicate nouns and adjectives): Die Professorin ist nicht alt; Die Musik ist nicht schön; Die Schlager sind nicht schlecht; Er ist nicht der Professor; Das ist nicht Frau Schröder-Köpf; Ich bin nicht dumm."
http://www.lsa.umich.edu/german/hmr/grammatik/Wortstellung/nicht.html
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I think German is closer to English than people want to realize. Many times the word order is exactly the same as in English. You wouldn't say "I am the author not"? Would you?
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In other languages you would, which is probably where the confusion arises.
Ich bin nicht der Verfasser = I'm not the author
Ich bin kein Verfasser = I'm not an author
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The verb "sein" always takes the nominative case, which is "der" "den" is the accusative case.
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I dropped the article, because I believe you drop it when you say "I am ____ (insert occupation)". Can anyone explain why this is wrong? I'm not challenging it - simply want to know why you drop it sometimes and not others.
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You drop the article when you are stating that you are something. If the sentence was "I am an author." it would read "Ich bin Autor (Verfasser)." This sentence is asking for a particular author, in which case you would need to add the definitive article.
