- Forum >
- Topic: German >
- "Where are the stairs?"
"Where are the stairs?"
Translation:Wo ist die Treppe?
20 Comments
2505
Because the sentence was not, "Where is the staircase?" I answered using the plural, i.e., Wo sind die Treppen? It was rejected. Please allow this translation. Thank you.
I think it should be accepted. I have reported it. Nowadays a lot of People live in Huge apartment buildings and work in huge office buildings and sleep in huge Hotels. These buildings have more than one staircase or elevator. And we also visit old cities where we want to visit buildings on top of hills. We assume there are stairs going up, more than one and just want to know where they are and which to choose. Capitol hill: Wo sind die Treppen? Chinese Wall: etc.
Would you really phrase a question asking about the location of multiple staircases this way? I would have the feeling that "where are the stairs?" would be taken to mean one staircase, and if I wanted to specifically ask about the location of multiple I would need to rephrase my question.
- 2505
Yes, I would. And, in most larger buildings, I'd expect the answer to be, "There's a staircase at either end of the hallway."
I agree with Regney - the English sentence could refer to one or multiple staircases, without any rephrasing. "Wo sind die Treppen?" should be accepted.
Imagine you get lost in a large sports stadium, and your seat is up on the third tier, you might ask someone: "where are the stairs?", which is a perfectly valid question, and nobody would assume you think there is only one staircase in the whole stadium.
"Treppe" is singular. I don't know if they accept, "Wo sind die Treppen," but it's probably worth a try.
A "Treppe" consists of many "Stufen" = "steps". So "die Treppe" (singular in German) is "the stairs" (plural in English).
And, yes, the translation of "Treppen" (German plural) is also "stairs" in English! If you want to differentiate, you have to say "staircase" resp. "staircases".
I have a question on another topic: What is the difference between wo and wohin? Which one is more preferrable and where?
What is the difference between wo and wohin?
woher? asks "from what location?"
wo? asks "in what location?"
wohin? asks "to what location?"
Thus, you would translate "Where are you? (= In what location are you?)" to Wo bist du? but "Where are you going? (= To what location are you going?)" to Wohin gehst du? and "Where do you come from? (= From what location do you come?)" as Woher kommst du?
In English stairs are usually regarded as plural, so the translation should be 'are' not 'is.'
I don't quite understand your question.
Here you should translate from English to German. The given English sentence contains "are" (see top of page).
And in German, "Treppe" is singular, so you use "ist".
Because this is quite nonsensical. It would mean "Where do the stairs give?"
