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- "There is milk in the refrige…
"There is milk in the refrigerator."
Translation:Es ist Milch im Kühlschrank.
40 Comments
That has a feeling of more permanence, that milk is always in the fridge. To just say that yes, there is some in there right now, but sometimes there might not be - Duo's example fits better.
So if I understand you well while grammatically speaking using "Es gibt" instead of "Es ist" is correct, the overall meaning of using "Es gibt" would imply that no matter what there will always be some milk in the fridge. But using "Es ist" means that at the moment there is some milk in the fridge but maybe [earlier/later] that [was not/might not be] the case. Correct?
I do not believe the difference between Es ist and Es gibt was ever covered in the unit instructions where Es gibt was introduced.
442
It wasn't. This is how Duolingo teaches languages sometimes. We're supposed to research it on our own, or spend a large amount of time searching through these discussions to figure out wtf is going on.
- 592
My German husband tells me the "correct" answer is wrong, the proper way of saying it would be "es gibt Milch im Kühlschrank" in "hochDeutsch" or standard German.
I am genuinely confused as to how a non-native speaker, especially a beginner, can have any idea of what one or another expression might "imply." You need a large body of experience and data to work with before you can even begin to discuss implications or connotations. As it is, you're simply stating what things imply in English, which is completely irrelevant here.
- 288
I am not German, but I agree entirely. For me, "es ist' implies "that is milk in the refrigerator.
- 824
Not a native german speaker but "es ist" implies that Milk is there in the fridge but usually not kept there.
More on this in the video link below, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8BMk2R5ePPA&t=80s
- 236
Thanks. It is really helpful video. It says that "Es ist" is used for particular situations like: now there is milk in the fridge but it is not always there.
But "Es gibt" is used when it is always there. "Es gibt einen Park in der Stadt." There is a park in the city.
Her damit, darauf, darüber, and so on videos were real eye openers for me. Thanks for sharing.
es gibt is more for permanent things, such as "there is a bakery in this town" or "there is a lake behind our house".
But milk in fridges is not so permanent; sometimes there is milk and sometimes there isn't. So es ist Milch im Kühlschrank / Im Kühlschrank ist Milch would be more a more natural way to say that there is some there right now.
Correct, it is not acceptable.
Your sentence would mean something like "There is milk there in the refrigerator" or "There, there is milk in the refrigerator" or "There is milk in the refrigerator there".
But the English sentence doesn't use the word "there" to indicate a location -- using da in the German is inappropriate.
It only uses the phrase "there is" to specify the mere existence of something without saying anything about its location; the location is added later by the "in the refrigerator".
In German, simply ist is enough -- either Im Kühlschrank ist Milch or Es ist Milch im Kühlschrank (with a dummy pronoun es in the second case so that the verb can be the second thing in the sentence).
Or you could use es gibt -- im Kühlschrank gibt es Milch or Es gibt Milch im Kühlschrank. (Of those, the last sentence sounds a little odd to me. I'm not quite sure why.)
So Kühlschrank pretty much equals "cold cupboard," correct?
Nearly: it's a cooling cupboard.
"cold" is kalt while "cool" is kühl, and "to cool" (as a verb = to make something cool) is kühlen.
- 824
So "Es ist" can be used as "There is" or "there are" but I will have to specify the location?
So "Es ist" can be used as "There is" or "there are" but I will have to specify the location?
Yes.
And it usually refers to a temporary location. You would use it for things such as "There is a lake between the mountains".
Asked a german teacher at Göethe Institute, this one is wrong. Es gibt means "there is" as in "there is milk in the fridge" , Es ist means "it is" as in "the white stuff in the fridge is milk". While it largely depends on context, common usage as in telling your kids there is milk in the fridge, would be more correct as "es gibt".
so, "es gibt" is used for something that generally exists (permanent) but "es sind" for something that is existing/ is there, at the time or for a time (temporary).
In other words, "there is" is used in 2 ways-
There is a boy on the street
and
There are lights on the street.
The first, there is, indicates that at the moment there is a boy on the street. He may not be there after sometime. Whereas in the second sentence, the lights on the street are a more permanent fixture and therefore, there is/are, implies a general existence.
Am i right in my interpretation?
is "Da ist Milch im Kühlschrank" wrong?
Yes. da is wrong, since there is no "there" indicating position in the English sentence, as in "There is milk there in the fridge".
The "there" in "there is" does not indicate position; it's a fixed expression indicating existence, without specifying a location. (Which is why "There are many people here" is not a contradiction.)
- 543
You know, Germans do not say "Es ist Milch im Kühlschrank." They say "Es gibt Milch im Kühlschrank."
Germans do not say "Es ist Milch im Kühlschrank."
Yes, they do.
For example, try searching for the phrase "Es ist noch Bier im Kühlschrank." (including the quotes, to search for those words as a phrase), and you'll get quite a few hits from various books.
Why isn't "Es gibt Milch im Kühlschrank" accepted? This is what I heard while there.
"In dem" is here incorrect.
How can you be sure?
Often, the error is somewhere else in the sentence than where learners think.
Please always quote your entire sentence -- not only a portion -- when you have a question.
Ideally, copy and paste your answer; do not re-type it, as that may introduce new typos (or correct ones that you made when you wrote the answer to Duolingo).
