"Der Kopf ist von oben nicht sichtbar."

Translation: The head is not visible from above.

[psyllas]

In what type of situation would one have to be to utter this sentence??

[magicfiresnake]

Think about a shooting game when you have to kill a Nazi and you are looking down through a hole on the roof. You just can't shoot him in the head because "Der Kopf ist von oben nicht sichtbar." :))

[Wicked_Starfish]

I bet snipers said this all the time during WWII

[BlairScots]

Lol!

[magicfiresnake]

In fact this must have been told by the Nazis..

[BB__]

How would one say: "The head is not visible from the top"? (since that's what I thought the correct translation would be)

[whenturtlesfly]

Duo now accepts that translation.

[ErnaEn]

I can't wrap my head around it! :-)

[heshmati]

Is it wrong to say, "Der Kopf ist nicht sichtbar von oben."?

[kyky]

This is fine, too.

[tsym3155]

This is clearly from the same conversation as "thus the neck is barely visible"

[nefter]

I almost cry the 100th time that I did and passed this sentence haha

[kbsreddy]

Telugu literal translation--Der(ఆ),
Kopf(తల)
von oben(పై నుంచి )
ist nicht sichtbar --(కనుపించదు)

[Anudeep-Indian]

ధన్యవాదాలు రెడ్డి గారు

[stephenbal4]

From the comments on these adverb questions, I may be the only one completely lost in apparent ambiguity (not specifically this statement).

[ilikehockey]

Is the 'ch' in 'sichtbar' pronounced as a guttural 'ch' or a 'sh' sound? I was expecting the former but all of the audio I can find of it sounds like it's a 'sh' sound.

[kyky]

<ch> after a back vowel is pronounced [χ] for example "acht" http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/acht#German and after a front vowel it is pronounced [ç] as in "echt" http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/echt#German both fricatives are voiceless.

[kirstinmjkeller]

I love when other people understand linguistics, the IPA, fricatives, etc! Linguistics is amazing.

[ktamkun]

Neither. It's /ç/ as in echt (the example given by kyky).

[LeuSydon]

Why From up wrong

[nezurec]

You wouldn't say something was "not visible from up" in English unless you are referring to a specific place, e.g. "from up there" or "from up on the hill" or "from up the stairs".

[ACatterpillar]

Can anyone explain the word order?

[nezurec]

I can't give you a technical explanation, but my understanding is that since "von oben" is acting as sort of an adjective here -- imagine the head is "not completely visible" instead; "completely" serves the same general function as "from above" -- it should go before the idea is describing, which in this case is "nicht sichtbar", to make a proper German sentence.

[SushilKakk1]

von oben seems like an adverbial rather than an adjective. It is modifying adjective- sichtbar

[SushilKakk1]

Der kopf ist nicht sichtbar von oben? Is that correct too?

[BlairScots]

What do they mean?

[magicfiresnake]

Who? ;)

[flex567]

why is this not right: "the head is not seeable from above"

[m.erne]

I'm afraid that sentence is wrong because "seeable" is not a word in English.

[flex567]

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/seeable

[m.erne]

Hm, I wasn't aware of that. Well, merriam-webster.com doesn't recognize "seeable" as a word. Perhaps other dictionaries do because people use it as one?

[ACatterpillar]

It is not a word in Oxford either.

[ericsonn0]

The word 'seeable' is there now! https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/seeable