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- "The boy is eating pizza and …
"The boy is eating pizza and the dog is eating rice."
Translation:Der Junge isst Pizza und der Hund frisst Reis.
49 Comments
907
"Essen" is usually used to people and "Fressen" to animals. But "fressen" can be used to describe a person who eats in a very bad and rude way.
544
Interesting. Very specific. We would say you are eating like a pig, whereas German uses two specific words for eating. Perhaps no more gentle when frisst is used to indicate one is eating like an animal. :-)
would it be weird or "offensive" to say an animal "isst" instead of "frisst"?
No. Especially if it's considered part of the family (e.g. a cat or a dog), you can find isst in relation to an animal.
For example, try googling was isst ein(e) ... versus was frisst ein(e) ... for various animals (ein Hund, eine Katze, ein Kaninchen, ein Reh, ein Pferd, ...) and see how many hits each version gets.
2011
"Der Hund" is the subject of that clause "Der Hund frisst Reis." You conjugate the noun based on whether it's the subject/object/etc. in the sentence, not just by what the verb is.
So just like we would say "I eat rice," with the subject form "I," we're going to use the nominative "der Hund" for "Der Hund frisst Reis." We use accusative "den" for "Ich esse den Apfel" because "den Apfel" is the direct object. (Just like "I eat he" is not grammatical; you would need the object form "I eat him.")
I hot this right just not using capitals. You marked it wrong?
Duolingo (unfortunately) ignores capitalisation.
If you were marked wrong, it's unlikely to be due solely to mis-capitalisation.
If you post the URL here to a screenshot you took and uploaded somewhere, we can help you find your mistake.
275
Is the grammar really correct here? In college, they taught us that a second verb goes at the END of the sentence. Grammar was my weak point, though.
Is the grammar really correct here?
Yes.
In college, they taught us that a second verb goes at the END of the sentence.
If you have a clause containing more than one verb, then one of them is finite (has endings that depend on the subject), and the others (participles or infinitives) go at the end of the clause.
A simple sentence consists of just one main clause, in which case, the verb at the end of the clause will also be at the end of the sentence.
Duo's sentence here, though, consists of two main clauses:
- der Junge isst Pizza
- der Hund frisst Reis
each with just one verb, joined together with the conjunction und.
There's just one verb per clause and no reason to move anything to the end of anything else.
Now, if you had something like
- der Junge wird morgen Pizza essen
- und
- der Hund hat gestern Reis gefressen
then yes -- the second verb in each clause goes to the end of that clause and you end up with Der Junge wird morgen Pizza essen und der Hund hat gestern Reis gefressen.
275
Thank you! That was a very precise explanation! Unfortunately, I'm rusty enough that some of the grammatical terms can end up confusing me, but it's nothing some time with Google can't solve. Thank you again!
2011
"Junge" and "Hund" are both the subjects of their respective clauses, so you need the nominative forms, which use "der."
328
Me too, but it's just a matter of time, for now you keep in mind that der is for masculin die is for feminin, and das is for neutral.