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- "Are you cold?"
"Are you cold?"
Translation:Ist euch kalt?
80 Comments
I'm confused here. I thought it would be "Bist du kalt?" Can someone explain the correct answer?
I was told by another German student that when you want to express that you are cold or hot to always use the dative 'To me it is cold/hot' because saying Ich bin kalt/heiß implied one was sexually cold/hot. o.O Perhaps a native speaker can confirm. (So, to answer your question (!), I think the above sentence is short for Es ist euch kalt?)
Not a native speaker, but I did hear a native speaker say just what you've said. In German one would say "Es ist mir kalt" or "Mir ist (es) kalt" to mean "I am cold." Keeping with the pattern, "es ist dir kalt" would mean "you are cold" (word for word, literally "it is to me cold") and then shifting words to get a question comes out "ist es dir kalt?"
"Is it to you, cold" makes perfect sense now. Thank you. You're the only one that made me understand the concept using the older form of English.
First, euch is for you plural (like ihr), second, the cold is acting on the people (the people themselves are not in a permanent state of being cold). I think that's the difference. It seems like every time that is the case, ist is used.
Is it correct, however? The discussion above makes references to the dative form, viz.: "Es ist mir kalt"
Correct? Yes. But I believe it has connotations of death, extreme cold, or sexual frigidity, so use with great care.
"Ist dir kalt?" is the idomatic translation for "are you cold".
Sorry, should have said -- must have gotten distracted. There's a little discussion elsewhere on this page.
Does this exercise belong to this lesson? Title says accusativ, but here pronoun is clearly dativ
You're exactly right - this exercise has no right to be in this lesson! I don't know why someone voted your comment down, but I voted it up again.
Similar to Spanish: tengo frio/calor -- Literally "I have cold/heat" but it translates to I am cold/hot (temperature), But Estoy caliente -- I am "hot" (in a sexy way)
...And none of these comments so far address the fact that this sentence turns up in the section entitled "Accusative Pronouns". No accusative pronouns feature in this sentence, though.
sometimes, to get a better understanding of something that is, you have to try with some things that are not.
Sie sind kalt is not correct? I understand Bist du kalt, but Sie sind kalt should be the same thing... Oh how frustrating...
In German you don't say 'I am cold', you say (translated literally into English) 'To me it is cold' which is 'Mir ist es kalt' or 'Es ist mir kalt'. In general usage, the es is often dropped out of the phrase.
So when using this phrase the verb is always 'ist' (as it relates to the 'es' which may or may not be there) and the pronoun must be in the dative form.
So you get: Mir ist (es) kalt Dir ist (es) kalt or 'Ist dir kalt?' Ihm/Ihn ist (es) kalt Uns ist (es) kalt Euch ist (es) kalt or 'Ist euch kalt?' Ihnen ist (es) kalt or' Ist Ihnen kalt?'
As Duo is accepting "Bist du kalt?" it may also be accepting "Sind Sie kalt?" but not "Sie sind kalt" which is not a question.
But as others have pointed out, asking "Bist/Seid/Sind du/ihr/Sie kalt?" is not the same as asking "Ist (es) dir/euch/Ihnen kalt?"
Because you conjugate the subject (nominative) not your indirect object (dative). For these you can always change the dative and not verb, z.B.: Ist es dir/euch/Ihnen kalt? And all of those would be correct. Notice that this would be like wording in English: "Is it cold to you?" not "Are it cold to you?" [Which would be how the ihr (euch in dative) form would conjugate], which unless your are a pirate, is incorrect.
Would "Ist dir kalt?" work here as well? "Are you cold (in temperature)?" I spoke to a native speaker and they said they use that in place of "Bist du kalt" because of the connotation between that and "Are you frigid"
I would report this, this translates to "Are you dead?" It has to be "Ist es dir kalt?"
Yes...that is what my parents taught me 60 years ago...but duolingo just rejected "Ist es dir kalt?" claiming the "es" should not be there.
Odd, the "es" should be there, but in colloquial people dropped out the "es" and it is more so implied
I tried "seid euch kalt" and it was wrong! Why? I just read that euch is for "you all" then why this is false?
"Seid euch kalt" is literally "Are you cold?" – as in "Are you frigid?" In German, though, you need to say "Is it cold to you?" That would be either "Ist (es) dir kalt?", "Ist (es) Ihnen kalt?", or "Ist (es) euch kalt?"
I learned to say "Ich habe kalt" so I suggested "Hast du kalt?" Is that not also correct?
No, you can't "have" coldness in German. You need to say "Is it cold to you?" – e.g. "Ist (es) dir kalt?"
I asked my Swiss husband, and he confirmed that in Switzerland everyone says "Ich habe kalt" and though the Germans might not use it much, it is not incorrect.
Actually, most Germans are so unfamiliar with this rare dialect usage that they are confused by it and consider it simply "wrong". (cf. following links for a few example references) http://forum.wordreference.com/showthread.php?t=974554 http://www.gutefrage.net/frage/ich-habe-kalt-sagt-sie http://www.saarbruecker-zeitung.de/familienmagazin/themen/art260711,4328702
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Sie sind kalt is not accepted 01.10.2015 But I think the problem is the verb, it's not "sind" but "ist" es...
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4 months later I know the answer to my own question. For it to work it would have to be "Bist du kalt?" Funny how you can look back at how much you have learned over time. :)
My german teacher always said that if you wanted to describe the temperature you were feeling, you should say "Mir geht's heiß/warm/kalt".
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Someone should just list all the ways to say this in Dative for du/er/sie/sie/Sie (singular + plural formal)/Ihr.
I believe it's "bist du kalt", "ist er kalt", "ist sie kalt", "(???)", "ist Ihren kalt", (???) and "ist euch kalt".
I'm unsure about how you would translate "are they cold" and "are you could (plural formal)".
So, I was scrolling through and saw a lot of questions, but not this one (I may have missed it), but I'm wondering why the answer is "Ist euch kalt?" and not "Ist dir kalt?" When is it appropriate to use "euch" and when should you use "dir"?
Both of your sentences are correct translations of the English sentence. Which one you use depends on whether 'you' is singular or plural. In German, there are multiple ways of saying 'you', as follows: 'du' (singular informal), 'ihr' (plural informal), and 'Sie' (singular/plural formal). Of course, this only applies to the nominative case, so let's expand it for a couple more grammatical cases: du (nominative) - dich (accusative) - dir (dative) ihr (nominative) - euch (accusative) - euch (dative) Sie (nominative) - Sie (accusative) - Ihnen (dative) In this particular sentence, we're concerned with the dative form, so actually we can use either 'dir', 'euch', or 'Ihnen', depending on whether whoever we're talking to just one person or more, or whether it is appropriate to address the person informally or formally. Modern "Standard" English makes it easy by using the form 'you' for the singular or plural form, and by not making a distinction in formality; however, many dialects do have plural forms of 'you'.
It did not accept Bist du Kalt for me. Which I certainly have heard native speakers say but that doesn't mean its correct. I certainly say things in English that aren't correct English as well. Would like to know for certain.
Man, sometimes this duolingo is ridiculous. Why the app did not accept "Sie", most of the times?
Sorry...just to make sure...Nominative would be "euch"??? and dative would be "kalt"? Im sorry....i want to be complete sure i got the idea :) Danke!
No, "euch" is dative for "you" (informal plural). "Kalt" simply means "cold" and does not change its form in this context.
A very literal translation of "Ist euch kalt?" could be "Is to-you cold?"
Can someone please explain to me why "Bist du kalt" is incorrect? Thank in advance.
