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- Topic: German >
- "Der Vogel isst die Maus."
102 Comments
For animals eating the verb should be ' fressen ' - ' Der Vogel frisst die Maus'
A question on the word "isst". Is there any way, other than guessing from context, to hear the difference between "isst" and "ist", or do german speakers say them the same?
They are said the same. The best way to differentiate is with context. After a while it should be easy to just "know" the difference :P If that makes sense.
I think that would be right. But if your so good, tell me, what on earth is the differance between "esse" and "essen" ? :-
Essen is the main verb (to eat ) when we use it with (ich) it becomes esse ..... Like in English Play ... He plays
When it is capitalised, it definitely means food. If you find the conjugated form, it's a verb. If you find "essen" in front of a plural, "wir", "Sie", or "sie", then it's a verb. If you find an article before "Essen", it's definitely a noun.
I have no knowledge of German, but wouldn't "ist" have a slightly "z-like" sound while the double "s" in "isst" a softer "s" sound? This is a question more than an answer. Does the "z" sound only occur at the beginning of a word?
I think context is the best solution. Here, it wouldn't make sense to say, “The bird is the mouse”.
Though I suppose if one really wanted to say that, there would be another word to use...
Shouldn't that be "Der Vogel frisst die Maus" as the subject of the sentence is an amimal?
Dative plural would actually be "den Mäusen". :) Must be very hard to learn though! (coming from a native german speaker)
What is the dative? I know Mir in "tut mir leid" is in the dative case(but that might be wrong). So nominative for the subject(noun), accusative for the object (noun), and dative for the indirect object???
is the verb "isst" simple present or present continuous? my question is not exactly on the verb "isst", every verb i learned sometimes i use present continuous tense and sometimes present simple and in the both situations my answer is accepted so i'm little confused !!
There is no present continuous in German. "Du isst" translates to both "You eat" and "You are eating", and vice versa. Ditto for other verbs. Ich gehe = I am going, I go; Ich trinke = I drink, I am drinking; Ich spaziere = I play, I am playing....
oh okay. but if someone tells me ich esse **** how do i know if he means that he's eating at this moment or he used to eat this thing?
Context. You would likely know what's going on based on the previous bit of conversation. If you phoned me up and asked me what I was doing, and I answered "Ich esse Äpfel", you would know that I meant "I'm eating apples" and not a random statement that "I eat apples".
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If he used to eat it, that is neither present simple nor present continuous; it's a past tense.
How do you properly say "Vogel" because to me it's saying "Fogel" and I think that's wrong
"V" at the beginning of a word sounds like "F", so you are hearing it correctly. " W" has the "V" sound, so Volkswagen sounds like "Folksvagen"...pretty cool once you get used to it!
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You can't make this a guessing game as to whether the correct answer is "essen" or "fressen." The tips section tells us "fressen" is for animals and is only used to insult someone if used for a human. In every other exercise with an animal eating "fressen" is the verb used. It is marked wrong if "essen" is used. Why is this different?
Why is it 'der Vogel isst' instead of 'der Vogel frisst'? I thought when animals eat, you use 'frisst', and when humans eat you use 'isst'.
No, LolcatGuy! "Der Vogel fressen die Maus" is wrong, because it means "the bird eating the mouse". You were close, it actually is "Der Vogel frisst die Maus"
Yeah, but in another Duo example, where an animal ate something, the corect answer was frisst. Are frisst & isst both acceptable?
Typically, frisst (from fressen) refers to animals while isst (from essen) refers to humans. Similar things happen when describing some nouns like mouth, etc.
I/he/she ate Ich/er/sie aß We/they ate Wir /sie aßen I have/had eaten Ich habe hatte gegessen
I totally put that too. It must be an English speaking thing to assume such a sentence!
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why here it's die katze isst DIE maus, while der hund isst DEN vogel? what is the difference? (i mean why isn't "der vogel", the parallel to "die maus")
Because here Vogel is the object being eaten. Then the masculine ("der") article is changed. Feminine and neuter article have the same form. (Der -> den, die -> die, das -> das).
I noticed till now that the only time when it is "den" is actually when the word is masculine...or only the article "der" changes into "den" and "die" and "das" stay like that.
You have to memorize it. There are a lot of random ones it seems, but this has helped me, especially if I had to make an educated guess: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ak8kffdi9qbhIRN5m6XcqYVtNMSiATSdXfA0Ceq2GgA/edit?usp=sharing
It is a Google Spreadsheet
Thanks. Some that I knew. Others I didn't, so that will be useful moving forward.
Do animals have articles the same way food does? I started off learning just the words of different types of food when I really should've learnt the article with it, and I was wondering if I need to do the same with animals.
That sentence, while correct, is strange. You would only say something like that if you were pointing to the mouse that is being eaten or will be eaten. Also, 'die' in German means 'the,' not 'this.' 'Dies' or 'das' means 'this.'
Isst is used with humans and when humans eat. Frisst applies to animals. Duolingo access both, it seems. If speaking with someone, be sure to not use "frisst" when talking about them! :)
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This is a wierd sentence! I have chickens and turkeys and NONE of them eat mice.... maybe the sentence should be Die katze isst die maus....
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I would have expected each Stage to be an advance in difficulty. In fact they consist mainly of repitions from earlier Stages.
I got the exact question except English to German and was marked wrong for using isst (instead of frisst) . In the same review, they use isst in the same sentence.
Hello, how do i differentiate between male and neutral words please, its causing me a few lingots.
I wrote this mouse instead of the mouse, an failed but THIS is correct answer too.
Not really dottah1, in that case, it would be: "Der Vogel isst diese Maus"
Present, past, present perfect, past perfect. But in German it's always supposed to be present?
When you master the present then you'll go to the past tense and then to the future tense and so on after 5 years you can conjugate very well all Germana verbs
