37 Comments
Herr means more Mr or Lord not "The MAN eats an apple.". In case of man it wold be ... "Der Mann isst einen Apfel".
How, when speaking, does one distinguish between isst and ist? Here if this sentence were to be formal, if I were to listen it could sound like
"The gentleman eats the apple"
or sarcastically, like:
"That gentleman is an Apple"
Context.
"An apple" is in the Akkusativ form "einen Apfel" because the apple receives the action:
- The gentleman eats (is eating) an apple = Der Herr isst einen Apfel
The verb "sein" (ist) has a linking function, so it takes the Nominative "ein Apfel":
- The gentleman is an apple = Der Herr ist ein Apfel
This reply has finally made it click in my head why masculine direct objects following sein don't use the 'en' ending. Danke schön!
2048
Well, Mann translates as 'man', while Herr is 'mister', which is more formal as far as I know.
Gentleman "Herr" is way more formal, Man "Mann" is more informal. If you are from the richer part of society or want to be more professional/polite (say to a customer or authority figure as two examples) you would say Gentleman.
'The sir' would generally be incorrect English. The only sense I think it could be correct would be referring to Knights in an abstract sense, otherwise you would just say 'Sir'
Yes - in this context, "Herr" is used with a surname just as English uses "Mr. Smith"; when it's on its own as a noun, it translates as "The gentleman. . ." (I confidently expect such a gentleman to eat his apple with a fruit knife and fork, of course.)
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You address a knight or baronet as 'Sir' followed by his first name, eg "Sir John". You address a gentleman as "Sir" alone; or if you know him you can say "Mr Smith". There is never any occasion to say "a sir", or "the sir" - you probably mean a knight/gentleman/master/officer. The only time you would use "Sirs" is when addressing a group, or writing a formal business letter; it is very uncouth to use it to talk ABOUT them.
Herr never means "Husband". "Der Mann" or "der Ehemann" can be used for "Husband"
To me it sounded like "der Held" (meaning the hero)... yikes! A German student of 3 years (in a class where ONLY German is speaken) and the verbal interpretation exercises on here always get me!
You can tell by context. "An apple" is in the Akkusativ form "einen Apfel" because the apple receives the action:
- The gentleman eats (is eating) an apple = Der Herr isst einen Apfel
The verb "sein" (ist) has a linking function, so it takes the Nominative "ein Apfel":
- The gentleman is an apple = Der Herr ist ein Apfel
There are comments about pronunciation on the webpage below. In summary, official dictionary pronunciation for "ist" and "isst" is the same: IPA [ɪst]
The exception is in informal language for "ist" where the "t" may be dropped. As well, other commenters indicate that there may be regional differences between "ist" and "isst".
do not know if herr means man in english..but mann means man. so herr actually means gentleman?
ok this is just stu to the pid. i am so so so damn tired of having to freaking spell out gentleman. this is dumb please stop. KYS duolingo. no lingots for you homie quan. stop the madness #killbinladen #duolingoisISIS
'Der Herr' pronunciation sounds almost like just one word in Duo like "Deherr". Is that how Germans pronounce it?
The gentlemen is eating an apple. If I said that to anyone in America, they would think one person. Noone says the gentleman.
the gentlemen would be "Die Herren" as that indicates more than one. The gentleman is what would indicate one person. Lots of people say "The gentleman" in North America. If you are from a richer part of society you would say it. Also even if you aren't rich if you are doing it in a more formal, professional and/or polite manner. Professional wise I hear waiters all the time say to someone else "The gentleman at table 5 wants a water". In a business scenario someone could say "The gentleman from ABC company is here to see you". Even in retail I've heard them say "The gentleman over there needs assistance". So it's definitely used frequently on a regular basis in the formal/professional scenarios.
