22 Comments
It sounds like it's a torture device. "NO, NOT THE DOOR!! I'LL TALK!!!" "That's more like it! Now, WHERE ARE THE REBELS???"
I have a quick question regarding negative statements that came up with this example: we are saying here "not the door" (nicht die Tür) is it possible to say "Keine Tür" and send the same message across?
I think that would be more like an observation that there are no doors around. That might be a bit weird to say. Kein is like something's absence. It means none of something.
Ex: Ich trinke keine Milch. I drink no milk.
Sie hat keinen Mann. She has no husband.
Es gibt hier keine Tür!!! There's no door here!!!
Sorry for doing this but it's instead "Sie hat keinen Mann" because "kein" gets the accusative case for receiving the action in the sentence.
I'm not positive, but I believe that "kiene Tur" would be like saying that there aren't any doors or none of the doors (depending on context). When I look at this example, I think of someone who is having their house painted by professional painters; they get to the front door and ask "Should we paint the door too?" And the person replies, "No, not the door."
It looks like if someone is getting robbed and they're like " No, not the door!"
Wouldn't it be, "Nein, nicht das Tor?" How is door singular when the article is Die and the word has umlauts?
Thanks for asking! "Tür" is singular and feminine. You're right that the article "die" accompanies plural nouns of any gender, but don't forget that it is also an article for singular, feminine nouns. "Die Tür" almost always means "the door".
'Tor' means 'gate', 'Tür' means 'door'. For very big doors like garage doors (Garagentor) there is some overlap.
It sounds like people are holding the door as a hostage and threatening to kill the door so you respond "NO, NOT THE DOOR!"
Quite common saying in southern Germany and elsewhere: "No, not the door. Use the chimney instead." Typically heard in late December.
