"What do the five men read?"

Translation: Was lesen die fünf Männer ?

[mukeshp]

Why can't I write like "Was die fünf Männer lesen" ? what is wrong ?

[wataya]

This word order doesn't work - at least not with the intended meaning.

[usamadar]

The conjugated verb should always be in second place

[MichaelMaher]

Does 'Herren' not also mean men?

[wataya]

"Herren" is more like "gentlemen".

[jabenpor]

what´s the problem with Mensch by Männer. it is marked incorrect

[wataya]

Sorry, I don't understand your question. Please try to rephrase it.

[jabenpor]

Was lesen die fünf Mensch is wrong, but i thought that men translates as Mensch too. why not in this sentence.

[wataya]

OK, I see. There are two issues here

• "Mensch" means "man" in the sense of "human being". I think the plural 'men' is not normally used with that meaning in English.You'd rather resort to "five people". [Not a native English speaker, though]
• 'men' is plural, so it'd have to be "die fünf Menschen" in German

[slacker822]

Can I write "Die fünf Männer lesen was?"? It wasn't accepted, but I thought that word order was also correct...

[wataya]

Better stick to "Was lesen die fünf Männer?". If you put the "was" to the end, it conveys a sense of incredulity that isn't present in the original. Similar to "The five men are reading WHAT?"

Interrogative pronouns should normally be placed at the beginning of the sentence.

[tchinloy]

Why can't I say "Was lesen sie die fünf Männer?" with the pronoun after the conjugated verb? You can do this in many other languages; does it just not work like that in German?