55 Comments
It is, there are many cases of that, for example, gloves is die Handschuhe, literally translates as the hand shoes.
Yeah, another relevant example is Jagdhund. Jagd = Hunting, Hund = Dog, Jagdhund = Hunting dog
And Dachshund: Dachs=badger, Hund=dog. Dachshunds were originally used to chase away badgers.
Yep... bats are called fluttermaus which is pretty much flutter (fly) and mouse
Swedish do too. Maybe because we stole half our language from German :) It's "husdjur" in Swedish by the way..
One might find this construction in an old book, but when saying this out loud one will sound rather archaic. Mondern English shifted to the "Do you have". http://forum.wordreference.com/showthread.php?t=1647479&langid=3 There is also a typo in the English sentence, "Do you" not "Du you".
I am enjoying following this course on Duolingo, but I find translating sentences with no context a bit difficult. I have been penalised for using colloquial English, thus losing points to prevent my progress, so now I err on the side of being literal.
I know what you mean. I am a native speaker of German and I am fluent in English, but when I tried the German course at a relatively high level I lost a lot of hearts. Duolingo accepts one or sometimes two correct answers. This is very limiting compared to real translating where you can and should not simply translate a sentence from one language to the other but rather take the concept/idea from language A and look for a very similar concept/idea in language B. Just because one way of saying a concept/idea in language B is similar to language A doesn't mean it's frequently used or appropriate in a certain situation. As you say, without context this is difficult. To me the discussions and comments on Duolingo are more helpful then the lessons themselves. The lessons are for vocabulary learning, a bit of listening and basic grammar. But in the comments there is often someone willing to teach you something about the finer points of grammar and usage/context. - So just have fun and don't stress about the hearts. ;)
Firstly : Thank you very much ^_^ Seondly :I want to ask about how to make a question in German , is it like English or not ?
Thank you, that's encouraging.
I haven't found any lessons, only tests. Is there something I should be "clicking"?
You're welcome. :)
Well, no. I think what I call lessons and you call tests.
The way I see it, the first time you take a test/ do a lesson here you get familiar with the words and sentences (and the way Duolingo wants you to translate them). By hovering over the words you see the translation, but there is alway a chance that you can't (even with Duolingo) translate word by word and get it right.
So when I see a new word, I look at the translation Duo gives me and try to put that into the sentence. If I make a mistake I try to find out why with help of grammar sites and the comment section etc. It feels rather interactive so I'm thinking of it as a lesson. But since you can't make progress without finishing the lessons/tests successful it's probably more like a test.
I agree with that - but I'm starting to see where you can draw the line. I think some things have been literally just not been reported and continue to remain in their literal sense, but others have been.
As long as you've got hearts to spare I suppose!
What is the Gender of 'Haustier'?
Cause it says 'Masculine' but I think it is 'Neuter'.
What do You think?
Remember to spay and neuter your Haustiers! Hey, that might actually be a useful mnemonic device.
Yes, you're definitely right, the dictionary hint is wrong. It's 'das Haustier', not 'der Haustier.'
Not exactly. With this word order, it would imply that the person asking is surprised. So it would be a different meaning.
Example:
A: Ich muss noch Katzenfutter kaufen..
B: Du hast ein Haustier? Wusste ich gar nicht!
I think the proper word order for a German question has the verb at the start of the sentence. Should be correct, even though it'd be unusual.
Du hast ein Haustier - Statement Hast du ein Haustier - Question
Am I correct (just confirming)?
Can you also say - Du hast ein Haustier? If you see that person has a pet, but didn't know prior?
It is so difficult because i'm french and i can't learn german in french so ...
Irmingard to lilygilder. Thank you again! I will plod on. (will instead of shall, because I'm a Scot)
shall, will, it's all the same to me, i use both. English is a wonderful language to play with. Until you try to learn it...
why is it not du hast ein haustier? sometimes i see du hast and other times i see hast du :(?
"Du hast ein Haustier" is colloquial and not correct grammar, though the construction of a normal statment followed by a question mark is often used in conversations among native speakers. In german questions start with the verb.
It's correct grammar. It simply means "You have a pet".
You can say "Du hast ein Haustier?" (You have a pet?) It's something different than asking "Hast du ein Haustier?" (Do you have a pet?), but it's not bad grammar.
If you notice someone has a pet and you didn't know, than you use "Du hast ein Haustier?" But if you just want to know if someone has a pet or not you have to use "Hast du ein Haustier?". It's the same with every other question :)
Why they use hast for du? Is it for question sentence? But i see du habt and here du hast??? Help
Thanks for the help with the conjugation note. Awesome work on the 41 day streak, btw Stefano!
1737
Danke! Sorry for my late but I work hard (even 16 hours some days). As you can see there are users with more than 300 days on DL. To have a big motivation is important in learning a new language; so it's necessary to study and repeat all the days.
"pets" = plural, while "ein Housetier" = singular "Have you got a pet" should work probably.
To all who got this wrong, this translate question can throw you off a bit. The answer is "Do you have a pet?," not "Have you a pet?" Sometimes you have to add a word.
"Have you got a pet?" is probably acceptable as well. "Have you a pet?" is grammatically incorrect in English, so it should be mentioned even as a literal translation.
"Have you a pet", & sentences following that structure are actually quite common in Britain.
