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- Topic: German >
- "Das ist nicht ganz richtig."
32 Comments
'ganz=quite' should be accepted here. 'That's not quite right' is a very natural translation of this sentence.
The meaning to this sentence is to say something is not 100 % correct.
But it could be 90% correct.
Your sentence means something is mostly wrong (thats the implication to a native English speaker).
I think it translates better as that is not quite right, suggesting it is close to right. i don't think accuracy is really the intention
I said "absolutely" correct and got it wrong. People say, "that isn't absolutely correct," all the time synonymously with "completely, totally, entirely, and quite." "Totally" is actually a bit informal, almost slang, because "totally" is totally, totally overused.
301
I think "that's not right at all" and "that's not entirely correct" (which is what I put) are two different things. The first one implies that whatever "that" is (an answer, for example) is completely wrong. The second one implies that a portion of the answer is correct, but a portion is also wrong.
When you say that something is not really correct you are usually actually saying that it is totally wrong, although you understand why the person thought it might be right and you don't want to hurt their feelings. However the sentence in this exercise is saying that something is mostly correct but not entirely correct.
i don' t think it is correct in English (at least not Australian English) to describe something as "very" correct. It is either correct or it isn't.... though one could say "not quite correct" if we are encouraging someone to come up with an answer closer to the required answer.
Actually, correct can have different degrees, as this sentence shows. (you can be 75% correct, partially correct, not entirely correct). "Very correct" is correct, although not very used.
Duoling transaltes ganz as "entire", but accept it as "entirely". Does it work both as noun or adverb?
It is an adverb here because it is qualifying an adjective, but can also be an adjective when it qualifies a noun.
I typed "That's not correct", in a result of me not getting it right...lol
That is not entirely X => Das ist nicht ganz X
What about sentences "That is entirely not X"? (if you can't just replace "not X" with anonym of X)
Would, for example, "Das ist ganz nicht richtig" work?
Why does "ist" always sound like "list" to me? I hear the letter "l" in front of it every time. Is it my native English speaker ears only?
- 912
How can I hear the difference between "wichtig" and "richtig"? I wrote "that is not entirely important" and got it wrong for the listening exercise.
I said "that is not exactly right" and it was counted wrong. Is that a bad translation of the sentence?
