"They are strong shoes."
Translation:Es sind starke Schuhe.
16 Comments
The correct answer is: Ta da:
Dies sind stabile Schuhe. Dieses sind stabile Schuhe.
Das ist festes Schuwerk.
All other attempts are unfortunately misleading or wrong. There is no such thing like: "starke Schuhe" in the German language.
Schuhe can be:
zweckmaessig, gut, stabil, fest, geschlossen, offen, knoechelhoch, halbhoch, hoch, gestiefelt,
the list goes on, but you wouldn't find stark in it.
"sie" in german always relates to people, never to objects, may it be plural (meaning: they, or those people) or singular (formal you)... Which makes me (a german native speaker) question: doesn´t the english sentence "they are strong shoes." sound unnatural to native english ears? Wouldn´t you rather say "those are strong shoes?" (Except for the macabre case, in which people are being used as shoes...)
46
In English, "they" can be used for inanimate objects. It doesn't sound strange at all.
We don't have a way of using people as shoes, at least not grammatically. ;-)
- 46
"They" is simply the third-person plural pronoun--it's equivalent to he/she/it, but it's plural. It can be used to refer to people, animals, or objects.
I don't know of a dialectal difference in that usage, but that doesn't mean there isn't one.
"Those" is either used as an article (e.g., "Those shoes are strong."
It can also be used as a stand-alone pronoun, a plural for "that," though I think it would be considered rude to refer to people as simply "those."
(In addition, although it's not ungrammatical exactly, there can be a slight derogatory tone in "these people" or "those people."
nice to know, thank you! Is there a particular case in which you would use "they" rather than "those" for inanimate objects, or is it maybe a matter of dialect, by what I mean: certain folks, who live in the south or north of the US tend to use "those" others tend to use "they"? Would you say, that there is such a tendency? Which one would you rather use? I´m curious how that works, never been to the States.
In spoken German that is very common. In fact I was going to type that but I didn't know if it is officially correct but the Germans do say that a lot I've noticed.
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At last there is the answer I've been looking for. Many thanks the "es" which I took for singular, when the verb was plural was confusing.
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@wotheme As Soglio points out: "They" is plural "he/she/it" plain and simple for animate or inanimate. It's not a matter of dialect, or regional. And it would sound perfectly natural to me to say: "They are strong shoes." (native speaker). "Those" would be more specific as in "these" nearby and "those" further away, but could be used in place of "they" very well with no real change of meaning even a bit of emphasis. I also agree with soglio that "those people" or "these people" is derogatory but very derogatory not slightly. IOW don't use it.
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I said "can" have a slightly derogatory tone. If someone told me that was the case with a German phrase or construction, I would just avoid it, rather than trusting my non-native skills to parse out when it's OK and when it isn't.
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polomare I get your point. Again I'd be careful how I used it. And tone of voice can say a lot.
