"Die Natur ist stärker als der Mensch."
Translation:Nature is stronger than man.
35 CommentsThis discussion is locked.
"The" seems out of place for both "Nature" and "human" unless they are referring to an inner nature. In that case "The nature" could stand for basic instincts while "the human" could stand for reason or for human values.
Concerning the two 'the's, I agree. I'd also change 'human' to 'man'. I don't think 'nature' refers to human instincts here (although it could in principle). It just says 'nature (the environment) is stronger than man (with all technology)' - think of a natural disaster that destroys a city: humankind with all technology is helpless against the forces of nature.
True. I forgot to really look at the German sentence where it is more natural to give them articles.
In this case, "humanity" would also work although it is more commonly translated to "die Menschheit" in German. Note that "der Mensch" stresses more the nature of man (in the sense of Plato's ideas) than the group of all humans, therefore I feel 'man' is a better fit than 'humanity', but I may be wrong.
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Adjusting isn't always so easy. Wait until you try to use a third person singular without referencing a gender. ;-)
@Soglio: ah, ok. Now I understand. I didn't know that. Guess I'll have to adjust then, too ;-)
@soglio: http://youtu.be/pQiA8XymmKM A nice presentation on the topic of language and gender. It's in German and maybe not that easy to follow. Although I don't agree with him (I'm embracing militant feminism far less than he does), he raises some interesting and noteworthy points. The talk was held during a hacker event, so the audience and his choice of examples sometimes are a bit peculiar ;-)
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I agree, but it's still a little dicey in print; and it still makes a lot of people cringe. (Eventually, we may all get over it.)
When I was younger I tried to argue that we did have a third-person neuter pronoun and that we should use it, but when I referred to a generic person as "it" on a corporate memo I was rather severely criticized. ;-)
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@wataya. Thanks for the link. This goes a little fast for me, but I think my vocabulary should be more or less equal to the task if I work on it for awhile. Reactions when I'm fairly sure of his thesis. ;-)
My impulse was to to for Nature is stronger than man, but thought the owl might bite.
In this case the owl would have given you credit for trusting your impulse: it accepted 'Nature is stronger than man.' ; )
I agree with you! In this case you are comparing Nature to Man. (Both without articles to keep an equilibrium.)
"Nature is stronger than man." It is a perfect sound sentence. Yet, our present times are demanding to address this perceived sexism. How this changes our everyday talk will be interesting to see. Yet, will it change the hearts of people? That remains to be seen.
By the way, sometimes knowing another language is helpful to acquire another language. At the least concerning certain concepts that might be foreign in one language, the other language can compliment it. Having Spanish as my native language has helped me to understand German and Hebrew. Of course, knowing English makes German easier to learn. In Hebrew, I am just starting but it is not hard to grasp certain concepts such a different endings when addressing a woman or a man in plural or singular. When it comes to German and its articles, Spanish sometimes coincides with German beautifully--almost word for word. Yet, between us, German takes this concept of articles to a higher level! However, even if you're monolingual, don't get discouraged. After some studying and practice, you will be almost like a native expressing yourself! Without further ado, behold the sentence:
Die Natur ist stärker als der Mensch.
La naturaleza es más fuerte que el hombre.
Nature is stronger than man.
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No .I did not use " the .... " And got it wrong but as far as I am concerned Duo's got it wrong in this instance . Personally I would prefer men meaning humans/ humanity. So, bmwx 11 , you are right!
If the expression "humankind" is accepted, why not "mankind" ? The nature is stronger than the mankind.
Comparisons with wie and als are followed by a noun phrase in the same case as the thing you are comparing with.
Here, you are comparing der Mensch to die Natur, and die Natur is the subject of ist stärker and so is in the nominative case. Thus der Mensch is also in the nominative case.
Consider this pair of sentences:
Ich liebe dich mehr als mein Vater. "I love you more than my father".
(als) mein Vater is in the nominative case, so I must be comparing mein Vater to ich -- I love you more than my father loves you.
Ich liebe dich mehr als meinen Vater. "I love you more than my father."
(als) meinen Vater is in the accusative case, so I must be comparing meinen Vater to dich -- I love you more than I love my father.
I used "mankind" and it didn't accept, it said I should use "humankind" - whaaaaa?
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I went for "Nature is stronger than mankind." which was accepted - makes more sense to me.
I always thought people were humans. To use "humans" here does not sound English.
Duo is very inconsistent in accepting (requiring) natural speech rather than direct translation. Most annoying.
I'm confused about case here. A recent question used "als der koch". yet this exercise uses "den mensch". so why nominative in one exercise and accusative in the other? makes no sense to me at all. please help
this exercise uses "den mensch"
Huh? Where do you see the ungrammatical den mensch? Do you have a screenshot?
The sentence I see is Die Natur ist stärker als der Mensch with nominative der and with capital M on Mensch.
As for the case to use after als, please see my reply to Uberling.
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Leider könnte diese Aussage diskutiert werden, da wir die Natur auf schreckliche Weise beeinflussen, einschließlich der Zerstörung von Lebensräumen für bedrohte oder nahezu ausgestorbene Tiere, Klimawandel und globale Erwärmung
