Structure of sentence

[higsy1]

I came across this sentence "Diese Haushaltsgerate haben meine Eltern" and i asked my german friend about it and i was told that this is structured incorrectly. it should be "Meine Eltern haben diese Haushaltsgerate". So my question is, why on Duolingo is it written incorrectly?

[wataya]

Hi, both are correct. However, normally 'Meine Eltern haben diese Haushaltsgeräte' is used.

[Luiseadh]

My understanding is that you can change the word order and put the object of the sentence first if you want to change the emphasis. Is this correct?

[wataya]

@Luiseadh: yes, that's correct.

[higsy1]

thank you. i did think that because it is the same for spanish, but my german friend informed me otherwise. but thank you.

[siebolt]

The phrase is a bit difficult. Both subject and object are plural. If you would say: "Einen Rechner haben meine Eltern nicht" it would be instantly clear, that Rechner (computer) is object. By putting the object first it gets more emphasis like in: Einen Rechner haben meine Eltern nicht, sondern eine Stereo-Anlage."

[G.P.Niers]

That just goes to show that even native speakers get it wrong sometimes.
Take care however to write an umlaut on Gerät.