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- Topic: German >
- "Eine Frau isst den Käse."
105 Comments
169
I put 'a woman is eating cheese' and it marked it wrong! - it said I had used the plural form of woman. I don't understand!
Short "ä" is easy: it's the same as German "short e", pretty much like English "short e" as in "pet".
German "long ä" is properly pronounced like "short ä" but longer -- i.e. the same vowel quality but a different vowel quantity.
Colloquially, many people pronounce "long ä" like "long e" (i.e. like French é), so Käse may sound like Keese or Räder (wheels) like Reeder (ship owners) or Bären (bears) like Beeren (berries). But that's not quite standard pronunciation.
733
You combined the indefinite article [for non-specific singular nouns] 'a' with the plural 'women'. 'Eine Frau' is singular: 'a woman'. This is the reason your answer wasn't accepted, though Duo's preference for 'lady' is odd.
'Woman' is the primary meaning of 'Frau', but it can also be translated as 'female', 'Mrs./Ms./Miss' or 'lady'. However, 'Dame' is the more appropriate -- and far more polite -- word for 'lady'.
Why doesn't "eats" work in this case?
It does.
What was your entire sentence?
Are you sure you had a translation exercise rather than a listening ("type what you hear") exercise?
Did you report your sentence as "my translation should be accepted"?
If you have a screenshot showing the question and your answer, it would be helpful if you upload it to a website somewhere (e.g. imgur) and told us the URL to the image.
598
Frau was woman in earlier lessons. But now frau became lady. I belive better to leave from this app. Expecting others response as well.
Roughly: "the woman" is a woman who is known to the listener -- perhaps because you had spoken about her already.
"a woman" is a woman who has not been spoken about before. She is new to the conversation. Her identity is perhaps not important.
The distinction between eine Frau and die Frau in German is similar to that between "a woman" and "the woman" in English.
103
I didn't see this question anywhere below, but why is it "one" woman instead of "a" woman? I got it wrong for writing "a woman".
It has nothing to do with the subject, Mann or Frau. Rather, use of the indefinite article (in the English translation) depends on what they’re eating. “Apple” is a countable singular noun that starts with a vowel, and takes the article “an”. “Cheese” is an uncountable noun that starts with a consonant, and takes no indefinite article at all.