"Nichts ist schöner."
Translation:Nothing is more beautiful.
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The pull down translations for schöner said nice, beautiful, pretty instead of nicer or more beautiful. I think that should be changed...
"Schöner" doesn't have to be comparative. It can mean simply "beautiful" as well, as in: "Ein schöner Apfel ist auf dem Tisch." → "A beautiful apple is on the table." When there's no preceding definite article, adjectives that modify masculine singular nouns in the nominative (subject) case get that -er added. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_declension#Attributive_adjectives The comparative is probably more common, but this can happen too, and Duolingo's drop-down translations seem to ignore context, which would be the only way to choose between "beautiful" and "more beautiful" (probably, they use "beautiful" as the default because they introduce adjective declension before comparatives).
So how would you say "Nothing is beautiful"? And how can we distinguish between comparative and nominative?
That would be "Nichts ist schön."
You can tell what's what from context, because the "schöner" that is comparative is an uninflected form, either because it's an adverb or because a linking verb connects them. "Ein Sonnenuntergang ist viel schöner, wenn man traurig ist." (A sunset is much more beautiful when you are sad.)
The "schöner" that is not comparative is an inflected form; it usually comes directly before nouns (for exactly when, see the tables I linked to before). "Es war ein sehr schöner Abend." (It was a beautiful evening.)
You can also have both at the same time: an inflected comparative. "Die schönen Äpfel liegen auf dem Tisch, und ein schönerer Apfel hab ich in der Hand."
It gets better if your adjective ends in -er to begin with. "Ein sichererer Computer hätte ein verschlüsseltes Dateisystem." (A more secure computer would have an encrypted filesystem.)
I love that German basically uses "beautiful-er" in this sentence, and none of that silly "more (x)" that English does. So easy to remember!
So, would this sentence "Nichts ist mehr schön" be translated as "Nothing is beautiful anymore"?
Why not “nothing is more handsome”? Schön means beautiful or handsome, usually depending on gender. The suggested translations even give “more handsome” but it doesn’t accept it as a final answer.
In English, some words have comparative forms:
Pretty, prettier, prettiest Quick, quicker, quickest Fast, faster, fastest
Because these words have comparative forms, most native speakers will use the comparative forms instead of "more" or "most."
Examples:
She is prettier than her sister. (Instead of "more pretty.")
I think that doll is the prettiest. (Instead of the "most pretty.")
She won the race because she was the quickest. (Instead of the "most quick.")
I wish I had a faster computer. (Instead of "more fast.")
Can anyone please post the concept of nicht/kein... May be some link or some other discussion thread? I'm really confused about the position of the nicht in sentences.. Humble request!
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Here are a couple of links that might be helpful:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ynPiiIDjgcg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJYb4L7S6vw
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I get this one wrong every time cuz I am going on automatic and she sounds like she is saying nichts es schöner.