"Nein, ich habe es nicht dabei."
Translation:No, I do not have it with me.
76 CommentsThis discussion is locked.
2802
da + preposition means there/here/it + preposition meaning. An "r" is sometimes added after da if the preposition begins with a vowel. For example "darauf" means on it and "darunter" means under it.
Here dabei means "thereby", "herewith", etc... If you literally dump those translations into English it doesn't make a lot of sense, so we translate it as "with me".
"No, I have it not herewith" Is the most literal translation. In English we would never say we have something "herewith", so that is why the translation is "on me" or "with me".
If you can think of the da + preposition rule then when your mind translates "herewith" that will help you remember "here with me" or just "with me".
2802
btw you can also do this same adding of a preposition logic with "wo" to make a question.
wovon: what from worüber: what about wofür: what for
Not sure why "wo" means what in this context when it means "where" by itself, but it does in this particular construct. A lot of these wo + prep constructs make more sense in English if you swap the word order (e.g. from what)
Wovon träumst du? (what do you dream of?) Ich träume davon (I dream of it)
A short summary from my German textbook (Kontakte 7th ed.) mit is for instrument, togetherness, and means of transportation. bei is for vicinity (this example, here with so "da(here, something abstract)+bei(with)", somebody's place, and place of employment.
So definitely can't use damit here. Hope this helps.
I just list some simple cases. You can find more discussion here: https://www.lsa.umich.edu/german/hmr/Grammatik/Relativsaetze/relative.html
For a person, you would use "der/die (not das I hope)" (also depends on the case), just like the English "who/whom". Example:
Da ist der Mann, der Rumpelstilzchen liebt. (There is the man who loves Rumpelstilzchen) Da ist der Mann, den Rumpelstilzchen liebt. (There is the man whom Rumpelstilzchen loves)
For things like a phone, you would still use the article that corresponds to its gender, similar to the English "which". Say:
Stefan trinkt viel zu viel Kaffee, der seinen Magen zerstören wird. (Stefan is drinking much too much coffee, which will destroy his stomach.) "Kaffee" is masculine so we use "der" here.
This link also discusses the "da-compounds" case, which tells under what situations we can/cannot use da-compounds. Say
"Da-compounds cannot be used to refer to people or most animals ("most" means: start using da-compounds at the point where assuming any kind of personality for the animal would be absurd, e.g. for insects)"
1814
Unfortunately, you just have to know. You'll certainly be understood if you say "mit mir," but you'll also be immediately recognized as Ausländer. Believe me, I've done it! :-) Use dabei instead; that's one of the things this section is trying to teach you. In time, you'll come to know when it's correct to use so-called da- and wo- sentence constructions.
You can say "Ich habe es nicht dabei", or more colloquially "Ich habe es nicht mit". If you add "mir", it's wrong.
1926
"Ich habe es mit mir nicht" is totally incorrect german. I know it can be hard to accept but english isn't the standard that all other languages have to adhere to. Other languages express things differently.
1926
I do not have it - Ich habe es nicht - I do not own such an item
I do not have it with me - Ich habe es nicht dabei - I own such an item but have not brought it along
Depending on the context, "dabei" can mean all sorts of things.
I got that a couple of times They saw me sweating. Actually it was when I went ahead and clicked discuss sentence to try and learn from everyone, having thought I lost a heart and might they be rewarding that. Good Idea anyway, now I always look at all the input- its great. Can learn a big bunch more, there you go!. Oddly when doing that, and bought a spare heart on each unit, I have not had to use the spare. Alles gute! aj
I don't think your English is grammatically wrong, but it doesn't mean the same as the sentence provided. In fact, I can't really think of a situation in which it would be used.
"To have x with me" means that you currently have x on your person (in your hand, in your pocket, in you wallet etc). The sentence given - "No, I do not have it with me" would normally be used if someone asked you for something but you couldn't hand it over because it was somewhere else. E.g. "Could you give me the ticket?" "No, I don't have it with me - I left it at home." You could also substitute "on me" for "with me" in most circumstances.
"To have x with myself" is a bit trickier. The only instances I can think of are things like "I'm having a conversation with myself" or "I'm having dinner with myself" (i.e. you're doing the thing alone).
Myself (as well as yourself, himself etc) is used when the subject is the same as the object of the sentence/phrase (e.g. "I entertained myself", "She sang to herself", "We dug ourselves a hole"). That is, it is the reflexive form of I. See Reflexive verb on Wikipedia.
1926
No, it wouldn't. Give the tipps under the lightbulb icon a try, they are really helpful.
1031
I looked up to Google translate and haben and dabei is "one element verb" it means "have along". So I'm assuming the translation would be " i don't have it along with me". Could any native speaker clarify?
1031
Ah i see, "one element verb" is my own term to call any verb who has 2 word on it :D, i don't know what they're called so
32
I tried 'no, i do not have it to hand', because i thought that translated happily with darbei (in my mind there-by/beside/at). It didnt work.
Dabeihaben is a separable verb which means “to have with/on oneself”. By itself (i.e. not as the prefix of dabeihaben) it is basically just bei + the demonstrative das “that”. Das doesn’t like to combine with prepositions. Instead we prefix the preposition with da(r)- (the -r- is only present if the preposition starts with a vowel, e.g. über “over” → darüber “over that”).