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What would be grammatically wrong with "Nein, ich habe es mit mir nicht". How do I know when I must use the da-* words?
I want to know the answer to this too - is it just 'not the way a German would say it', or is it actually wrong?
Why though? Is it just bort's particular construction or can „mit“ never be used to convey "on one's person" (and if so, why)?
You can say "Ich habe es nicht dabei", or more colloquially "Ich habe es nicht mit". If you add "mir", it's wrong.
Dabei means in that, with it, and with me? This is all very confusing to an English speaker and makes it difficult to tell what they mean
Think of dabei haben as a set phrase meaning “to have on/with one”. So:
- Ich habe es dabei. (I have it with me)
- Du hast es dabei. (You have it with you)
etc.
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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.
On itranslate, "dabei" means "there", so i dont see why it's necessary here. It's easier to say "es fehlt"--"it is missing"- oder "ich habe es mit mir nicht" sounds acceptable, too. :)
No one has really given a sufficient answer. What does "dabei" mean? German speakers out there help!!!!
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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".
- 1529
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)
"Wo" actually still means "where" in this context. It just turns into old English.
"Whereof", "Whereupon", "Wherefore", "Whereby", "Whereover" etc.
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.
What about if you are referring it as something non abstract such as a phone/ or a person??
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.
With German to say you have been doing something... Would you just say past perfect e.g ich habe gespielt.... So this translates to I played/have played/ was playing/ have been playing?
"have been doing" is different from "have done" in English so I won't use German present perfect to say that, not for "was playing" either. The German present perfect is close to the English present perfect, even it can mean the simple past in English, but it stresses the effect on present.
I have also seen beim or am and then the verb also.. E.g ich war beim lesen meaning I was reading
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)"
But in this sentence "Ich habe es nicht dabei", I am referring to a person mir. According to the rule
"Da-compounds cannot be used to refer to people or most animals"
doesn't this mean that I can't use dabei in the sentence, but rather "Ich habe es nicht bei mir" instead?
dabei works fine here in this sentence -- it's not short for bei es or bei das (i.e. doesn't refer to any particular "it" or "that") but simply means "with (me/you/her/us/etc.)" or "on (me/you/her/us/etc.)".
Just wondering, can this sentence also mean "I do not have it at the same time?" Where does the possessive come in?
Danke!
Depending on the context, "dabei" can mean all sorts of things.
Just discovered something new. I had this wrong, when I pressed check a red message saying:"correct mistake" came up. I checked the comments and typed the correct answer. Will this occur with each error or only the very complex? I'm not sure I like it being so easy.
Beats being forced to go with wrong stuff and then having to deal with getting that out of your mind, and finally get their so called right answer. You do better going through a dictionary with examples, Now if Duo had people who knew some German? Who knows
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
As far as I know, "da" sticked in front of a preposition means it, for example damit - with it, dadurch - through it, darauf - on it. Is it common to use "dabei" in this meaning?
There are also trennbar verbs like "mit|haben" (have with oneself) or "mit|bringen" (bring with oneself).
Can someone tell me why "No, I do not have it with myself." is wrong? Apparently I am unable to answer a German question due to an incorrect understanding of English grammar. :)
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.
Does anyone know what "dabei" means? Is it just "with me?" Can it also mean "with you/him/her/our/themselves?"
My dictionary doesn't have a definition, just some examples of the word in use.
So with the correct statement can I say "ich habe es dabei."? (Google translates it as "i have not been there" instead of "I have it with me".
Google Translate is highly unreliable, especially with idioms. I suppose it's okay for "translating" into your native language, just to give you a rough idea of something, but that's as far as I'd go with it.
Ich habe es dabei or Ich hab's dabei is fine if you mean I have it [with me/on my person.]
So the meaning of "dabei" depends on the subject, right? So it wouldn't be only with me but also with you/him/her, etc??
That's right.
Hast du einen Spiegel dabei? -- Nein, aber frag mal Karin; sie hat immer einen dabei. "Do you have a mirror on you? No, but ask Karin; she always has one on her."
"Handy" seems very colloquial to me and I wouldn't be surprised if even most Americans didn't understand it, so the fact it isn't accepted isn't all that surprising even if it is technically correct.
As to the correctness, I feel like "to have x handy" means "to have x readily available" rather than "to have x on my person", so while the meaning isn't far off I don't think it's quite the same (although they would be largely interchangeable in many circumstances).
That means something else.
I would understand "I don't have it handy" as "It's not easy to get to it" - but that could mean that you have it with you in a bag filled with all sorts of other things that you would have to sort through, or maybe you have to open a lock first for which you would have to find the key and you don't remember in which of your many pockets you carry that, etc.
So you might still have it with you (dabei) even if you don't have it handy.
"I got it in my purse for you, right now. I brought it just for you, because I knew you were going to ask for it..................Haha, ich habe es nicht dabei." - Joseline 2014
What was your answer? "No, I haven't it with me?"
That just sounds wrong to me.
Where are you from where native English speakers say things like that?
