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Is there any difference between "Es ist dort" and "Es ist da" ? Or are they the same ?
From what I gathered via a little online research, "dort" more specifically means "(over) there" and da is "there" and sometimes "here" (depending on context) in general.
That's probably why Duolingo's preferred translation for this sentence is "It is over there" even though "It is there" is accepted.
What's the difference between " over there" and " there" ? Is "over there" further than " there " ?
In English, "there" and "over there" are used pretty much interchangeably. However, you would rarely use "over there" to refer to something right next to you, so "over there" does imply some amount of distance from your person.
For anyone who speaks French, I believe that "da" is much like "là" whereas "dort" is more like "là-bas."
I'm using the FSI "tapes" (actually MP3 files) for practice. In those lessons, "da" and "dort" are used interchangeably and "over there" is translated as "da/dort druben". Any explanations or corrections for this? Danke!
According to my German friend who's a grammar freak, its exactly as philster043 says: "da" means "there" and "dort" is short for "dort drüben" / "over there" but to give Rated PGJax some credit, he also says they both are interchangeable.
1423
I read it somewhere-" Generally, if 'hier', 'da' and 'dort' are used to designate place of varying distance, then - 'hier' refers to closest proximity - 'da' refers to a larger distance from the speaker - 'dort' indicates largest distance.
Imagine you talk to someone within an interesting park full of interesting features.
'Hier stand die alte Mauer der Stadt, da war der Wachturm, und dort (drüben) war das alte Rathaus'
However, nobody takes it as strict. In particular, 'da' and 'dort' are often used interchangably. These rules do not cover idiomatic usage (e.g. phrases like 'hier und da'), or you may completely dismiss the distance rules if you refer to a couple of locations and don't want to repeat the same word over and over again."
The first lesson in location says: hier = here; dort = there; da = here/there; and druben = over/across.
