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- "When she comes, we eat."
"When she comes, we eat."
Translation:Wenn sie kommt, essen wir.
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I have noticed this trend elsewhere, but haven't understood the connection: in the second half of the sentence, why is it "essen wir" instead of "wir essen". If the sentence was simply "We eat", I expect it would be "Wir essen".
http://german.about.com/library/weekly/aa032700a.htm (see "verb second")
"Note that these examples on a dependent clause can precede or follow the main clause. When it precedes, it normally occupies the first position, necessitating an inverted order in the independent clause (i.e. with the subject is located in the third position)."
http://www.dartmouth.edu/~german/Grammatik/WordOrder/WordOrder.html
please read the 'tips' of this ex ! Correct, but 'wenn' and some other conjunctions override that rule: Wir essen, wenn sie kommt without the 's' of yours would by the way be correct, too. Even if I do not really like the 'wenn=when' translation, but it sometimes is unavoidable to accept it. 'wenn'ein Germnn can mean both 'if' and 'when' you see...
just mina deux cents...
"als/wenn/wann: when. To refer to a completed event in the past, use als, even if that event went on for a long time (Als ich jung war,...; Als ich fünf war,...). Use wenn with the past tense only if you are referring to a repeated event.
In present and future tense, use wenn for when.
Use wann only for questions and indirect questions (i.e. a statement without a question mark that directly or indirectly implies uncertainty about when the event will take place)."
http://www.lsa.umich.edu/german/hmr/Grammatik/Konjunktionen/Konjunktionen.html#wann
this explanation of when to use "wann" has left me more confused: there IS uncertainty about when she will arrive, so aren't you arguing that Duolingo is wrong in this translation?
Don't even get me started on this new confusion about "als" vs. "wenn"... what if something went on for a long time, but was also repeated several times...???
The explanation above made me think of a misuse of the word whenever. Als would be when something happened, while wenn would be used for whenever something happened. Als ich fünf war... I was five only once in my lifetime. Wenn ich ein Jahrzehnt verbraucht... I have spent a decade on things a few times in my lifetime.
Yes, the verb is already in the second position.' essen' is the main clause verb. wenn causes a sub-clause, that is why 'kommt' is at the end of its clause. Because the subject of this sentence is we 'wir'. you could write it as
Wir essen, wenn sie kommt.
List of sub-clause conjuctions http://german.about.com/library/weekly/aa010910b.htm
You are here in the section "translating from English to German" and "When she comes ..." is the given sentence (see top of page). So "if she comes ..." can't be accepted, because you are expected to type in German.
And "wenn" as a conjunction can be "when" as well as "if". There are some regional dialects that use "wann" for the former, but this is not the main variant.
(cf. Duden: https://www.duden.de/rechtschreibung/wenn
https://www.duden.de/rechtschreibung/wann_wenn_als_sobald
https://www.duden.de/rechtschreibung/wann_dann_wenn ).
The situation is different when "when" is used as a question word ("When does he come?". In that case it is indeed "wann".
Die deutsche Konjunktion "wenn" kann sowohl temporal als auch konditional verwendet werden. Im ersten Fall übersetzt man sie mit "when", im zweiten mit "if".
Dagegen heißt "when" als Fragewort auf Deutsch "wann". Aber das ist hier nicht anwendbar.
Drr Duden führt allerdings für den temporalen Fall der Konjunktion auch "wann" als Nebekform auf, aber das wird nur in bestimmten Regionen verwendet.