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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
I thougt verb is the second unit of a sentence. I wrote "wenn kommst sie" ,but it was marked incorrect.
I know that verbs are put in the begining of a sentence when asking a question
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...
"we eat" is the main clause. The first part started by "when" is the dependent clause.
wow! great link! Way over my head at the moment, but I will probably eed to go back to it over and over again. Thanks
When a sentence starts with a subordinate clause, must be the very first word after the comma (before the main clause) the verb?
What's wrong with 'Wann sie kommt, essen wir'? Duolingo thinks that 'wann' should be 'wenn' (if).
"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
So I'm confused because I would have expected this to be translated "If she comes, we will eat." How would that be written in German if not "Wenn sie kommt, essen wir." ?
Hi, you're right! When I studied German at university, my lecturer explained that wenn=if and als=when, so in this sentence it should technically be translated as "als", which I wrote, but it wasn't accepted.
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.
Because the verb needs to be in second position in the main clause, and the complete subordinate clause takes the first position.
is there any rule about the second one sentence? why "essen wir" and not "wir essen"
When using a subordinating conjunction first, it causes the word after the comma to be the verb.
Hello,
Should not the verb come in second place on the sentence?
Like this: Wenn kommt sie, essen wir.
Thank you
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
Doesn't 'sobald' mean 'as soon'? And if this is the case, as the question is 'when she comes'...etc why is Wann wrong?
Do "Wenn sie kommt, essen wir" and "Wenn sie kommt, wir essen" mean the same thing?
'Wenn sie kommt, essen wir' is the proper translation. When using a word such as 'wenn', the word after the comma must be a verb.
Wenn sie kommt, essen wir If she comes, we eat. Was not accepted...
Wenn = if Wann = when
Living in Germany for 3 years now. Attending Deutsch Sprachkurs for 3 years.
German teacher, who is German, says this Duo answer is wrong and that my answer is correct
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".
I typed "Wenn sie kommt, essen wir" and Duo told me it was "Sobald sie...." .. then I clicked on the translation in this discussion and it says I was right in the first place, what gives?
Why is 'Wenn' translated into 'When' instead of 'If'? I thought 'Wann' is 'When'. It should be "If she comes, we eat."
Wenn is translated to 'when' here as well because if/when here can be used interchangeably. 'Wann' moreso translates to 'when' in a time-manner.
There's a big difference between "when" and "if," though. In this case, we could starve if she never shows up. How does one distinguish the two meanings if spoken in German?
Wann sie kommt was given as meaning "when she comes", but then was marked as correct when i wrote the same thing...!
What's the difference between Weil and Wenn? I cannot seem to remember though I'm sure they aren't synonyms, and thus get the multiple choice question wrong every time.
Wenn is translated to 'when' here as well because if/when here can be used interchangeably. 'Wann' moreso translates to 'when' in a time-manner.
I put "essen" at the end and got this: "Pay attention to the word order after 'wenn'."
This is an erroneous tip, as "essen" follows a comma, not "wenn."
When using a subordinating conjunction such as 'wenn' is used, the word after the comma must be the verb.
Why does the drop down "tips" tell us "essen Sie", but I was marked incorrect!!
If you were with friends and waiting for a friend that was on her way and one friend asked, "wann essen wir?" should the answer be "wann sie kommt, essen wir" or os it still wenn?
It is still "wenn" usually. There are some regions that use "wann" here, but standard usage is "wenn".
"wann" is only used as a question word.
Wann sie kommt essen wir. Warum Wenn sie kommt essen wir?!!!... Wenn übersetzt if auf englisch.
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.
Wenn si kommt, essen wir. If you answered with a comma,before the dependent clause it is wrong. Why? Might be an error in the system.
Duolingo ignores punctuation altogether, so that's not the reason. Besides, the dependent clause is the first part in this case. After the comma comes the main clause. Maybe it was wrong because you wrote "si" instead of "sie"?
Didn't you say Duolingo marked your answer wrong? I just tried to find out the reason for that, and, because it can't be the comma, was looking for alternative explanations.
How can I repeat a lesson from the beginning like it is for the first time? After I did all the from an items I can access only the last level!
You can reset your account completely. But then all your progress is lost.
The question word "wann" means "when" ("Wann fangen wir an?" = "When do we start?").
The conjunction "wenn" means "when" as well as "if" ("Wenn wir anfangen, ..." = "When we start, ..." as well as "If we start, ...").
wenn(when) only for present and future uses. if she comes,we eat...totally present tense. How am i supposed to know if i have to use if or when. This is not cool!
Because the conjunction "when" translates to "wenn" in German, in contrast to the question word "when", which is "wann".
Here you need the conjunction (introducing a subordinate clause, not a question).
once again, i put the correct answer twice, was rejected... twice I put it in a third time, the exact same way, and was accepted.
FIX YOUR SYSTEM!
It is far more probably that you did not type exactly the same on all three occasions. Else supply a screenshot.
Not true. "wann" is only used as a question word ("when do you ...?"). The conjunction is "wenn".
