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- "If I do not cook, I do not e…
"If I do not cook, I do not eat."
Translation:Wenn ich nicht koche, esse ich nicht.
19 Comments
293
i translated it as "wenn ich koche nicht ich esse nicht". duolingo doesn't accept it. why? why is my sentence incorrect?
I'm having trouble with this. In this sentence it goes, "Wenn ich nicht koche, esse ich nicht." In the second part of the sentence, the verb comes first.
But there's another sentence in this unit that goes, "Wenn ich koche, er isst." In the second part of the sentence, the verb comes second.
What is the difference?
Just a warning: This sentence is a poor translation because for this meaning Germans would use the subjunctive. If you haven't learnt the subjunctive mood yet don't worry, but it's good to know about it.
For years (when my german was at a basic level) I wondered how can I differentiate between "when" and "if" because in German there is only one word "wenn". Then I realised "if" uses the subjunctive (mood) and "when" the standard mood (formally called indicative). In this example there is a big difference between "When I cook" and "If I cook"
It should be something like "Wenn ich nicht kochen würde, würde ich nicht essen"
14
I guess it is because "wenn ich nicht koche" is not the principal proposition of the sentence. "esse" is in second position, after this subordonate "wenn...". (but I made the same mistake as you).
Why is "ob ich koch nicht, esse ich nicht. " not valid? Germans use "ob" for "if" all the time.
ob = if (http://www.dict.cc/?s=ob)