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- "I have English ties."
"I have English ties."
Translation:Ich habe englische Verbindungen.
40 Comments
In English, "Cravat" refers to the ancestor of the modern necktie.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cravat
In German, "Krawatte" refers to the modern-day necktie.
In Portuguese (BR), its "gravata" :)
(And it's pronounced almost as if you read it in german ;) )
I had the correct answer (of the 3 choices it sounded best) but I don't really know why. There was also: "englisch". Why is it "englische"?
No article is used before the English so it's strong inflection. Once you know the inflection, you know englisch should end with e since it's Accusative case + Plural.
when there is no article before the adjective just follow this rule : adjective will get the same ending that "d-article" would have if it was there. for example : kleine Frau (the ending is "e" because Frau has article "die" at the moment)
1462
When it is strong inflection (no article), only the dative case has an "n" ending for plural.
Here is a more complete list of when strong inflection applies:
- no article or determiner
- quantity indicated by words like etwas (some), mehr (more), wenig- (few), veil- (much, many), merer- (several, many), einig- (some), numbers >1 without a definite article
- non-inflectable phrases such as ein par (a couple of, a few) or ein bisschen (a bit, a little bit)
In English "to have ties" doesnt mean literal ties (you know, with rope). It means to have personal connections more or less. Does this phrase have the same meaning in German?
I would never translate the German expression "englische Verbindungen" to "english ties"; maybe "englisch power cables" (referencing electric plugs and sockets) due to the lack of knowledge what else this can mean.
However, in English "to have ties" is not an idiom. I looked for it in the dictionary where "family ties", "blood ties" and "ties of friendship" are well-known compounds. I would use "bond" instead of "tie" only if I am not allowed to use "relation", which mostly fits best.
The attribute must describe the KIND or manner NOT a "DIRECTION" of the noun that follows. To express directions you have to use prepositions. (This is not valid when we talk about brands.) So "Sicilian ties" would correctly translate "Sizilianische Verbindungen" when it references organized crime, but it not necessarily has to do anything with Italy (I do not like this example, but I haven't had a better one). By the way those attributes are capitalized in German, like in "Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte" (I like this one ;-). I never noticed any difference in the English language concerning attributes.
"Englische Wurzeln" are roots in England and everything that is in that country or belongs to it, gets this attribute. (Mat663761, this was clever attempt to solve this strange expression.)
Why do you think so many people - including myself - translated "english ties" to "Englische Krawatten" ? Some clothes are called "englisch" in German, mainly the school uniforms. Due to this, striped neckties sometimes are aka "englisch" in Germany.
Therefore I consider the German translation unacceptable and propose to replace it, and the original sentence.
I wrote, "Ich habe englische Bindungen" which was marked wrong because the word DL wanted was Verbindungen. The Leo dictionary gives "tie" as one of the meanings for both Bindungen and Verbindungen. Can a native German speaker comment on the difference between the two? Thanks in advance for any light you can shed on why Verbindungen is correct, but Bindungen isn't.
Based on other responses, it means ties in reference to family ties more than the clothing item.
Or friends, or a durable business relationship. Think in legal terms, say you want to seek naturalization, in that case the crown wants you to prove that you have English (or Scottish, etc.) ties, which basically means whatever they want it to, but in practice involves physical presence, friendships, business relationships, family, etc. with the etc. being pretty fuzzy.
They also ask for a considerable sum in cash. But that's neither here nor there.
I'm confused when to use englische as opposed to Englisch.. If I tap the word English it gave Englisch as the answer but when my answer is checked the result is englische. I need clarification please.
What are you confused about? Englisch, capitalized, refers to the English language (alternatively, englische Sprache means the same thing). englisch, lower case, refers to things that are related to England. You add -e, -en, -em, and -es to adjectives based on: gender of the noun, case of the noun, and what (if any) article is being used with the noun. When there is no article, as here, -e is used for the feminine plural accusative, which is the gender, number, and case of Krawatten/Verbindungen (both are acceptable, depending on whether you interpret 'tie' as 'necktie' or 'personal connection'). Up to this lesson, Duo hasn't introduced the genitive case, which is where -es comes in. Yes, this is a pain to learn. Wikipedia lists every declension pretty nicely (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_declension).
When "englisch" is being used as an adjective (which is almost always), it then follows the ending rules for adjectives (-e, -en, -er, -es, and so on). These are rather complex, but there should be a chart for this in the "Tips" area of the relevant skill.
And as everyone knows it's the ties that bind.
If you had relatives from Bangkok would you say "It's the Thais that bind"?
- 755
VerBINDung contains the English word "bind". That seems like a good way to remember that it's about ties/connections.
"Krawatten" is accepted, but as explained above it should be "englische" without an "n".
Unlike the English word "tie", "Verbindung" me cannot mean a cravat ("Krawatte") or necktie But just in terms of word frequency, I would guess that Verbindung is a much more common word than Krawatte simply because it has so many possible meanings. My old 1973 Langenscheidt dictionary does not even list "tie" among dozens of possible translations of "Verbindung", though it can clearly mean a "tie" in the sense of a relationship of kinship, friendship, or business (among others). But Krawatte is strictly a necktie or cravat.
- 1236
How would one know that it's Verbindungen and not Krawatten, that are meant here? After all in that case the original should have been "I have connections in England"
