"The girls do not eat a lime."

Translation: De meisjes eten geen limoen.

[spanishzacd]

Why doesn't "De meisjes eten niet een limoen" work?

[Kai_E.]

Because you use "geen" to negate nouns when they would otherwise be preceded by "geen" if not negated. See this thread for a more thorough explanation: https://www.duolingo.com/comment/3734833

[sports2cool3]

> when they would otherwise be preceded by "geen" if not negated.

Do you mean "when they would otherwise be preceded by 'een' if not negated."?

[rowschank]

geen is apparently like kein in German, used to negate nouns. (I hope I am not wrong!)

[Duckies5]

I am also confused about this. Can anyone else explain it?

[TuncTurel]

I'm not a native English nor Dutch speaker but the English sentence seems a little off to me. "The girls do not eat a lime." Does this sentence mean The girls don't like eating lemons or The girls don't eat lemons?

[StefanusPa]

First of all, lemon and lime is two different fruits (limoen en citroen). And "like" is a preference and dislike doesn't mean you wouldn't eat it. When you don't eat the lime, it means that you simply didn't eat it without any indication you lke it or not. Hope my explanation helps. :)