- Forum >
- Topic: German >
- "Das brauche ich."
147 Comments
the question in regards to word order gets asked a lot, but just for clarification; does using "das" at the beginning of the sentence emphasise that you need "THAT" specific object? or is that just how you're supposed to write it?
German word order is flexible. You can often times switch around the direct object and the subject because you are still able to tell them apart based on case. For example, saying "Ich möchte einen Apfel" can be turned into "Einen Apfel möchte ich." Another example would be, "Wir können Äpfel essen" turning into "Äpfel können wir essen." The only requirement is that you have your been in the second position of the sentence.
No. Yoda use verb to finish his sentance while German require you to put verb in the second position.
From Japan or Turkey he could be.
They based Yodas speach patterns off Latin (SOV) most likely as a nod to his implied age.
I have studied Latin for 8 years and yes I have noticed it is based off Latin word order.
That's right Yoda would say, "That, I need." But this one is saying "That need I".
It sounds really weird. But I think its probably so convenient to be able to say the most important part of the sentence first, and then add the grammatical necessities later.
In this case Yoda might be from Kazakhstan as well. In kazakh language the verb is in the end of the sentence.
Баяндауыш тек етістіктен ғана емес, басқа да сөз таптарынан бола береді, сондықтан оны "predicate" сияқты қарастыру қажет. Make kazakh language great again!
As a general rule, yes. Changing word order in German is roughly equivalent to changing inflection in English. Whichever noun comes first is receiving the emphasis.
Which way is more commonly used then? You could apply the same rule to English and Spanish but it would sound a little weird.
I suppose it's like in English you can say, "I need that" or "That I need." The only real difference is the second one puts more emphasis on "that."
I agree with you (and upvoted!) but I think it does depend on what you mean by "wrong." Gramatically, no it isn't correct, but if I was looking for something and someone held it up I might say that. "THAT! I need!" And it wouldn't really be "correct" but in that I naturally might use it and it would be understandable, it is correct.
I have never heard that I need the in English unless it is part of a sentence. That I need is incorrect by itself.
I have heard it like this: Dad: "Go ahead and put away the tools for me." Kid: "Should I put away the hammer as well?" Dad: "No, that I need. Leave it here. Put away everything else." (Guess who's the kid? :p) If writing a story or something, "that" would probably be in italics, I think.
Ad a native English speaker, this is at least colloquially correct. It will be accepted as correct in the United States, but it may not be correct to the letter as far as traditional grammar goes
Downvote me and support wrong English grammar. The bad part is this is very basic English grammar that you are wrong about. I need that. Did you see that? Comes at the end of a sentence or maybe to connect to sentences. This is not advanced English at all. You can not use "That I need" because it is a partial sentence. "That is not something I would do." if you are learning correct grammar. No wonder why the Chinese don't just hire anyone.
You wrote sentence 5 without a subject, expert. That makes it a "fragment." Your English teacher is crying.
That is a completely correct sentence. It has a verb (need), subject (I), and object (that).
You can not leave out parts of a sentence in English by saying. That, I need. You need something at the end of a sentence to have a complete sentence. You could say "That is something I need to do."
That is something I need to get done. Maybe you can use it at the beginning, but it needs to be part of a full sentence to be correct.
Ich brauche das is equally correct :) So yeah, I think the difference is only emphasis.
Would this be like the difference in saying "I need that" (as opposed to someone else needing it) and "I need that" (as opposed to needing something else)? If so, is this the former or latter of the two?
957
English is committed to subject verb object order in sentence construction. Changing the order is usually done just for stylistic effects. Other subject verb object (S.V.O.) languages are less rigid and more tolerant of changed order. German is one of them. Esperanto much more so.
What annoys me is that nobody answered your entire question, and it's a question that I have, as well. Does position imply importance? Does a word in first position have more importance? I would assume so.
What annoys me is that I've answered that question multiple times below, yet you rather complain instead of reading the whole thread...
Yes, a different word order is frequently used to emphasize a different part of the sentence. There are other factors, like spoken stress, but in writing, putting the word in first position is a good indicator of emphasis.
For a comments section this large, you can't expect me to read multiple threads, on the off-chance someone else asked the same question.. Thank you for answering though.
- 957
RoboticRocketeer
...For a comments section this large, you can't expect me to read multiple threads, on the off-chance someone else asked the same question .........
Actually, I can and do. Especially since the very first post on this page deals with the issue. You didn't just naively ask a question already posted and answered. You said that you were annoyed that it hadn't been answered on this page.
The reason there are so many posts on this page is that people like yourself keep asking the same question over and over even though it has already been answered many times. The result is that new questions about new issues with new answers provided, get buried underneath dozens and dozens of repeats.
Until someone addresses word order in Notes & Tips, the question will get asked for as long as DuoLingo is online. Believe me, I'm not changing my ways, either.
I can't expect you to read the information you want, but you expect others to provide it for you again for your convenience? Northernguy is right, that's exactly the reason these threads are so spammed. If you can't be bothered to change your ways, be sure I will: I won't answer already answered questions from you in the future.
For those wondering if "Ich brauche das" is also correct: the answer is yes. The difference between "Das brauche ich" und "Ich brauche das" is just that there is more of an emphasis on Das when it is placed first. But either way of saying it is perfectly correct.
The passive sentence is, 'that is needed'.
In a passive sentence the direct object becomes the subject, and the verb is now conjugated according to the original direct object. It becomes much clearer if the direct object is plural:
I require those (potatoes).
Those (potatoes) are required.
Just wondering, though. Even if they are both correct, is "Das brauche ich" more commonly said than "Ich brauche das"? Swedish has the same thing and so far, I've encountered the former more than the latter.
Fast det beror helt på vad man vill understryka i meningen. Det viktigaste sätter man i fundamentet. "Jag behöver det" och "Det behöver jag" är båda rätt, men den första används oftare för man ofta sätter subjektet i fundamentet. Men när man säger "Det behöver jag" så vill man understryka att det är just DET (den saken) man behöver, därför sätts "det" som fundament. Det är bara det att man oftast är mer van vid att sätta subjektet först.
Sedan så är meningarna ganska så flexibla i svenskan. Man kan ändra ganska mycket på dem olika delarna (subjekt, objekt, adverb etc), med ett enda villkor: predikatet måste komma direkt efter fundamentet, för det är V2 ordföljd i svenskan.
That explanation by eineSchlange is about Swedish grammar, and I'm not sure if what they said also applies for German. But in case you still want to know:
It depends entirely on what you want to emphasize in the sentence. You put the most important part in the fundament. "Jag behöver det" and "Det behöver jag" are both correct, but the first one is more often used because the subject is often put in the fundament. When you say "Det behöver jag", you want to emphasize that det is precisely the thing that you need, hence you put det in the fundament. It's just that people are used to putting the subject first in a sentence.
Sentences are quite flexible in Swedish. You can change a lot of the different parts (subject, object, adverb, etc.) with a single exception: the predicate must come directly after the fundament because of the V2 word order.
then how would you say "that needs me"? (i now you could argue that a thing doesn't needs anything, but it's still a functional phrase in a normal way of speaking or at least in a poetic one).
Ich glaube, du würdest sagen „Das braucht mich.“ You conjugate "brauchen" for the subject "das" (that) instead of "ich" (I) and replace "ich" (I) with "mich" (Me, accusative). Of course, you could flip it again and make „Mich braucht das“ to match with this original sentence's order.
Thank you so much. Such a simple explanation, right to the point. This is exactly what I was wondering (word order, and whether it effects the meaning). Cheers!
You can say that. The emphasis this time is on the word "das". In a simple sentence like this, you can say "Ich brauche das" and get away with it.
No. One would not say "That needs me". If something "needs" you, you would say "It needs me", or "Es braucht mich" auf deutsch.
One of the suggested definitions I got from hovering over "brauche" was "use/am using". When I translated the German sentence to English as "I am using that" I was marked incorrect.
I've reported this as an error but I'm curious whether the problem is an accurate statement not being accepted or a bad suggested definition. Can anyone shed light on this? Is there a better way to say "I need that" vs. "I am using that"?
The dictionary is not context aware, so use your best judgement and prefer the ones on the top to the ones on the bottom.
"Dass" is a conjunction (more exactly, a relative clause). "Das" is either neutral article or pronoun. Pronouns and conjunction get easily mixed up (btw also by native speakers). Maybe this helps: https://deutsch.lingolia.com/en/vocabulary/easily-confused-words/das-vs-dass
I think you mean "Dass" is a conjunction (more precisely, a subordinating conjunction).
It's not a relative clause and it doesn't start a relative clause -- but das with one S can start a relative clause! (Example: In dem Haus, das meine Mutter mir gekauft hat, wohnen jetzt meine Kinder. The relative clause is das meine Mutter mir gekauft hat.)
- 206
Please would you try to translate your sentences like '...das meine Mutter....." in full, when possible. This called for a diversion to other learning resources but not about das, due to the structure. L plates on here!
In dem Haus, das meine Mutter mir gekauft hat, wohnen jetzt meine Kinder. = My children now live in the house that my mother bought me.
so in german both word order are correct but what they usually prefer first? subject?
So say you wanted to say i need you and you want to really emphasize the you, for example Person 1: you need Adam? Person 2: i need YOU
Would you write it as dich brauche ich opposed to ich brauche dich to emphasize you?
Ich brauche es is grammatically correct ("I need it", rather than "I need that").
Es brauche ich sounds wrong to me.
I am curious as to the correct answer here which was posted as 'I need IT', I have questioned this with doulingo as surly that would be es brauche ist or ist brauche es?
No, neither "es brauche ist" or "ist brauche es" mean "I need it". In fact, those sentences in themselves don't make much sense; they translate as "it needs is" and "is needs it". To say "I need it" in German, one would say "Ich brauche es" OR "Es brauche ich" (if you would like and emphasis on IT.)
To lay emphasis on different parts of the sentence. You can say "Ich brauche das" as well.
This is the difference between passive and active voice. "I need that" is an example of active voice, the subject acts directly on the direct object. "That is need by me." is an example of passive voice, where the subject, me, is being acted on.
That is need by me.?? That doesn't sound like a correct English sentence.
Example of passive voice: The car is being repaired.
I thought it was "That needs me" but it turns out it's "I need that"... How come??
Because of cases. Word order is flexible in German, to see what is subject and what is object, you look in what case each part is. If you were the one who is needed, it would be "das braucht mich" / "mich braucht das".
So, if this sentence is okay for general. Can I use something else instead of "Das" for example; "Wasser brauche ich" or "Katze will ich"
Wasser brauche ich is possible (roughly: "It's water that I need").
Katze will ich doesn't work because cats are countable, but Eine Katze will ich is possible (roughly: "It's a cat that I want").
Thank you so much, this will be very priceless information for me to understand nature of german language
I'm still learning so I haven't quite figured out the word order in German yet; however I know when your asking a question, the verb should come first. For instance: Brauche ich das? Do I need that? Isst du Tomaten? Do you eat Tomatoes?
This is probably an odd question, but why does it use the Wir/Sie form of "need"? Is there actually an "ich" form, or no?
It's not using the Wir/Sie form of need. That would be "brauchen" (with EN on the end. But this uses "brauche" (with only an E on the end. That is the "ich" form. Remeber, Ich brauche, du brauchst, Sie brauchen, er/sie/es braucht, wir brauchen, ihr braucht, sie brauchen.
Oh my dear goodness. I can't believe I forgot that. I was obviously pretty tired at that point. Thank you so much! :)
Of course you can. In fact, I think that's far more common than Das brauche ich. It's similar to how it's far more usual to hear "I need that" than "That is needed by me."
I guess it's more common in English because the other version is rather cumbersome. But in German, you change the word order pretty freely according to what part you want to emphasize.
Yes, the analogy doesn't really work because in German only the order is inverted, not the grammatical structure. You can sometimes get away with fronting the object for emphasis in English, given sufficient context and intonation. For example, in this beer advert:
Draughts I hate. Except McEwans Export -- now that I like!
(In case anyone requires an explanation for the "except": it's a pun on draughts [UK] = checkers [USA] = Damespiel, versus draught [UK] = draft [USA] = "vom Fass".)
dqxxmvyvoedn
Hi can you give me an idea which word is emphasised in different orders please if possible thanks
In spoken language, it also depends a lot on which word(s) you stress, but in writing, you generally can say that there's emphasis on what you put in front of the verb.
Would "das brauche mir" be grammatically correct? And what would it mean? Thanks!
lol, in my local dialect, this would mean "we need that" (correctly: das brauchen wir"). But no, it's not correct in standard German.
Yes. Or at least very unusual. "Need" is usually not used in the continuous aspect.
why not : " ich brauche das " ??
That's another possible sentence.
It matters in English too. "I need that", and "That (is what) I need" have different emphases, and apply in different contexts.
- 206
Can das appear at the end of a sentence, please? The equivalent is not a problem in English although it is probably used more in phrases and questions.
Can das appear at the end of a sentence, please?
Yes, it can. Ich mag das. "I like that."
Is "ich brauche das" acceptable? Is this just another way of saying the same thing?
Is "ich brauche das" acceptable? Is this just another way of saying the same thing?
Not exactly the same thing.
The underlying fact is the same, but the emphasis is different.
Ich brauche das (subject–verb–object) is the basic or unmarked word order, which doesn't emphasise anything in particular.
Das brauche ich is not the basic word order, so you would use it when you want to focus or emphasise something, e.g. "As for that: it's me who needs it" (Das brauche ich) or "That's the one I need" (Das brauche ich).
How would "That needs me" be translated to German.
The verb would be conjugated to match the subject das (third person singular), and "me" as the direct object would be in the accusative case.
Do you want to give it a try yourself?
I think the best translation about this sentence in English is " That one I need ( not this one )" with emphasis.
Ummm... are you supposed to Capitalize the word "that" because it's kinda a noun and in German, I noticed that all the Nouns are Capitalized...
No, since it's not a noun, it's a pronoun, and those don't get capitalized (aside from polite "Sie"). It's only capitalized in the original sentence because it's at the beginning of the sentence.
Please see the comment thread started by "RavenPlume" 3 years ago which answers that question.
