"Ein Garten fehlt komplett."
Translation:A garden is completely missing.
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1802
If someone says this to you while looking at you suspiciously, when you are in Germany, you will know you should immediately empty your pockets to clear up any misunderstanding.
However, if confronted about a garden that is only partly missing, a wide grin, while letting out a loud, satisfied burp and patting your stomach will allow you to pass by border guards and such with nothing more than dirty looks as a consequence.
Germans are particularly sensitive about their gardens and the whereabouts of same. A completely missing garden is cause for concern there and is taken much more seriously than say...a completely missing mitten. Every instance of a completely missing garden is reported on the news and any attention you get for your connection to its disappearance will seem unpleasant.
English speakers are advised to pretend ignorance not only about the missing garden but what the sentence might actually mean. Do not let on that Duo has actually prepared you for these situations. The more capable you seem in this regard, the more likely you will be seen as someone who has the ability to do such a thing. Better to be seen as an incompetent fool rather than someone who might harbor a grudge about the second world war or something.
Every German knows full well how many gardens owned by other nations, they completely disappeared in the war and are on guard against someone returning the favor, even if done less dramatically.
Whatever you do, you must not let on that you have received instructions of any kind about completely disappeared gardens.
You have been warned.
- 2602
You almost had me, until you said German gardens disapperared in the war, when every German worth of his beer surely knows that it was in the Reform! (Where did you think that name come from? Some papers in the door of a church? Poor schmuck! That is what they wanted you to believe)
The truth is the muslins where building all those beautiful gardens (in the desert, no less!) and the Pope just had had it with the Sultan blabering about gold fountains, and pearl grass and sunflowers the size of an peach tree!
With all the good Renaissance artists already occupied, he had to rely on an ex-garden artist now-priest named (you gessed) Martin Luter. It was supposed to be a big secret plan, so they came up with the "papers in the church door" story while disappearing with every garden in the country to run tests on new garden developements of mass amazement.
Despite the big cover up, however, rumors of the "disappearing" gardens arose everywhere, giving birth to the deep concern of Germans about their gardens.
- 1802
It means that some chain of events has resulted in a particular garden or yard disappearing. There is nothing in the sentence that indicates over what time period the process takes place or what natural or unnatural processes precipitated it or even whether the owner consented.
All we know is that someone has commented that it is now missing and it is completely gone. The choice of words used by the speaker leads us to believe that he expected that it would or should still be there. We don't know if the speaker is pleased or displeased with the result.
Oh no, please don't take this sentence lightly. The Germans are very particular about their gardens (and rightly so, in my opinion). It's best not to be ignorant on the subject; be careful not to inadvertently steal someone's garden. The authorities won't look kindly upon you if you do.
Sorry, what...? Should I just be ignorant on what the sentence means or...? Is it that serious...?
I know that it is right and bla bla bla, but come on! When do you imagine someone will use this sentence in Real Life? Maybe if I am enjoying LEGO with some German kid during a sunny day in a spielplatz ok...so maybe I will need this sentence.
When you go to see a house and you were really hoping for a big yard and there is none! I won't be living there. Please show me another house and this time with a yard!
Or if you had commissioned the construction of a palace with three gardens, but when you show up, you only see two gardens.
This actually happened to me once. I came home one day and my garden was completely missing. It turned out that my landlord had mowed it down.
- 1802
I am guessing when you looked at the damage you did not think..... One day I will able to tell someone about this using the German language.
Imagine you are going to see a rental property that was listed as having a yard, and there is no yard. This sentence was definitely written by someone living in a major American city.
I thought they would mean " a garden feels complete " like when you buy a house and you are glad it has a garden, because " a garden feels complete" in slomo i could hear " fehlt " but it didn't make any sense to me.
"A garden is incompletely missing" - luckily I didn't have to translate that.
But may as well try:
Ein Garten fehlt in teil.
Ein Garten ist nicht ganz da.
Ein Garten fehlt nicht komplett.
Ein Garten fehlt aber nicht komplett.
Ein Garten fehlt inkomplett.
- 67
I agree with all the sentiments expressed - it is a nonsense sentence and I have reported it. Maybe you could save it by saying "völlig" instead of "komplett". With "komplett" it is Kompletter Unsinn!
- 444
"Nur ein Garten fehlt. Sonst ist das Haus perfekt." "Ja, ein Garten fehlt unbedingt". Would that make better sense?
How does the German sentence feel? Is it common to say "Ein __ fehlt komplett"
The English translation only feels strange if you insist on placing "a/one garden" at the start of the sentence (which German seems to like).
More natural: "there is no garden at all" . "it completely lacks a garden"
- 1802
It has already been explained in several different ways at several different places on this page.
Mock this sentence at your risk!
This is what happened when the developer bought one of our city's community gardens and replaced it with condos.
I translated "a yard is completely gone" thinking that, if new buildings were constructed in a yard, the yard is "gone" from an environmental perspective...but it was marked wrong..
Just to keep this in my head, since I foresee this being used scarcely, I kind of imagine a natural disaster has come through and we're totaling the damages. "Only 3 houses incurred damage thankfully, [with] a yard missing completely (from one house)".
It's just a horrible sentence. Can you report for that? Uselessness?
Die Räder des Auto fehlen komplett. Does this mean the car's wheels are completely missing?
A garden is completely missing, as opposed to slightly missing. I'm completely pregnant as opposed to i'm slightly pregnant... lol
- 209
Thank you for a prolonged chuckle. My son,who lives in Germany had, literally just then, sent a photo of his garden, which is not missing and is pretty much complete, apart from a little frost damage on the Rosemary, herb.