"Seine Frau ist aus Indien."
Translation:His wife is from India.
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No. "His woman" sounds rather possessive. "Seine Frau" does not have this notion. So wife is the fittig translation. (A similiar word in German could be "sein Weib" but it's a very old word and sounds kind of degrading)
We only say "seine (ihre) Frau, ihr (sein) Mann" if they are married or live together since a long time.
Is there some particular reason why this question is nearly every single question in this lesson? It's been beaten to death for the last, like, three or four lessons already.
I was wondering the same thing. Maybe it's a really good example for what they're trying to teach...?
if Frau means woman, why is it not okay to say "his woman"? it's the exact meaning.
Seine isn't valid for men and women? Why the only valid translation is "His woman"?
Hi, what I don't understand is why it's 'Seine' and not 'Sein'? Isn't 'Sein' masculine and in sync with the male 'his'? Or is it, I'm guessing, Sein's gender follow what is being defined to? So in this case, because wife is a female, it becomes Seine?
It's seine because Frau is feminine, (Die Frau) so the pronoun for feminine things is "Die" sein turns into "seine".
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Just wanted to leave a comment on the previous one "Ihre frau schreibt".I'd say You are confusing people,cause marriages for the most part are between a man and a woman,and it's interesting that I couldn't even leave a comment.That's how democratic the world became.U'll probably erase my comment but I had to write it anyway. I'd say we have the minority that makes rules for the majority.Danke.
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You seem to believe democracy is the majority dictating its way to everyone, when it is effectively ensuring the minority has its rights equally respected.
Duolingo is about language.
If something is grammatically correct, minority or not, that should be accepted.
All the more so when it does correspond to reality: There are women with wifes in 29 countries, including Germany, Austria, Luxembourg; Switzerland is getting there, Liechstenstein still not quite yet.
Demanding that it is not the case is not democratic, nor is it pedagogically sound. Plenty of true things are confusing, especially in language learning.
Erasure is not neutrality, equal representation is not more political than the opposite.
Gern geschehen.
der Inder/die Inder for Indian man/men.
die Inderin/die Inderinnen for Indian woman/women.
Why is Deutschland called "Germany" in English? Many places have different names in different languages. India as well as Indien derive from the name of the river Indus, and neither are what the country is actually called in Hindi.
Where does THAT name root from? And HOLY MOLY how many languages do you have?!?!?!
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What? Where are you getting your facts from? India has 122 recognised languages, while Africa alone has between 1250 and 2100. Source: Wikipedia
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lol why are people downvoting this question? It's natural for a newbie to ask such questions! Good work, @sakasiru for a prompt answer.
No. Formal 'your wife' would be 'Ihre Frau', otherwise 'your wife' is 'deine Frau'.
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"Frau" can be used as 'woman' or as 'wife' - just gotta pay attention to the context! This is pretty common in other languages as well. Although Spanish has words for 'husband' and 'wife' it's pretty common to say "mi hombre" or "mi mujer" at least where I was living in Costa Rica!
pottsy44: You are right, that might be a Costa Rican thing. "Mi mujer" is usually understood as "mi esposa" but in other Spanish-speaking countries I have not heard say "mi hombre" unless they are referring to somebody they live with but without being married. Words used for a married man are "mi esposo" or "mi marido."
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I came here to comment that "ist" should be replaced with "kommt". Sentence should read "Seine Frau kommt aus Indien". What I always understood from my university German courses was that "...ist aus..." as in the sentence, means that the person has just come from that place, like for a business trip for example.
"Meine Frau ist aus New York!" "Echt super! Wann ist sie geflogen?" "Um vier Uhr vor!"
Something like that... to say that the wife considers India to be her homeland would require "kommen" instead of "sein".
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Seems your University courses where a tad too strict.
Look at a real life exemple at the bottom of page 17
Beside, to express a person "has just come from India", I'd rather say "sie kommt gerade aus Indien".
sfuspvwf npj
"kommt" would be wrong if she had Indian parents but was born outside India and never lived there. I use both terms.