57 Comments
I am having trouble with the word for drink/drinking. When do I use which form?
Like others have pointed out, it is difficult to say which word is correct unless the context is given.
But the best way for u to learn would be by coupling words.. Like "Ich trinke", "Ich esse", "Er trinkt", "Er isst", "Du trinkst", "wir essen", etc..
If those pair of words stick to your mind u'll never go wrong in the future :-) I'm sorry if I have used any wrong pair of words above, but I hope u got the idea I was trying to convey :-)
In real live it would depend on context. Here on duolingo usually both forms are correct translations because they don't provide context.
If it makes you feel better, we have no conditional form, but we somehow have to figure out how to use it in English and that is a problem (at least for me) ;-)
'drinking' is not conditional, it is continuous. conditional is 'if... then' continuous is 'at this present moment' where as the simple present is 'in general I do', if that helps at all? if you aren't doing it right at the moment of speaking, you use the simple present
@Amanda Walton It says when you have to type the English translation to press the word like Trinkt then it shows you the forms
69
er = he, ihr = you. Ihr is the plural form of "you" used for family and friends. er sounds like air, and ihr sounds like ear
Not on this one it doesn't. Er sounds very much like ihr...and sounds more like 'ear'
Me too! Also 'sie' and 'ihr'. The audio quality is the biggest cause of my wrong answers
Is there a way to realize when the website voice says "Ihr" or "Er"? Because to me, they sound exactly the same and I keep getting answers wrong for it.
I'm having a hard time pronouncing milk...well.. " milch" the ch is what I'm getting stuck on.
- 69
The speakers on the DuoLingo recordings are pronouncing the "ch" like "sh", (Milsh), which is how people pronounced it in the area of southern Germany where I spent some time. We were told that in northern Germany "ch" was pronounced more like the "ch" in the Scottish word "loch". (Milch, just like it's spelled.)
Solo es cuestion de practica, creo yo....recuerda que ch suena como ^J^ si no lleva una S antes. Si de algo te sirve mi comentario.. : )
Please, fix the pronunciation between "Ihr" and "Er" is impossible to listen any differencd, even in "slow play mode"... Danke!
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Place your lips and tongue as though you're about to say the word 'yes' (naturally, without exaggerating), or the J in 'Junge', then round your lips slightly and curve the sides of your tongue upwards slightly, with the blade of your tongue in the same place or slightly lowered, and while holding that position, blow air gently out towards outside of your mouth, feeling the air pass audibly on your tongue.
The sound is made by constricting the air flow, like with the English 'sh'. If the sound you produce sounds similar but with a higher pitch, you're doing it right. As with 'sh', the sound is short rather than held.
Try practising the sound again with the word 'ich', then with 'ich habe'. You know you're doing it right when it sounds natural to say the 'ch' in the word 'Loch' from 'Loch Ness', which is the same sound but made slightly further back in the mouth. That sound also appears in German and both are written as 'ch'.
I usually try to pronounce the German 'ch' as if you were trying to mimic a cat hissing or TV/radio static.Sort of a weird, soft 'k'. Don't know if that's proper, but it's worked for me.
Don't know how to explain it, if you were Dutch then you'd to pronounce it like [Mil-g] ... Try to listen on google translate. ;)
Er trank milch.
Different cogugations for (trinke) past tense first table in this page http://german.about.com/library/verbs/blverb_trinkenP.htm
Ok what letters are you suposed to capitalize? I have an idea but I'm not sure
As far as i know ypu capitalize the first letter in every sentence and noun
I think in German it is the same to use SIMPLE PRESENT tense than PRESENT PROGRESSIVE for what I see.
"He drinks milk" and "He is drinking milk" would both be translated the same ("Er trinkt Milch". Also I can't think of an exception of this scheme.
I am slightly confused with the term Milch here. I scroll over the word and it tells me it's the feminine form of the word yet a man is drinking it.
How is Er in this context he? Duo linguo confuses me. It lists Er as he/she/it giving me no impression of gender
Can "He drinks milk" also mean he drinks milk in general, or just that particular milk?
- Can nouns take both masculine and feminine? Or even neuter?
- If so, why is the feminine word for 'milk' used when thee subject is masculine?
Danke.
I always mix up feminine and masculine words is there any way I can tell the difference between them somehow?
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having real trouble in this exercise with the female voice, I can't hear any differentiation between er and ihr, I would expect er to sound more as if it is veering towards air, and ihr, as if it veers towards ear. And, if I'm right, as trinkt could be either third person singular - er trinkt or second person plural, ihr trinkt, clarity in pronunciation is vital. The particular exercise has two identical sounding phrases to to write, one of which is er trinkt and one of which is ihr trinkt. Grrr
How can the following two be differentiated: He drinks milk He is drinking milk
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Just because that's how German, and some other languages, developed. The idea of the simple present and present continuous can still be there, but you just have to know from the context what is meant because the two ideas are written the same way.
