39 Comments
I feel that sentence is awkward in both translations...wouldn't ''de är'' be more appropriate?
It would seem so for a non-native speaker but a native will say "det är" unless they are more or less pointing at the knives in question.
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It is really beyond me. 3 practise-sentenses back I used 'They', and it is wrong. 'These' was another correct response. So now I use 'these', and it is supposed to be 'those'? Not really consequent behavior.
- 893
It's really hard (not to say impossible) to answer questions like this without knowing exactly what other question you are talking about. These is either de här or dessa in Swedish though, so it doesn't fit here.
Konsekvent in swedish isn't the same as consequent in english, just so you know! I had the same surprise when I found out.
The English translation should be 'cooks' knives' (with the apostrophe) as it is plural
It actually is, but Duolingo has an annoying bug where the system doesn't consider the apostrophe as part of the word, which screws up the parsing of what you write.
Im more confused because it is our cooks knives doesnt seem like proper english due to it being singular and knives plural. Rather they are our cooks knives?
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The cooks are plural and the knives are plural so it must be our cooks' knives.
Ermagerd. Its right on top but I swear on the correct part it was "it is" I've been staring it too long. Tack.
- 893
Oh, sorry, I thought you were talking about the cooks' part of it. The main answer is they are but we also accept it is in this case, among other things.
Is it always okay to use "it" (singular) with a plural? In English or Swedish?
It is always ok but there's a small subtle difference.
In this sentence, we only express that "the knives we are talking about are the cooks'". If let's say we are in the kitchen, pointing at the knives, we would say "De är våra kockars knivar". We are being much more specific when using "den". "Det" refers more to the "state of things" while "de" would refer to the knives themselves.
This is one of those things that us native speakers don't even think about and you will probably understand this a lot more with practice.
Why "Those" and not "These"? Similarly, in questions with singular Duolingo translates "det ar" as "that is" or "it is", but not "this is". Why? "It is" is much closer to "this is" than "that is". What is going on here?
- den här = denna = this, singular en-word
- det här = detta = this, singular ett-word
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de här = dessa = these, plurals
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den där = den (with emphasis) = that, singular en-word
- det där = det (with emphasis) = that, singular ett-word
- de där = de (with emphasis) = that, plurals
Note also that den/det/de här always take the definite, while denna/detta/dessa always take the indefinite.
The answer is actually correct in the admin interface, but Duolingo has an annoying bug where the system doesn't consider the apostrophe as part of the word, which screws up the parsing of what you write.
I wrote "That are our cooks' knives." But it told me to use "they" instead of "that". Where is my mistake there?
"that" doesn't work for plurals here in the way that Swedish det does.
Either det or det där, but English doesn't like using "that" with plurals.
My answer 'Those are our cooks' kinives' turned out to be wrong, and the translation says 'they are our cooks' knives'. I don't understand why are knives reffered to as living beings.
Duolingo has a bug that shows answers with plural apostrophes as incorrect or typos. When that happens, it shows the default translation regardless of what you entered. We do accept "Those are our cooks' knives" as well. I'm guessing either that's what happened, or your typo "kinives" caused the sentence to be marked incorrect.
In english my answer looks wrong, but I stand corrected...DET ar seems to interchamge between it and they, which is the same to me
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Up to now Det has meant "it" and De has meant "they". So why has it changed?
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I see lotnof commnts here. But all seem to fail to see that the suggested translation is "they are". My question is "who of the native English speakers will ever say for non living object they instead of those etc...?"
We accept "those" as well, but if we put that as the default, the reverse translation will ask you to translate "those are our cooks' knives" - and that would be better as e.g. de där. So we have to sacrifice some English idiomatics in order to better teach the very idiomatic Swedish construction.
