"Sie sind dir voraus."
Translation:They are ahead of you.
21 CommentsThis discussion is locked.
Can someone give a bit of a primer on voraus? What kind of a word is it? Why does it come after the pronoun? I'm used to sentences like Sie sind vor dir ("They are in front of you"), but my head currently doesn't expect this word order.
OK. They are in front of you = sind vor Dir clearly describes a local position. Sie sind Dir voraus means eithert he position in a physical competion, i,e, a race, but even much more in an intellectual contest. i.e: in trigonometry these two girls are ahead of you = In Trigonometrie sinde Dir diese beiden Mädchen voraus.
Strictly speaking, it’s an adverb, but I believe it takes the dative because it includes the dative preposition "aus." Also, it's describing relative positions.
Ok thanks, I think I understand it now. Since it describes a place of location, it's dative, I think.
788
Does this mean "Ahead of you" both in a literal, and a more metaphorical sense, as in, "They are in front of you on the path", and "They are ahead of you in the curriculum"?
Ja, 'voraus' can also be used in a metaphorical sense: In dieser Technik sind sie uns voraus. Or: Auf diesem Gebiet (field or branch) sind sie uns voraus. = Sie sind uns auf diesem Gebiet voraus.
Because "dir" implies that something is ahead of the person you're speaking with. (This person can't be ahead of him/herself). Also it would be a mix of polite form "Sie - Ihnen" and inpolite form "Du - dir"
"You are ahead of me" would be translated as "Sie sind (Du bist) mir voraus"
This sentence needs either a pause between "sind" and "dir," or more of an emphasis on the 'd' sound in "dir." It sounds like "ihr."
The drop down hints offer both ahead and in front of, but do they both imply some sort of movement here?
That's not correct in English. This point is key: don't try to translate things word-for-word between languages. The word "aus" (as a part of voraus) might be required in German, but "out ahead" just isn't right in English.
It's a good idiomatic English sentence, but it adds a modifier, out, that isn't in the original. "Out" indicates greater distance.
'gerade' means 'straight', so geradeaus means rather 'straight ahead'. So if you want to know where your friends are, and the person answers 'They are straight ahead of you' then geradeaus may fit it.
