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- "Du hast alle diese Bücher!"
78 Comments
2032
"Alles" means "everything," while "alle" means "all." The difference is very slight, but important.
Look at this site this helps, http://deutsch.lingolia.com/en/grammar/pronouns/demonstrative-pronouns.
That's what I wrote too, reasoning that alle [Bücher] dieser Bücher was how to say "all of these books" with a genitive construction.
But if the point is that we should be specifically translating "all these books" (no of) then I can kind of accept it. But there doesn't seem to be any difference in meaning as I see it.
Ah, you were looking for a word-for-word translation of the expression with "of". Sorry, didn't get that the first time.
Although alle dieser Bücher
is grammatically not incorrect, it isn't really used. Alle diese Bücher
is more common. So, it's a usage thing.
There is a similar construct where you commonly do use genitive though:
Jedes einzelne dieser Bücher.
- Every single one of these books.
As opposed to a nominative form:
Jedes einzelne Buch.
- Every single book.
706
"This" is singular. Bücher is plural.
This
book.
These
books
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/this
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/these
No, Buch is always neuter. But the plural articles are all the same for masculine, feminine and neuter, and they happen to be die for nominative case (“subject case”): German articles
706
That's the way it's described in the usage notes for the German entry in Wiktionary. The Duden shows similar usage.
Still, it looks like "alle
diese" is more common (though becoming less so):
706
I think of alle as "every thing" or "every one" and use the singular form of the verb: "Every one is here."
And then alles is the "all" or "all things" and thus needs the plural form: "All are here."
But apparently the use of alles/alle is fairly confusing:
1628
When I type in 'You all have these books' it says it's incorrect. Isn't it the right sequence of words in English?
Nope. That sentence means you are addressing a bunch of people (“you all“) and saying that they have these books.
That sentence would be in German:
Ihr habt diese Bücher.
- (2nd person plural)
which is quite different from
Du hast alle diese Bücher.
- (2nd person singular)
And: because you used up the “all“ to say “you all“, you're not referring to “all these books“ anymore, but only “these books“.
706
Bücher is plural, right? Articles declined for plural use the suffix "-e" for Akkusativ (as in this sentence) or Nominativ.
The "-es" suffix is for [singular] neuter Nominativ, Akkusativ, oder Genitiv; also for [singular] masculine Genitiv.
706
There is a difference in the tone and depending on the context, one may be far better suited than the other. Without going into an exhaustive explanation and set of examples, consider these two brief illustrations:
At the start of the new semester, someone walks into a college bookstore with a list of the reading and textbook requirements just received and says, "Do you have all these books?" (Or, if he is Munich, "Haben Sie alle diese Bücher?") He wants to know if he can buy all of them here or if he's going to have to go to multiple bookstores.
The second question you propose, "You have all these books?" (Auf Deutsch, "Du habst alle diese Bücher?") is a "declarative question" and it implies a sense of incredulity or amazement. This might be said by someone who walks into another's office and sees all four walls covered by full bookshelves, and even more books stacked on every horizontal surface.
706
I'm pretty sure that you need to decline andere to anderen
. Because we have diese serving as an article, andere does not need to provide the marker for a plural object.
706
An "r"?
More importantly, diese is the declined form of the German pronoun which translates as "this" when used for either feminine or plural nouns in either Nominativ oder Akkusativ. Dieser is the declension for masculine Nominativ, feminine or plural Genitiv, or feminine Dativ.
This table may help.