"You are drinking."
Translation:Du dricker.
65 CommentsThis discussion is locked.
Is "Du" incorrect because "You are drinking" could be singular and plural; thus, making it "Ni"? If that's the case, then "Du" is strictly singular, and you use "Ni" when "You" is possibly plural or is plural in a sentence, right? I'm asking this because I got it wrong for whatever reason when using "Du" when it seemed perfectly applicable since I have no way of telling if it's plural or not without more context for "You are drinking.".
Well - since 2nd person singular and 2nd person plural are the same in English (you) there's absolutely no way of knowing if it should be "du" or "ni" in Swedish. I'm pretty sure both "du dricker" and "ni dricker" are valid translations in this case.
As for your second thought - the "Du är dricker" is an impossible construction in Swedish. Both "You drink" and "You're drinking" translates to "Du dricker" (or, in the case of plural you in English, "Ni dricker"). Swedish doesn't differentiate between progressive and non-progressive forms - "du dricker" is both progressive and non-progressive at the same time. Makes sense? :-)
As far as I know DuoLingo accepts both "du" and "ni" as Swedish translations whenever "you" is used in English, unless the context makes it clear that it must refer to a group of people (thus making it "ni" by default).
I know the mods will be upset when I write this, but this is the way those two words are used in the southwest (both in the town were I grew up and in the village where I currently live).
du: "you" when used with a singular person, whom you're conversing with.
ni: "you" when used with a group of people, whom you're conversing with.
man: "you" when used in an impersonal way (when "you" would imply "everyone" in general), e.g. "You shouldn't swim there" (Man bör inte simma där).
Ni: not used in this region, and some people here get upset when they receive letters from sellers trying to use "Ni" as a polite way of saying "du". In this region "du" is the polite way of addressing someone, and by using "Ni" people show that they're "better" and that they're trying to show off by using "fancy language".
So - my advise is to keep it simple. Use "du" unless the context makes it obvious that you're referring to a group. That way you won't ever be far off from the way "you" would be translated in the southwest.
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Not fair to get it wrong when english doesn't have the plural distinction... you've ruined my perfect score