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- "Die Großmutter spielt mit me…
"Die Großmutter spielt mit meinem Pferd."
Translation:The grandmother is playing with my horse.
23 Comments
It is acceptable in Switzerland, and it would be in Germany as well if the spelling reforms of 1996 had been fully adopted. However, Germans didn't want to lose their "scharfes S" (ß), so it's back. The "ß" is generally supposed to follow long vowels, while "ss" follows short vowels.
http://german.about.com/library/weekly/aa092898.htm
http://www.pauljoycegerman.co.uk/abinitio/alphabet/umlautsz.html
I didnt know about the German language reform... quite interesting. Cheers pal
It's pretty much the difference between the vowel sounds in "bit" and "beat". It's a subtle distinction, but it's there. Here's a reference:
http://www.german-grammar.de/grammar/chapter_3/3_2_8_long_short_vowels.htm
On a mac, you can type it with option-s. (Umlauts are option-u, a, option-u, i, option-u, u).
Or you can just hold the 's', 'u', 'o' and 'a' keys for the various eszett and umlaut options.
accusative = direct object dative = prepositional object and (indirect object???)
although some verbs are dative, so their direct objects are also always dative
hope this helps
This exercise is trying to teach that the preposition "mit" takes the dative case. There are a few charts that list common prepositions and which case they take, just do a Google image search for "German cases prepositions".
Bruv...that's just gross, mang ;) Can't decide whether our minds are in the gutter, or if Duolingo is just baiting us....
Why is there so many ways to say "the". I feel like there is more than 10 different ways to say it.
Well just five der die das den dem BUT you have to recognize the gender (there are three) male female or neuter AND the case nominative acussative dative or genative to know which of the five options to use. So 20 well 40, they can all be singular or plural, scenarios to recognize and know which of the five thes to use. I THINK. I still get confused and let's not get into pronouns and tenses and iregular verbs. I keep telling myself little four year old german kids speak german just fine without memorizing or knowing ANY of this.
There are only 16 different scenarios, not 20 or 40.
Masculine, Feminine, Neuter, Plural
Normative, Accusative, Genitive, Dative (cases/declentions)
If you memorise the four endings for each case it's easy to double check when you use a word, and then eventually it'll become more and more instinctive and you won't have to think as much about which one you're using.
norm: -er (m.), -e (f.), -es (n.), -e (p.)
accu: -en (m.), -e (f.), -es (n.), -e (p.)
gent: -es (m.), -er (f.), -es (n.), -er (p.)
dativ: -em (m.), -er (f.), -em (n.), -en (p.)
Things to remember/exceptions:
- neuter "the" for norm. & accu. is "das" instead of des
- feminine and plural "the" is "die" instead of just de
Then you can apply these endings to definite articles:
the (d-), every (jed-), this/these (dies-)
Possesive articles:
your (dein-), their (ihr-), our (eur-)
Yes. "The (subject) is (verb)ing" and "The (subject) (verb)s" are interchangeable translations of the present tense in german.
