112 Comments
I had the opposite problem: I misspelled it as "isst" instead of "ist" and it accepted it without even saying I had a typo.
Same here. Maybe because it is still correct and indistinguishable from 'isst'?
Correct, "Eine Ente isst ein Vogel" is grammatically correct, and you can't hear the difference.
edit: this is incorrect, read below
Shouldn't it be "Eine Ente isst einen Vogel", since Vogel is masculine and is in the accusative case?
I didn't think about this possibility! You are right: if the bird is eating the duck, then Vogel is the nominative object (the subject) and Ente is the accusative object (the direct object); in this case, "Eine Ente isst ein Vogel." means the same thing as "Ein Vogel isst eine Ente.". (I checked this with a German teacher to be sure).
I forgot that, in German, the terms in the sentence can be reordered in such manner (ironically, in Portuguese, my native language, this is also possible). Thank you for having observed that!
Tatiane, German is more flexible than Portuguese when it comes to ordering the terms in the sentence. This happens because of its declination system, which marks the syntactic function of a noun independently of where it is placed in the sentence structure.
We can reorder terms in Portuguese sentences as well, but we rely greatly on semantic features, rather than syntactic ones, to maintain the meaning and avoid ambiguities. For example, you can change "O poeta escrevia um doce verso" into "Um doce verso escrevia o poeta", but you can't invert "A menina beijou o menino" into "O menino beijou a menina" without changing the meaning.
This happens because we don't change the articles ("o", "a", "os", "as") according to the role the following noun plays in the sentence. However, German does that, which allows us to make inversions that are impossible to be made in Portuguese without altering the meaning.
In this case, if you want to say "Um pássaro come um pato", "pássaro" is the nominative object and you should use "ein", while "pato" is the accusative object, and you should use "eine". In this case, the final German sentence can be either "Ein Vogel isst eine Ente" or "Eine Ente isst ein Vogel" and, because of the declinations, both sentences mean the same thing.
On the other hand, if you want to say "Um pato come um pássaro", than "pato" (the nominative object now) should be preceded by "eine" and "pássaro" (the accusative object now) should be preceded by "einen". Again, the final sentence can be either "Eine Ente isst einen Vogel" or "Einen Vogel isst eine Ente".
Hi Andre, sorry but I'm still confusing. Translating to Portuguese we have: Um pato come um pássaro. It's not the same that Um pássaro come um pato. Why in this case it's not required put EINEN Vogel?
Just a clarification: you can rely on syntactic features for disambiguation as well. This happens, for example, when the subject is singular and the object is plural (or vice-versa). However, this is not the case here.
But if both are feminine? "Eine Ente isst eine Katze" or "Eine Katze isst eine Ente", it seems like this particular case isn't flexible, they don't change anything from nominative to acusative...
That is correct. I think the rule of thumb here is: if you can tell the subject from the object using the case (nominative, etc.), use that; otherwise, use word order or context.
Crap you're right. it would be "isst einen Vogel," so it shouldn't have accepted IAmAFish's answer..
But if the bird is eating the duck, then it's correct, isn't it? "Eine Ente" is the correct accusative case.
Wait wait no because when animals eat something you use frisst instead of isst (probably because of this confusion)
That happened to me also. I thought, "A duck is eating a bird?!" What an odd sentence, lol.
Yes, I did too. I was thinking "Duolingo animals are ALWAYS eating each other"!
I know, right? The voice is true-ly talking about "The duck is a bird." hahaha. But also thanks to everyone explaining: acc and nom. Now I know that the object could be written first than the subject. :)
But then you should have "ein Vogel" in acc., not in nom. "Eine Ente isst EINER Vogel". Good luck!
It should be "einen Vogel". You use "einer" with feminine nouns in the dative case.
I just got the sentence "Eine Ente ist ein Vogel" about 6 times in a row! I have come to the conclusion that a duck is in fact a bird.
Because when you use the verb sein, what follows it is in the nominative case. This is because sein is a linking verb, not an active verb (I don't know the proper German terms, but this is the idea). In this case, Vogel is a predicate noun (http://www.vistawide.com/german/grammar/german_cases_nominative.htm).
Duolingo calls this case predicative nominative within "Tips"
I'm sorry, but this is slightly irrelevant, but ducks eat birds? Just wondering.
When it has something to do with animals eating something you use the verb frisst instead of isst (probably because of this haha)
Although 'ein' can mean one, it's not a correct translation in this case.
"One duck is a bird" would imply that only one special duck is a bird, whilst "A duck is a bird" would imply that all ducks are birds.
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This was a type-what-you-heard exercise for me. I typed Eine Ente isst einen Vogel and got it wrong. (?!) I did not notice the lack of a pronounced n, it was timed practice, and I was going fast. In the explanation, it showed the "correct" sentence as "Eine Ente isst ein Vogel." I reported it (6/16/19). Please correct that!
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I did not notice the lack of a pronounced n
Well, maybe you will notice it next time. ;)
But since "Eine Ente isst ein Vogel." is not a valid German sentence, that suggested 'solution' should be removed.
To quote andrecunha, "when you use the verb sein, what follows it is in the nominative case. This is because sein is a linking verb, not an active verb."
There is none, but as you advance your knowledge of the language you can figure out whether they're saying "isst" or "ist" via context clues (see above).
By the way, it's not correct –I think the pronunciation of isst is /ist/ and ist more like /izt/. Also, perhaps the first one (ss) is a little longer than the second (s)–
I typed it correctly and then it tried to correct me with exactly what I typed...
Please... Help me. I started to learn my favourite language :german.. But It's one of my first lessons and i m already confused. In which case we use ein and eine.?
That has to do with word gender: Ente is a feminine noun, so you use "eine"; Vogel is a masculine noun, so you use "ein". This might be confusing for English speakers since English words (usually) don't have an associated gender, but words do have gender in many other languages.
And "frisst" instead of "isst." "Eine Ente frisst einen Vogel." I always thought that ducks were primarily vegetarian, occasionally eating insects. And that diving ducks eat small fish and crustaceans. But, the BBC has recently documented ducks attacking and eating small birds!
http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-40445379
The english translation would never be used, "one duck is a bird". It is assumed that all ducks are birds, therefore no need for specifying that "one" duck is a bird.
This is true is most cases, but not ALL cases. Der Junge being one of them.
As to a question above, we cant write Ein Ente ist einen Vogel (to make it accusative case). It is because the sentence is about the same duck. There are no 2 separate objects to name one as direct and the other as indirect object. The context is about the same one duck. Native speakers can correct me.
Wait a minute! This sentence is translated as, "A duck is a bird." There is no "isst" in the sentence. The correct word is "ist." A duck is a bird. It is not eating a bird. I am not sure that the sentence is true, but that is what it says. It is "ein Vogel" and not "einen Vogel" because with the verb "to be" it is always a predicate in the nominative case.
In German, as in many languages, there is only one word for a and one. (Sorry if it was a joke...)
Someone would tell me why "Eine Ente" and "ein Vogel"? I don't undertand the rules for the article "A/An" in German.
It has to do with the gender of the word. If the word is feminine (IE has a die article) it becomes eine, if it's masculine or neuter (der or das) it becomes ein.
Note that the above only holds true if it's in the nominative case, and that the articles start to change in the other cases.
I was confused to ,and I was not able to understand why it's not " eine Ente ist einen Vogel" instead of " Eine Ente ist ein Vogel".....i was pretty sure that Vogel it's masculine. After a half hour of searching ,i find the grammar rule that says: Predicate nominatives are nouns, following the werbs SEIN,WERDEN,Heißen,and occasionally BLEIBEN. In our case ein Vogel its the predicate nominative. That actually means that the both sides of the sentence will have the nominative case.EXAMPLES: Ich (nom) bin ein(nom)Mann. Ein(nom) essen
Im confused. Eine means "a". But i got marked wrong for putting "a". They say it should mean "one" but "one" in German is "Eines" correct?
No. "A" and "one" are the same in German, as they are in the Italic Languages. This sentence is translated to: "a duck is a bird"
No, the distinction between "a" and "an" has nothing to do with "eine" and "ein". "a" and "an" simply differs on if the word begins with a vowel sound, while the German "ein" and "eine" depend on the gender of the noun. If the gender is feminine (die) it becomes "eine", if it's masculine or neuter (der or das) it becomes "ein".
Note that this is only in the nominative case. In the other cases you start to get things like einen, einem and einer.
Here it says that the translation is ''A duck is a bird''. I wrote that and Duo corrected me that the correct translation is ''One duck is a bird''.
What is correct? Thanks for the answer.
Good question. Had to figure it out without knowing the meaning of the words. More like this please.
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Hm... It's a pity that "Enton" is called "psyduck" in english otherwise it would be a good donkey bridge.
When a picked Die Ente for bird in the last question they say I'm wrong. Then make me translate the phrase "A duck is a bird". Ahhhhh.
Eine Ente ist ein Vogel = A duck is a bird
Eine Einte isst ein Vogel = A bird is eating a duck
Ein Vogel isst eine Ente = A bird is eating a duck
Eine Ente isst einen Vogel = A duck is eating a bird
Einen Vogel isst eine Ente = A duck is eating a bird
German is great.
I put "enta" instead of "ente" is that legit? it was correct too!
Actually whatever i say in the "speaking " sentence it is always correct ..if u say "eine katze ist ein Haustier " it will be correct
It's a bird? Wow. NICE OBSERVATION!!!!!one!!111!
They had me pick the correct translation, and they had 'A duck is a bird' and 'A duck is an bird', so i picked both. they may not be grammatically correct in English, but they mean the same thing.
not cool Duolingo.
