"Ich bezahle meistens."
Translation:I pay usually.
77 CommentsThis discussion is locked.
Synonymous, but meistens is much more common in spoken language; meist is formal and sounds old-fashioned.
It should be "I pay most of the time" or "I pay most times". "Most of the times" implies implies there is a specific set of times in the past, of which you have paid the majority - this doesn't fit the definition of usually, which implies a relationship into the present. Difficult to explain, but it is not a good translation of "I usually pay".
619
"I pay most times" and "I pay most of the times" are EXTREMELY awkward. Duo's translation "I pay mostly" is only a little better. Stick with "I usually pay." "I pay most of the time" is OK, but more words than necessary.
- 1607
'I pay most times' seems actually fairly standard English to my ears. 'I pay most of the times' sounds like someone is referring to times on a payment schedule or somesuch, but quite specific. 'I pay most of the time' is also perfectly acceptable and to me suggests that there are times I DON'T pay. 'I usually pay' suggests that in all probability I ALWAYS pay.
Often simply means a significant amount of the time, while usuaully or mostly implies a majority of the time.
".magicfiresnake Shouldn't Duo accept my version: I pay most of the times?"
Totally agree it should have worked - the sense here is many times / ich stimme das /
- 823
In English we don't use the plural "times" in this sense, we use the uncountable/mass sense, which has no plural. So only "most of the time".
- 893
Illogically, we do also say, "I pay most times". Or at least, some of us do, and it is pretty informal.
Type in, "I usually pay." Hit "Enter." Hear the "you're wrong" sound, see the little red X. Correct solution: "I usually pay." Go home, Duo, you're drunk.
I find that sonst connotes other meanings such as otherwise but meistens is mostly
- 619
For anyone diligently reading all the comments, "I pay most often" sounds like there are at least 3 people who sometimes pay, say the speaker, Mark, and Mary. The speaker is then telling us that he pays more often than Mark and more often than Mary. Of the three, he pays the most often. If there were only two people who sometimes pay, say he and Mary, then the speaker would say "I pay more often," not "most often." The point is that "I pay most often" is correct only under these conditions: Several people have paid the bill from time to time, but the speaker has paid the most often, even if he has paid less than half the time. Note that this contradicts "meistens." The German sentence means "I usually pay." In other words, "I pay more than half the time." The best translation is "I usually pay."
This was posted thrice, so please do delete two, in the interest of not clogging up the thread. Yes, I think your sentence is a very valid translation of the German :)
"I pay usually" (the preferred translation) sounds awkward to me, although not grammatically incorrect.
I think most native speakers would either say "Usually I pay" or "I usually pay".
The am indicates it's the superlative. Superlative shows that something is the most something. Here is more information from: https://www.germanveryeasy.com/comparative-and-superlative
billig billiger am billigsten = cheap cheaper cheapest
krank kranker am kränksten = sick sicker sickest
The superlative with the structure: am + Adjective in positive degree + -sten
Whenever the adjective does not accompany a noun:
Welches Auto ist am billigsten? = Which car is the cheapest?
Attributive Adjective. Superlative without 'am'
A frequent concern is about when to use am in the superlative and when not to. If the adjective is accompanied by a noun (the attributive form) am is not used.
Example: Tata Nano ist das billigste Auto der Welt = Tata Nano is the cheapest car in the world
For more information, go to: https://www.germanveryeasy.com/comparative-and-superlative and scroll down the page to: 3.Superlative degree
- 619
Yes, "mostly" is not quite right. Duo's English translation is overly influenced by the fact that the German sentence uses "meisten." Regardless of how the idea is expressed in German, the natural way to convey the idea in English is "I usually pay."
- 925
As a native English speaker, I do not find "I pay most times" awkward and I think it should be accepted.
- 893
"I pay mostly" (the given preferred translation on this page) - I just stared at that and wondered what the heck it meant. The most obvious meaning to me is, "I pay some guy named Mostly".
And "I mostly pay" (the only possible construction with the word tiles) definitely sounds like there are times when I just steal instead.
I notice there are 86 (!) accepted English translations for this exercise. I just read through them and nearly every one was a better translation than those two. (Although, "I am paying for the most part" is also pretty odd.)
I typed "Usually I am paying" and it was considered wrong. It was corrected to "Usually I i'm paying." Which is definitely incorrect in English.
I pay most of time , it is not accepted
Indeed. The expression is "most of the time" with the definite article "the".
Most of the time STILL not accepted!!!
No, of course not. "Most of the time" is not a translation for Ich bezahle meistens.
In a translation exercise, you have to translate ich bezahle as well, e.g. "I pay most of the time".
In a listening exercise, you have to type in German.
- 627
Thanks Mizinamo, but I did actually type in 'I pay most of the time', and that's what I understand the German to mean. In English, depending on context of course, 'mostly' and 'most of the time' are pretty synonymous
I did actually type in 'I pay most of the time'
Then if it was a translation exercise, I will assume that it was accepted; if it was a listening exercise, rejected.
Do you have a screenshot that would let us see exactly what happened?
- 627
It was a translation exercise, and it was rejected. I suppose it's possible that I misspelt something and that that's actually why it was rejected, but I haven't tried it again - I thought it sensible to type in what Duo wants the next time it came up.
Ich bezahl mesitens is what she says. Why is the audio off sometimes?
What is going on here? This entire test is full of concepts, ideas, and sentences that I have not encountered in my studies? Why do this? Can we please connect questions to the studies? This is not learning. It is just pure frustration.
i thought i heard something about present tense being interchangeable with future in german. would "i will pay most of the time" not be acceptable?
No, "I mostly pay" and "ich bezahle meistens" imply past, present, and future, and "I will pay..." leaves out past and present.
Second, you probably want to use English continuous tense when German present is used to mean the future: "Ich bezahle dafür," "I'm paying for this."
Just use strict future tense to translate strict future tense.
"I will pay the most" means something else: Ich bezahle am meisten.
- 619
Yes, "I will pay the most" implies that he or she will not pay the entire bill, but will contribute more than anyone else.
Btw, can you do something about Duolingo's current awkward translation "I pay mostly"? This sounds like the speaker sometimes pays the tab, sometimes plays the guitar, sometimes sings, but paying the bill is what he does the most often. "Ich bezahle meinstens" doesn't mean "I pay mostly." It means "I usually pay."
It doesn't matter whether the German sentence uses "meistens" or "gewöhnlich" or whatever. "I pay mostly." is not natural English.
Why can't bezahlen be translated "treat" (as in, 'most of the time, I treat'), as well as "pay"?
Either you're rich or you let your "friends" take advantage of you, dear Duo. However, you have 85 million users, so you're probably rich.
- 521
"meinestens" does not exist. Did you mean "meinesteils" or "meinerseits"? (= from my point of view")
That sounds wrong to this native English speaker. "I mainly pay" would mean something like "paying is what I do most often, compared with the other things that I do"
"I mainly pay" could also mean paying is the most important thing yo do.
Um, what? I've never seen that word before.
What purpose does the apostrophe serve? Do you consider the word a contraction of something?