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- Topic: German >
- "Du trinkst das Wasser."
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Does anyone know the difference between "Du trinkst das Wasser." and "Du trinkst Wasser."? Thank you!
Definite vs indefinite. The first would be "you drink the water" (that water, in particular) and the second would be "you drink water" (any water, in general).
Is it more correct to translate to "you are drinking the water" or "you drink the water?" Or they are both equally correct?
Actually, whether the article is included depends on the intended meaning - as has already been discussed on this page.
Yes, but that would only happen for a question or other tenses apart from the simple present so it's slightly misleading what has been discussed. You would actually never use it in the simple present for the second person in English.
119
What, never?* Why not?
Seriously, you should look at wataya's comment below. Omitting "the" changes the meaning.
*Reminds me of a bit from The Pirates of Penzance, but we needn't go there now.
Verb = Trinken. Ich = Trinke Du = Trinkst Er/es/sie = Trinkt Wir = Trinken Ihr = Trinkt Sie = Trinken
I s this correcr?
No. Den is only used in the accusative case for der, and in the dative case for die (plural).
depends on what you're trying to say. if you wanna say "the water" then it's "das Wasser" if you just wanna say "water" then it's "Wasser", so it depends on whether it's definite or indefinite
When 'du' comes, it is always like 'du bist', du trinkst'. That is, verb or the next word after 'du' ends with 'st'.
"You drink water" refers generally to water. Water is simply a substance that you drink - any water, at any time.
"You drink the water" refers to some specific water. Offhand, I'd say the most likely context would be a situation in which the potability of the water is in question.
