"The apple is red; it is a red apple."
Translation:Der Apfel ist rot; es ist ein roter Apfel.
36 Comments
It's "der Apfel" and since rot is an adjective, in this case you append "er" to "rot" and you get "roter". We haven't learnt this yet, and I'm wondering when they'll add this lesson. Learning the rules first is IMHO better than just learning several variations of rot (eg. rote, roter, rot, etc).
It is in the tips that you should read before commencing the lesson. Perhaps it wasn't there when this comment was written six years ago.
"However, when the adjective is used with an ein-word (ein, dein, keine, etc.), the adjective must reflect the gender of the noun that follows. The adjective endings -er, -e, and -es correspond to the articles der, die, and das respectively (masc., fem., and neuter). Once you notice the parallel and the agreement of the letters r, e, s with der, die, das, it becomes less complicated than it may seem at first." - http://german.about.com/library/weekly/aa030298.htm
It is. Think of it this way: whenever possible, there should be something indicating the case and gender of the word. Since "ein" doesn't do a very good job of that, you have to use what is called a strong adjective ending. In this case, "Apfel" is nominative and masculine so you have to use the "-er" ending. Hence "ein roter Apfel."
See jess1camar1e's discussion with me in this link; she has an awesome system for remembering the adjective endings: http://www.duolingo.com/comment/556140
If the apple is Der Apfel... why would be "es ist" correct? should be Er ist only!
es goes for all; make an "es ist ein" and "es ist eine" search in google. I use tricks like that :)
Yupp, that was long (in my learning curve at least) time ago. I have learnt that you may use "es" freely when calling something already said. Actually I do it all the time to gain some moments thinking on the gender.... :p
I was thinking the same thing. I only picked the one with "er ist ..." not "es ist ..." since I thought that would be wrong.
In some languages, it is perfectly valid to say :it is a man, e.g. in French you would obviously say: C'est un homme.
I thought "er" is he, "es" is it. Why er ist ein roter Apfel is a correct answer ?
14
But the gender assigned to the noun doesn't indicate the actual gender of the object; e.g. der Hund is a masculine noun however not all dogs are male....... Duolingo didn't even give me a multiple choice with "er ist..." they were all "es ist..."
Pronouns also accord with the antecedent noun's gender. So "she (the girl) is bad" can be "es ist schlecht", since "mädchen" is a neuter noun. In fact, in some contexts (for instance in school), this could be the only form allowed, not "sie ist schlecht"
wouldnt the second part of the sentence, "a red apple" be accusative case? so shouldnt it be ? einen roten apfel?
You do not explain there is an exception, that "er" can be translated as "it" in this case.
I saw my dictionary and is has writen that "er" can be used as "it" for things and animals.
- 1467
Bizarre. I've been doing four lessons a day for years, yet nearly every day I still get sentences I haven't seen before. Like this one.
'Er ist' because Apfel is a masculine noun. 'Der Apfel'. So the pronoun you use for the masculine noun is the masculine pronoun, 'er'.
- 513
How is the second use of "Apfel" here nominative? Is it that the second part of this phrase stands as a sentence on its own, where both "es" & "Apfel" are nominative?
