"Ein guter Hund isst nicht an dem Tisch."

Translation: A good dog does not eat at the table.

[pnique]

Shouldn't an+dem be contracted into am?

[christian]

Right. That would sound more natural.

[magicfiresnake]

But ins't the non-contracted form more formal?

[Zchbaniel25]

Not really.

You use the non-contracted form when you want to say: At THIS one table, not at the other one. "An DEM Tisch hier und nicht an dem da drüben.

[magicfiresnake]

Thanks!

[philster043]

I think the point here is just that they are helping you remember that the sentence could be constructed this way as well, but am is probably more commonplace.

[Sk8rMom]

Yeah, there was a sentence earlier "Die Blumen gehen in das Wasser" that, I think would sound better as "Die Blumen gehen ins Wasser." Of course, "in das"="ins"

[Glutexo]

Both is correct. Good point!

[stehrhardt]

I thought people "isst: and dogs "frisst"

[Constructive]

Yep, essen is for people and fressen is for animals. Careful not to use the latter in reference to people since it would imply they eat like animals.

[Zchbaniel25]

Essen and fressen are NOT interchangeable, it is always "fressen" with animals.

[Constructive]

My mistake, looks like I got the wrong idea from this discussion (https://www.duolingo.com/comment/579). I edited it appropriately. So should DL use the other word here?

[Radebrech]

Sure.

[MelvinCheung]

is it the same as ´Ein guter Hund isst nicht auf dem Tisch.´?

[Sk8rMom]

No. "Auf dem Tisch" means "on the table," not "at the table."

[ahmetatakan1]

i wrote 'on the table' and it was accepted,that means it would have been 'auf dem Tisch' as well?

[Vindalf]

Though that sentence is perfectly true, good dogs should not eat on any tables :)

[cyrano5]

Why 'guter'? I would have thought Nominative here. Rule?

[christian]

It is nominative (mixed inflection).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_adjectives#Weak_and_strong_inflection

[cyrano5]

thx

[pcolt]

Why I can not select copy-paste your link from my Android phone??

[christian]

I've asked the developers to make links clickable on Android as well. Hopefully, this will be fixed soon. In the meantime, you can just Google the name of the Wikipedia article (German adjectives). It should be one of the first results.

[leslieg123]

It should have been "frisst" not "isst."

[adikkkkj]

What is the difference between "an" and "bei"?

[cyrano5]

how do you distinguish the sound of ist from isst?

[christian]

"isst" and "ist" sound exactly the same. In colloquial (rapid) speech, some speakers drop the "t" in "ist".

[Boycey48]

So in the spoken form there is no difference between a good dog is not at the table and a good dog does not eat at the table...

[Fleurbs]

I translated it as "A good dog eats nothing off the table" because it seemed that was the meaning. I guess that it had to include "at the table", but I feel that I got the meaning without the translation?! Still trying:)

[Matheus102643]

How could I know if it is "ist" or "isst" just by hearing?

[Jason278411]

This question has been bothering me for quite some time and I've just been ignoring it. But I really want to understand what I'm doing here. Why are using an dem tisch? "to the table" is this just a mannerism in german? Seems like we should be using "am tisch" "at the table" instead. Please help, danke