49 Comments
Might be handy to also learn that the addition of 'chen' forms a diminutive to many words in German such as 'kindchen' meaning kiddy or small child
I was surprised that the online dictionary leo is showing 'little man' as 'Mannchen', when I'm sure I once learnt a song where it was 'Mannlein' - 'lein' is the other diminutive suffix. Nouns ending in either suffix are always 'das' (neuter).
Yes, it is both neuter and both 'Männchen' and 'Männlein' is right. Just keep an eye out for the 'Umlaute' (i.e. ä,ö,ü)
I misspelled 'isst' as 'ist' however it was marked correct. Does this mean minor spelling errors are ok, or is it a bug?
There is no difference between the pronunciation of 'ist' and 'isst'. Therefore, you can't possibly know whether it said "Das Mädchen ist" or "Das Mädchen isst".
It is pretty fair that both should be marked as correct.
Well you should know the translation of what your writing so in this case "ist"= is so it wouldn't make sense to put it at the end of sentence.
I remember how to spell it as mad-chen and the a I remember is eh actually this is probably not helpfull
Just because it describes a femake doesnt make it feminun.. Madchen is neuter
"Das Maedchen" (the girl) is only neuter in German because of the "-chen" ending - it is a diminutive suffix and all nouns that end with it are neuter. "Der Junge" (the boy) is a masculine noun.
Is it "Maedchen" because you can't do an umlaut on your pc? Is this acceptable?
Keyboard shortcuts for umlaut: PC: [alt] + [0228]; Mac: [option] + [u], then a
http://www.samford.edu/uploadedFiles/Arts/Music/Forms/KeyboardShortcutsDiacriticalMarkings.pdf
yes. If I understand the english language correctly "The girl is eating" means "the girl is eating RIGHT NOW", which would be better translated to "Das Mädchen isst JETZT GERADE". So if you say "Das Mädchen isst" you cannot really say if she is eating right now (what you are saying by saying "is eating", right?) or at another time (like "the girl eats"). You need to specify this by saying "jetzt gerade" for "right now" or "...bald" for "...soon". You can not determine when the girl is eating by simply saying "Das Mädchen isst". ... okay, I think I wouldn't understand what I wrote either..
Are umlauts the two dots above the a in Madchen? How can I type that on an American keyboard?
On Mac at least you can do Alt+u to get the umlauts, then press the letter you'd like them on, so in your case the a.
Try this: hold down Alt and type in 132 and then release Alt. I don't know if this works on all computer systems (probably not on an Apple computer). ü = 129; ö = 148; ß = 225. Hope it works for you.
It didn't work on my laptop, but I will keep looking into it. Might be an option I need to set. Thanks for the advise though.
It has to be on the numpad keyboard. You can also change your keyboard layout. On a PC, you can do it in the region and language part of the control panel.
Why is the German noun 'Mädchen' 'er' and 'das' before them? It is suppose to be "sie" and "die".
I'd like to figure in my head that "maiden" stands for "Madchen" 'cause they have obviously the same root. Would it be correct?
I still don't really know the difference between isst/esse and trinke/trinkt. Basically, how would they sound different when translated into English?
Isst is the (irregular) conjugation for the she, he, it form of verb Essen - to eat. Eg: Sie,er, es isst. She, he, it eats or is eating. Esse is the conjugation for I form of verb Essen. Eg: ich esse. I eat or I am eating.
Trinken - to drink Ich trinke - I drink or I am drinking Sie, er, es trinkt - she, he, it drinks or is drinking.
Wow, that is cool! I thought Diese was "this" and that I would have gotten that one wrong. Does "Das" stand for this, that, the, and the other?
If i wanted to say "The girl is.", it would be "Das Mädchen ist.", right? But while speaking there remains ambiguity about whether the speaker said "isst" or "ist". Are there a lot of pun-based jokes in German?
I have a doubt. Why does the word Mädchen (girl) is considered neutral in Deutsch?
I don't really know, it's just like in Dutch. 'Het meisje' is 'Das Mädchen' and they're both neutral. When you talk about 'a baby' you always call it 'it'. Oder?
How do you pronounce Mädchen? I can't quite perceive the audio.
Also, is the 'ch' like in Ich pronounced as a sh like in French? I heard it is a guttural h, but I still don't get how to pronounce that...
Why is this not "the girls eat", that is what I put and the correct answer is "the girl eats"
Why do you put a difference in the translation between a girl and the girl in the sentence, which is out of the context.
I dont undertand why is "bitte einen apfel" and "ein apfel, bitte" What is the difference?
I came up with “that is a girl” because nowhere did i see the word “eating”, or essen. How does one know she is eating?
Another question...is there a difference between The girl eats, and the girl is eating?
