75 Comments
Q: 'Es spielt' means 'It plays' or 'It is playing' - would this be valid if talking about a DVD or CD player?
Yes, you can use the word "spielen" in that sense. You should be aware though that the grammatical gender of DVD-Player or CD-Player in male in German, so it would be "Er spielt." :)
or you can just use "running" and say "der Film läuft" or "die DVD läuft (gerade)" (=right now, so that it's play-ing)
So question, If Speilt is for play would this also work is referring to an instrument? She plays the piano?
Does Du spielt translate into "you play" as in a sport/game and an instrument and a movie?
Ja: Du spielst Gitarre. Du spielst mit uns Fußball. Du spielst eine Nebenrolle (minor role) in einem Film.
When would you even use this? I can only imagine someone saying, "Day 3: Our subject has yet to speak. However, it is playing."
"es" is a "Pronomen". You can use it instead of every neuter noun, and it is common practice to say: "Es regnet" or "Es ist kalt.
It said that Es is also she/her So I wrote 'She plays', and it said that I'm wrong, why?
"es" can mean "she" if it refers to "Mädchen". Remember that grammatical gender is not necessarily the same as biological gender.
You wrote
"es" can mean "she" if it refers to "Mädchen".
Is that the typical pronoun used to refer to a Mädchen or is it more common to refer to a Mädchen as a "sie?"
It is somewhat common to see the pronoun "switch" to natural after a while, even though this is not technically right. For example "Das Mädchen hat sein Frühstück gegessen, und dann ging es in die Schule. Da war sie nicht glücklich"
Yes, 'das Es, das Ich, das Über-Ich' (if you want to follow Freud's rather peculiar concepts).
963
One of the choices for "Es" is "e-flat." "E-flat"? Can someone give me an example sentence or something?
- "The orchestra performed Beethoven's third symphony in E-flat major"
- "Das Orchester spielte Beethovens dritte Sinfonie in Es-Dur".
I thought "Es spielt" was used in German in the same way as in Danish where it is colloquially used to express that something is working well or running smoothly, but DL didn't accept "It works"
- 223
Sorry, es spielt for it works is indeed wrong. It is neither a German usage nor understandable in most cases. For things producing sound we use the verb spielen ( Radio/musical instrument) but for a car, a household machine or a computer we would not use spielen.
thanks for clearing up the sie issue so es (can mean she) but sie (can be used for Madchen because its neutral (das)?
Yes, nowadays it is common practice to use the pronoun "sie" for "das Mädchen".
"It" like what? This sounds ridiculous when a table start playing... so if i want to think logical, i also choose she or anything who able to play... :))
I think you could use it in the sense English language does. Referring to animals and the like
The translation of "it is playing", there is no is/ist, is that because we are working in present tense and "ist" can be dropped?
German doesn't have the distinction between the English tenses "it plays" and "it is playing" -- the sentence can be translated either way, with no helper verb in the German.
The first time I hear this, I hear "Er spielt", probably from the 's' sounds blending. It's odd because when I play it again, I hear "Es spielt". Happens every time.
- 223
the first and logical step is naturally to think of the pronoun for neuters. But this would not explain the idiomatic usages:
es ist 10 Uhr
es spielt keine Rolle was Du willst
Es klappert die Mühle (Kinderlied).
es scheint die Sonne.
In most cases, where Es is the Subject and the verb follows directly, it must not agree with the gender of the virtual subject. But I think you have the same idea in English. Who is at the door? It is my sister.
Ah yes. I remember the headline in a Berlin newspaper "Es scheint die liebe Sonne" ( after a week of rain ). You give a good example "It's my sister at the door".
If this isn't used for people, instruments, or devices, what is it for? Is it like when you bet a watch at a casino and the pit boss says "it plays for $400"?
What do you mean by 'the real one' ? „Es spielt“ translates to both "It plays" and "It is playing".
What makes it difficult to remember, could you elaborate? It is word for word: Es = It, Spielt = Plays The same meaning in both languages in form and structure.
"es lebt!" (gotta love this denouncing Frankenstein-ish allusion : or maybe they mean swamp thing?)
and with that I mean
yes, "es spielt" is rarely ever being used when saying anything
except for if you want to sound poetic and put "es spielt..." before what's/who's playing, which is not the best way to form a sentence but sure is flamboyant :>
Can ' spielt' be used as a noun? Example: ' The play is good' is equal to 'Das spielt ist gut'?
Every verb can be used as a noun, but only in the infinitive form. Then it is capitalized and gets the article "das": Das Spielen macht Spaß (fun). But the play is "das Spiel": Das Spiel ist gut.
If the article of a noun is "der", then the pronoun for this noun is "er": Der Hund (the dog), er spielt mit dem Stock (stick). If the article is "das" then the pronoun is "es": Das Kind (the child), es spielt im Sand. Die Katze, sie spielt mit dem Ball.
Could someone help me understand why sometimes "ist" is dropped where other times it's not? Here, I would've thought it would be "Es ist spielt." Not "es spielt". Thanks in advance.
'Spielt' is in English 'plays'. 'It is plays' is not correct either in English. The present progressive form 'is playing' doesn't exist in German. 'He is playing football' is in German: Er spielt (gerade) Fußball. Das Radio (es) spielt wieder (is playing again). But also 'das Kind' (the child) and 'das Mädchen' can be 'es' because the article is 'das'. For 'das Mädchen' I can also use the pronoun 'sie': sie spielt gerade.
