"April does what it wants."

Translation: Der April macht was er will.

[mndrix]

Is this idiom describing the tendency of weather in April to be unpredictable?

[fnordsnafu]

exactly that

[fnordsnafu]

"Der April tut, was er will" ist die im österreichischen Deutsch gebräuchlichere Form dieses Sprichworts

[Sk8rMom]

"tun" = "machen"

[DerAndereLerner]

tun - a cognate of 'do'
machen - a cognate of 'make'

[yipivan]

Is the comma a mus here?

[lizzy0127]

Yep, every time you have a sub-clause in German, there must be a comma. This is different from English.

[navid973015]

How come its er, not es? Its like april is a masculine person like a man

[fehrerdef]

In German every noun has a grammatical gender. That is not connected to natural genders and not restricted to persons. So, yes, "April" is masculine. So it needs to be "er".

[PugLove888]

So, are you saying that in Austrian German they do not use "macht" -- instead they use "tut"? How interesting! :)

[fnordsnafu]

both are used. "machen" is a bit less formal

[BirdShark]

Why is it not accepted as an answer if it is correct to use "tut".

[mutilatedmelon]

So it seems to accept both "Der April macht, was es will." and "Der April macht, was er will." Is using es for all inanimate objects acceptable?

[fehrerdef]

No, it needs to be "was er will", because April is masculine in German. Your "es" probably only got "accepted" as containing a typo.

[yyctOS]

I've been using the noun's gender. The noun in this case being 'April'. I'm not sure it applies in all cases, but Duo keeps marking me correct.

[Bekir978479]

Ist der Artikel benötigt?

[birgiteden]

Why is Der April tut was er will wrong??

[fehrerdef]

Of course it means the same. But it is a saying which just runs like this.

[TalGlobus]

Is the definite article triggering the use of a sub-clause? The two answers given are "April macht was er will" and "Der April macht, was er willst"

[James114429]

Is this a bad translation of TS Eliott's 'April is the cruelest month'?

[fehrerdef]

It's a proverb.

[ezebirman]

I don't think so. A translation of the The Waste Land's first verse could be „April ist der grausamste Monat”

[Txemaonline]

Hier kann KEINER mir sagen, "Der April TUT, was er will" wäre nicht korrekt. Man sagt es IMMER so, zumindest hier in der Gegend!

[MacarenaSa187130]

I wrote "was es will" and was marked correct, can it be both es and er?

[fehrerdef]

Names of months are always masculine in German. So it needs to be "er". "es" should not be accepted in this context.