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Die vs sie, and another question (German) | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| soclydeza85 Senior Member United States Joined 3908 days ago 357 posts - 502 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: German, French | Message 1 of 11 05 April 2014 at 2:52am | IP Logged | |||||
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Sometimes "die" is used as "she". For example:
"Die kann allein nicht mehr runter." (She cannot get down on her own) Is there a reason why "sie" wasn't used? Are there times when one should be used instead of the other? ================================================= Another question (on the same sentence): The "nicht mehr runter" part confuses me. Would it be something like "She cannot get down alone anymore", or "She cannot get more down", as in she cannot go lower than where she is? The use of mehr confuses me here. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| soclydeza85 Senior Member United States Joined 3908 days ago 357 posts - 502 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, French | Message 2 of 11 05 April 2014 at 2:57am | IP Logged | |||||
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In the same story a similar thing happens with "der" for "he"
"der mag keine Katzen". Is the article used instead of the pronoun in some cases? 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Gemuse Senior Member Germany Joined 4083 days ago 818 posts - 1189 votes Speaks: English Studies: German | Message 3 of 11 05 April 2014 at 7:58am | IP Logged | |||||
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Here is what Hugo German says: The use of der/die/das instead of er/sis/es is very
common when starting a sentence. This is less common in question where this is not possible. To add to your questions, is the following correct? "Mag der keine Katzen?" 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Doitsujin Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 5321 days ago 1256 posts - 2363 votes Speaks: German*, English | Message 4 of 11 05 April 2014 at 9:08am | IP Logged | |||||
The sentence sounds a bit funny. I'd probably use "runterkommen" instead of "runter:" "Die kann allein nicht mehr runterkommen." IMHO, you could replace "die" with "sie" in this sentence. If I had to translate "She cannot get down on her own," I'd definitely use "sie" in the translation. I'd only use "die" if I had to single out a specific female ("die da") or if I wanted to somewhat distance myself from her.
"Nicht mehr" here indicates that she was able/allowed to come/get down by herself/unsupervised, but now needs someone to help her or watch over her. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| BAnna Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 4623 days ago 409 posts - 616 votes Speaks: English*, German, Spanish Studies: Russian, Turkish | Message 5 of 11 05 April 2014 at 5:41pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Relative pronouns are used in German to stand in for the noun in a relative clause. In English this would be who/that/which, etc. Just speculating, but possibly in spoken language, if the person/thing being referred to is understood, I can imagine that the relative clause could be spoken as a stand-alone sentence, with the main clause invisibly there in the minds of the people having the conversation.
Here is a very nice explanation about the relative pronouns, with exercises: Relativpronomen NThuleen 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Josquin Heptaglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4845 days ago 2266 posts - 3992 votes Speaks: German*, English, French, Latin, Italian, Russian, Swedish Studies: Japanese, Irish, Portuguese, Persian | Message 6 of 11 05 April 2014 at 5:55pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Unfortunately, in this case "der/die/das" is a demonstrative pronoun and not a relative pronoun. If this were a relative clause, the word order would be different, because the verb would be in final position.
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| BAnna Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 4623 days ago 409 posts - 616 votes Speaks: English*, German, Spanish Studies: Russian, Turkish | Message 7 of 11 06 April 2014 at 12:16am | IP Logged | |||||
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Thanks, Josquin. Once again, you come to the rescue. I really should know better and not speculate...
Based on your contribution, I found a nice website for English learners of German explaining demonstrative pronouns, also with exercises: Demonstrative Pronouns 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| soclydeza85 Senior Member United States Joined 3908 days ago 357 posts - 502 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, French | Message 8 of 11 06 April 2014 at 5:39am | IP Logged | |||||
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Thanks guys! The demonstrative pronoun explanation makes perfect sense, thanks for that link BAnna.
As for the "nicht mehr" part, would it be similar to saying "She can no longer get down on her own"? 1 person has voted this message useful |
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