Any German speakers?

[Kenzie]

I am brushing up my high school German with an online course but I am getting confused with the Ein/Eine usage. I understand that words are gendered such as Ein Mann, Ein Mädchen or Ein Junge for Man, girl and boy. But with Frau I get confused as sometimes it says Eine Frau and sometimes Ein Frau. Is it to do with how it's being used? If someone is describing themselves is it Eine and if it's describing someone else it's Ein?

[Seeker]

I haven't studied German for almost 50 years. Eine is the feminine indefinite article and will only change (I thought) in the Genitive or Dative cases (to einer), in Nominative and Accusative it remains as eine. I've not seen ein Frau. If you google ein Frau it will correct it to eine. (and that's exhausted my knowledge).

[Kenzie]

Thats what I thought. Ein Mädchen is correct as it is a mix of two other words. Ein Frau looks wrong but thats what the website is teaching. I'll have to do more research.

Sent from my Xperia using Tapatalk

[Seeker]

all German nouns ending in "chen" or "lein" are neuter. (die Frau, becomes das Fräulein)

Originally Posted by Seeker

I haven't studied German for almost 50 years. Eine is the feminine indefinite article and will only change (I thought) in the Genitive or Dative cases (to einer), in Nominative and Accusative it remains as eine. I've not seen ein Frau. If you google ein Frau it will correct it to eine. (and that's exhausted my knowledge).

Yes, that is correct. Auf Deutsch the article changes to conform with (and indicate) the case. It seems odd to English speakers, in our language only the personal pronouns change between the nominative, accusative and dative cases (if we exclude whom, whomsoever and so on, which are becoming less common in use), and there are two really simple rules for the genitive case.

The structure of German is much more complex than English. Once one learns the rules (and the gender associated with each noun) there are far fewer exceptions than in English.

It is quite hard work to start with - good fortune to the OP.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[SV650rules]

If it is spoken German you are aiming for the difference in pronounciation won't get noticed except by the most picky German.

https://context.reverso.net/translat...n-english/Eine

https://dictionary.reverso.net/german-english/Ein

It may be like some English words that have become interchangeable over the years like learnt and learned, burned and burnt etc....


https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/us...rnt-vs-learned

English language is trying to get rid of gender

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender_in_English

Originally Posted by SV650rules

If it is spoken German you are aiming for the difference in pronounciation won't get noticed except by the most picky German.

https://context.reverso.net/translat...n-english/Eine

https://dictionary.reverso.net/german-english/Ein

It may be like some English words that have become interchangeable over the years like learnt and learned, burned and burnt etc....


https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/us...rnt-vs-learned

Eeeek! Learnt and learned, burnt and burned are not interchangeable in English. One is used in the perfect tense, the other the simple past. German is the same in this respect.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[SV650rules]

Originally Posted by Othen

Eeeek! Learnt and learned, burnt and burned are not interchangeable in English. One is used in the perfect tense, the other the simple past. German is the same in this respect.

The Oxford dictionary says they are interchangeable and you can find pretty much everywhere these days where they are interchanged - English is a living language that is changing bit by bit every day.

The reason that USA simplified it spellings like gray for grey, color for colour, etc. is that for many of its population English was a second language and they were trying to simplify things. Americans replaced 'ize' with 'ise' and today most people use realise instead of realize, both spellings are fine in UK and a lot of computer spell checkers will redline any word with 'ize' in it - realize etc. even though you have selected UK English.

I 'guess' we need to realise American English is taking over anyways, we do not have a defense against it..

Originally Posted by SV650rules

The Oxford dictionary says they are interchangeable ...

It doesn’t matter then... this is a motorbike forum.




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[punyXpress]

. . anyways . . ?