Deutche

[MIG29pilot]

Easy: Yes, my friend MIG29

[legoboyvdlp]

JWOCKY - Entshuldigen Sie bitte!
Es ist die Grammatik...
Ich lerne der pronouns 'der, die, das, den, dem', und es ist confusing.
Nominativ und Akkusativ sind leicht.
Den Mann isst der Hund.
Der Mann isst den Hund.
Hund-eating Mann or Mann-eating Hund?
(Hint, erste one is the Mann-eating Hund. Second one is the Hund-eating Mann. )

So. Wass about weiblich oder neuter?
Zum Beispiel, im zwischen Akkusativ und Nominativ, nur 'der' changes, to 'den'. So, du hast keine Möglichkeit herauszufinden, if es was ein Pferd-eating Katze oder ein Hund-eating Katze. If the latter, shoot the Pferd as a vicious brute. If the former, shoot the Katze.

In this example,
Das Pferd isst die Katze
Das Pferd isst die Katze

Ist es Kontext oder gibt es eine andere Regel?
Es tut mir leid für alles dieser Frage.

[IAHM-COL]

was that some english-german mix?

[legoboyvdlp]

Yep -- I suppose I should really have done it in english.
If I knew the German word, I wrote it. If not, English and Google Translate to learn it.

[jwocky]

Okay, lets sort it out

Nominativ: Genitiv: Dativ: Akkusativ:
der Mann des Mannes dem Mann den Mann
die Frau der Frau der Frau der Frau
das Kind des Kindes dem Kind dem Kind
die Piloten der Piloten den Piloten den Piloten

So, as you see, the article alone is not clear. But here is the thing, it all depends on which case. The Nominativ, 1st case is always before the verb unless it's a question, the other three cases are all obhects and therefore after the verb. Now, to figure out which case, there is a trick which to a degree works also in American English (inthe UK, you get banned from the country and have to found your own nation, I guess)

if you can ask for it with "wessen" (whose), it's a Genitiv and since both language effectively don't use Genitiv anymore since half a century, you will see that very rarely.
if you can ask with "wem" (whom or in Egnlish often to whom), it's Dativ
if you can ask with "wen" (and here the English equivalent fails because in English for an Akkusativ you can also ask 'whom' or 'who')

Der Mann geht zu seiner Freundin -> Der Mann geht zu wem? -> zu seiner Freundin
The man goes to his girl friend -> The man goes to whom? -> To his gf

The funny thing is, for me Englishw as the foreign language to learn and I was for a while always in trouble because English knows only this rather unspecific "the" ... so the driver fled the scene ... wait, was it a male or a female driver fleeing the scene?

[Sanni]

Weil: Der Genitiv ist dem Dativ sein Tod

Schade eigentlich. dabei ist es doch garnicht so schwer.
Und wenn du jetzt noch anfängst die Fälle vernünftig mit Konjuktiv und Zeiten zu mischen, wird es erst recht interessant!
Ist es eigentlich möglich den ersten Satz ins englische zu übersetzen?

[legoboyvdlp]

Danke Schon, meine Freunde und Leher / Leherin
And English is way more confusing than German
Dough and Ought both use Ough, yet are pronounced differently. I like German for a nice, mostly phonetic language. That is, you pronounce it with few variations.

[Sanni]

Isn't that a phenomenon in every language of this world?
Pronouncing in variations?

[legoboyvdlp]

Not so much in German -- I find most words are pronounced by the rules.

[jwocky]

The few exceptions from the phonetic rules in German are usually words, we stole from other languages or tried to make sound like another language, mostly French. That'S a historical thing, but otherwise there are few variations in pronunciation.