Der Bauer holt die Frau - article or not in front of holt?
Here “holen” seems to have the meaning of “to call”, right?
Der Bauer holt die Frau.
The problem is that I see different sentences with the same meaning, some use the article and some not. I know that in this case the article is used as relative pronoun I think or conjunction?. But actually the question is why some of them have it and some of them not? Is it just as a style?
Der Bauer holt die Frau.
Die Frau die holt das Kind.
Das Kind das holt die Schwester.
Die Schwester holt den Stier.
and so on.
Thanks.
Hi David. Quick rough answer (I certainly defer to anyone more knowledgeable) - but these are not the same.
Der Bauer holt die Frau → The farmer fetches the woman.
Der Bauer der holt die Frau → The farmer who fetches the woman.
Again, I’ll leave it to the more knowledgeable folks might I think I’m at least in the ballpark.
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In this case the meaning is not “to fetch” but “to call”. Apparently “holen” as a transitive verb has these 2 meanings. The video shows this action as well.
But your explanation helps to understand more. Although, in your example, could it be also “the farmer whom fetches the woman or whom calls the woman”? Whom helps me more to understand it as the right pronoun.
Thanks.
whom is not correct in your sentence “the farmer whom fetches the woman” or “whom calls the woman”. “Whom” should refer to the woman…not to the farmer.
eg…The farmer calls/fetches the woman, whom he knows very well.
Who substitutes for the subject (the farmer). Whom substitutes for the object of the verb.
This link probably explains it far better than I can…I’m pretty sure I don’t get it right much of the time. For example, they have one example at the following link that sounds weird to me:
Whom should I talk to about labeling food in the refrigerator?
I would probably say “Who” here…(which maybe is wrong, but is probably used by the majority of people). “To whom should I talk to about labeling food in the refrigerator?” sounds much better to me.
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Thanks. I read your link and yes, I understand it easily in all those examples, even in the question you posted with the refrigerator. Go figure!
And it’s true, in my previous examples it sounds better as who. But in my mind it behaves as whom if I wanted to translate holen in my own language to help me better understand. But I think I got it.
Basically it could be:
The farmer calls the woman.
The woman who calls the kid.
Which should mean that the farmer called that exact woman that called the kid, not another one but that woman.
Does it make sense?
Thanks.
Yep, you’ve got it.
These articles could also be translated to “that” in English.
The ball that bounced over his head – der Ball, der über seinen Kopf sprang.
In English we might replace “who” with “that” as well with people, although that might not actually be technically correct grammar…The man that calls the woman.
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Yes, I thought about writing “that” in the previous sentence because this is what I would have used talking but I wasn’t technically sure if it was correct 100%. Thanks for explaining it further.
One thing I’ve noticed and I thought about it previously it’s in the last sentence you wrote. You write a comma after “der Ball, …”.
So, in the previous sentences, is there a difference in writing or not a comma? I know German has some specific rules about it but I have to say that regarding punctuation I always lack a bit.
Der Bauer holt die Frau.
Die Frau die holt das Kind. (would be different: Die Frau, …)
Der Ball, der über seinen Kopf sprang. (or der Ball der …)
Thanks.
I popped it into Deepl just to confirm my thoughts. It produced a comma. The comma rules for German seem very strange for me as it doesn’t sometimes correspond with English, or at least it feels like they are in odd places.
So quite frankly. I’m not sure…Hopefully someone who is much more advanced in German can answer precisely.
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