Translation: English into German Quiz

Answer: Ich wohne schon seit drei Jahren in Rostock.

1. With 'seit' use the present or preterite tense to render 'have been _____ ing' and 'had been ______ing' respectively. 2. In German adverbs and adverbial phrases occur in the order: time - manner - place (TMP), so here 'schon seit drei Jahren' precedes 'in Rostock'. (I hope you didn't opt for 'bin ... wohnend' as it's an excellent example of what is called 'Kauderwelsch' in German).

Answer: Waren Sie schon mal in Deutschland?

The other three, though comprehensible, are not idiomatic. Here 'in' (with 'sein') is followed by the dative. It's not obvious in this example as there's no article, but note: 'Waren Sie schon mal in der Schweiz/in den USA/im Ausland?' ('Die USA' - like 'die Vereinigten Staaten von Amerika' - is of course plural).

Answer: Seine Mutter ist Ärztin.

With nouns of nationality and occupation it's standard usage to have no article after 'sein' unless there is an adjective. It's also essential to use the '-in' ending where the person is a woman. The only exceptions are actual designations of high-ranking office, for example: 'Sie ist Staatssekretär'. (In such cases, the '-in' ending should not be used).

If an adjective precedes the noun it is normal usage to include an article, for example, 'Seine Mutter ist eine bekannte Ärztin'.

Answer: Es fiel ihm schwer, uns eine vernünftige Antwort zu geben.

Note: 1. etwas fällt jemandem schwer 2. 'beantworten' is transitive and therefore requires the acc. while 'antworten' is intransitive and takes the dat. 'Sensibel' means 'sensitive', not 'sensible'.

Answer: Ich trinke gern starken Kaffee.

Note the use of the adverb 'gern'. The opposite of 'gern' is 'ungern', as in 'Ich trinke ungern schwachen Tee'. (In this connection, there is a long-standing joke about the name Ungern-Sternberg. In speech there is of course no hyphen, so 'Ich heiße Ungern-Sternberg' sounds exactly the same as 'Ich heiße ungern Sternberg' - 'I don't like to be called "Sternberg" '.

Answer: An der Ecke steht eine Kirche.

Note 'an der Ecke'. Avoid using 'es gibt' for 'there is/are' except 1. in discussions about the actual existence/non-existence of things and 2. to indicate availabilty. Note also 'Es steht in der Zeitung' - 'It's in the paper'. There's a more general tendency in German to avoid the use of 'sein' where 'stehen' or 'liegen' can be used. 'Um die Ecke' means 'round the corner'.

Answer: In der Bar wurde getanzt.

Note the use of the 'impersonal' passive to indicate an activity that is (or was, will be) simply going on.

Answer: Ich habe es im Radio gehört.

Note also: 'im Fernsehen'.

Answer: Ich habe den Regenschirm in die Ecke gestellt.

In German there is no single verb to translate 'to put'. One uses 1. 'stellen' for 'to put [something in a standing position]'; 2. 'legen' - 'to put [something in a lying position], to place'; 3. 'stecken' - 'to put, stick [something in something]; and 4. 'tun' - 'to put [when position is irrelevant]'.

At first sight, it may look as if 'tun' is the ideal word for translating 'to put'. The problem is that in this sense it's much less common than 'to put' and, what is even more important, in German it's standard to use 'stellen', 'legen' and 'stecken', as appropriate.

Answer: Wir werden erst am Montag dahinfahren können.

Note the temporal use of 'erst' (adverb) in the sense of 'only'. Avoid 'nicht bis'! 'Bevor' - unlike the preposition 'vor' - is a subordinating conjunction, and avoid the pseudo-French 'nicht ..., bevor nicht ...'