either = auch nicht
Monday, 29 September 2008 12:11![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pneAmy seems to have twigged that I generally use "either" (rather than "also not") in sentences where she'd use "auch nicht" in German, but not to have cottoned on to the fact that you still need a negative word in there.
Case in point: this morning, she spilled a little water on the sleeve of her bird suit and told me that the yellow hem was wet. I asked her whether the sleeve itself was wet, too, and she said no; she pointed to the birds and said, "This bird is not wet, and this bird is either wet, and this bird either".
Which sounds fine in German: "Dieser Vogel ist nicht nass, und dieser Vogel ist auch nicht nass, und dieser Vogel auch nicht". But not so much in English :)
(Incidentally, trying out post-by-email from where I'm currently stationed for work. No Web connectivity here for now.)
Case in point: this morning, she spilled a little water on the sleeve of her bird suit and told me that the yellow hem was wet. I asked her whether the sleeve itself was wet, too, and she said no; she pointed to the birds and said, "This bird is not wet, and this bird is either wet, and this bird either".
Which sounds fine in German: "Dieser Vogel ist nicht nass, und dieser Vogel ist auch nicht nass, und dieser Vogel auch nicht". But not so much in English :)
(Incidentally, trying out post-by-email from where I'm currently stationed for work. No Web connectivity here for now.)