Forum Rocket German German Grammar Mit meiner Hose vs. Mit meinen Hosen

Mit meiner Hose vs. Mit meinen Hosen

RexV

RexV

I have been writing this sentence in English “Visit the cutter with my pants and shirt” in German as “Besuch die Scheider mit meinen Hosen und meinem Hemp”.

I know that “Mit” result in the used of dative form for “Hosen” and “Hemp”. Further, in the sentence, I have pluralised the feminine noun “Hose”, therefore, I assume “Meinen” should be applied and not “Meiner”. However, I am not sure, as I have heard that “Hose” only exists in plural form and thereby should be written as “Meiner”.

What is the correct answer?
 
sfpugh

sfpugh

Trousers and pants are plural nouns in English because a long time ago a pair of trousers/pants consisted of two separate items. See this article for an explanation:
https://www.britannica.com/story/why-do-we-say-a-pair-of-pants

AFIK die Hose is not a plural noun in German so a pair of pants would be singular in German.

Der Schneider is masculine and should be accusative in this sentence.

You have a typo, the  shirt is das Hemd, not Hemp
 
RexV

RexV

Thanks for input!

So like this I assume

"Besuch den Scheider mit meiner Hosen und meinem Hemd"
sfpugh

sfpugh

A pair of trousers is plural in English but singular in German unless you mean 2 pairs of trousers. 
Mostly nouns don't change their endings except in the genitive, so don't add an "n" to Hose.
The exception is for weak or N declension nouns. You can google this if you are interested, but here is a link to some information:
http://germanforenglishspeakers.com/nouns/weak-nouns-the-n-declension/
I haven't bothered too much with weak nouns myself as yet. However it can help to know  a little about them as a few examples crop up in the Rocket German course and caused me some confusion.
Liss-Rocket-Languages-Tutor

Liss-Rocket-Languages-Tutor

Hallo RexV und sfpugh!

sfpugh is right about the Hose vs. Hosen conundrum: the singular die Hose "the pants" is used to talk about one pair of pants in German, and the plural (die Hosen) is used for more than one pair of pants. (You may sometimes hear die Hosen used for just one pair of pants, but this wouldn't be standard usage.) So in the sentence you are trying to create, RexV, it should indeed be Hose and not Hosen. (Thanks for sharing your reference for weak nouns, sfpugh!)

There is also a typo in the German word for "tailor" in your sentence, RexV: careful to include the N in Schneider

Also, your original sentence in English actually starts out with an infinitive verb - "to visit." So in German, you should use the verb, besuchen, rather than the noun, Besuch.

Thus, the final version is: Besuchen den Schneider mit meiner Hose und meinem Hemd.

I hope that this clears everything up!

Bis zum nächsten Mal,

Liss

Ask a question or post a response

If you want to ask a question or post a response you need to be a member.

If you are already a member login here.
If you are not a member you can become one by taking the free Rocket German trial here.