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How would I go about saying this?

Many of the physicists I admire are from Germany/are German.

I know I could simplify it by saying “I admire many German physicists” (which I think would be “Ich bewundere viele deutsche Physiker“, correct me if that’s wrong), but it would change the meaning somewhat.

Google Translate gives me:

Viele der Physiker die ich bewundere sind aus Deutschland.

Is that correct?

EDIT:

Also, is Translate right when it says that

Learning German would help me understand them better

is the following?

Deutsch lernen würde mir helfen, sie zu verstehen.

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3
  • 3
    Two issues: 1) We are not a translation or translation-checking service. Please explain what specific aspect of a translation you have problems with or your questions are off-topic. The way your questions is now, it is far from being of general interest. See also here and here. 2) Please ask seperate questions about seperate issues.
    – Wrzlprmft ♦
    Mar 20, 2014 at 17:43
  • Deutsch zu lernen, würde mir helfen...
    – Carsten S
    Mar 20, 2014 at 18:34
  • 1
    please do not ask new Questions in an edit. you should instead ask a new Question ;)
    – Vogel612
    Mar 21, 2014 at 10:58

3 Answers 3

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Yes, Google Translate is completely accurate here.

The alternative sentence is almost correct, it should be "deutsche". You need the adjective in the correct form to match the plural "Physiker", and country association adjectives are not capitalized in German.

And to answer the edit: Translate dropped the "better", the latter half of the sentence should be "sie besser zu verstehen".

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7
  • Could you explain why it's "die" and not, say, "wem" (like it would have been in English)?
    – Soham Chowdhury
    Mar 20, 2014 at 15:57
  • 2
    The English "who" only translates to "wem" in questions. Otherwise it's translated as a definite article in the correct form.
    – Sebastian Redl
    Mar 20, 2014 at 16:00
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    ME nach fehlen da zwei Kommata.
    – c.p.
    Mar 20, 2014 at 21:33
  • Ich muss zugeben, dass ich seit meiner Schulzeit so viel mit Englisch zu tun hatte, dass ich die deutschen Beistrichregeln nicht mehr wirklich beherrsche. Das, und die Rechtschreibreform hat sie auch noch geändert.
    – Sebastian Redl
    Mar 21, 2014 at 10:07
  • @SohamChowdhury that would have been a nice addition to your question. Maybe you want to edit into the question?
    – Vogel612
    Mar 21, 2014 at 11:02
1

Google Translate is correct, except for punctuation. In German, you always have to enclose subordinate clauses with commas:

Viele der Physiker, die ich bewundere, sind aus Deutschland.

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2
  • Could you see the edit I've made, please?
    – Soham Chowdhury
    Mar 20, 2014 at 16:00
  • “Deutsch lernen würde mir helfen, sie besser zu verstehen”. Without “besser”, it just means “Learning German would help me understand them”.
    – isopod
    Mar 20, 2014 at 16:03
0

I would say

Viele Physiker, die ich bewundere, sind aus Deutschland.

»Viele der Physiker ...« sounds a bit strange to me.

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2
  • Now I know why the meaning shifts... "der" is not the Article in this case, but a shortened form of "von den".
    – Vogel612
    Mar 23, 2014 at 9:51
  • @Vogel612 Der Dativ ist dem Genetiv sein Tod. "Der" is not a shortened form here, it's an article in the Genetiv form. "Von" + Dativ is a correct (but more colloquial) alternative.
    – Sebastian Redl
    Sep 13, 2014 at 15:24

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