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In an online translation exercise I was asked to translate:
"The men are cooking"
My attempt was:
Die Männer kochen
The answer shown was:
Die Männer kochen gerade
What does "gerade" at the end of the sentence do here?
The source for this was:
http://www.german-grammar.de/grammar/chapter_6/6_2_exercise.htm
"gerade" just means "at the moment"
As Feirell explained, “gerade” means “currently” or “at the moment”. It's obviously intended to render the distinction between “The men cook” and “The men are cooking” in German but it's not quite right to suggest that this is the only correct translation.
Depending on the context, “Die Männer kochen” can be a perfectly fine translation for “The men are cooking”. You can also use modifiers like “gerade”, “momentan” or “zurzeit” to stress the fact that the action is currently taking place but it is not always necessary.
