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  5. "Er geht zu uns."

"Er geht zu uns."

Translation:He goes to us.

August 27, 2017



"He goes to us" is something I would never say. He is coming toward us makes better sense to me, as a native English speaker.


Er geht zu uns. = We (incl. him) are not at home, he is leaving us and heading for our home.

Er kommt zu uns. = 1) We are at home, he is heading our way, or 2) the same as below.

Er geht auf uns zu. = your suggestion: He is heading towards us (wherever we are).


I agree entirely with the meaning you mentioned, but in my opinion , the sentence sounds odd to me as a native English speaker. I would say, :he's on his way here.


I agree. The sentence "He goes to us" does not make sense in any context in English.


I should also give a suggestion for the correct answer. If the German meaning is that the person is heading towards our home, then you have to use a word that means home; you cannot use "us". The British might say "ours" as in "He is going to ours." A more American flavor would be "He is going to our house."


Agree with all. I'm a native English speaker -- this phrase is a bad example, would never actually be used, and should be removed.


Reply to michio727792, You are right that the phrase if used by Germans should be used. The question is the translation. English speakers would not say that. So you treat the answer like idioms and give the answer as an English speaker would say it. There are plenty of those in Duolingo where what is meant in german is not what it translates to word for word.


Same here, this sentence sounds quite odd to me, in any case you could say "He is going to ours" but never "He goes/ is going to us"


'He goes to us' is a strange phrase, sounds very odd to me, a native English speaker. 'He goes to them' or 'he goes to our place /home' would sound more natural. The use of the pronoun 'us' completely throws the meaning. Now, 'he comes to us' has complete clarity. With my limited German, (but coming on in leaps and bounds thanks to Duolingo and the discussions) I would have chosen 'er kommt zu uns' .


In reply to rlamborn, You shouldnt get rid of a sentence just because it might translate odd into English. If Germans use it, then we should as well


yes, but the proper (English) answer should not be flagged incorrect. Seems it is being translated literally


@CountErnstVolger: is that how you speak? Are there regions in the USA where they speak like that? I'm American and I have no problem aspirating the 'h' and pronouncing 'ng.' Also, why do you capitalize the H?


A MORE American flavor would be "E's goin' to our House."


"He is going to our house" was rejected. Are you sure that's an accurate explanation?


Is this an exercise which is meant to be discussed? Your example nr.1 is definitely an idiom no matter in which language it is present and should be explained additionally. Literal translation is not supposed to make sense in any language and this approach is wrong but others are not offered as correct answers. Don't get me wrong - my criticism is not towards you but towards Duolingo


More confusion. I'll just take the current one at face value. ;)


Actually, I wouldn't say that too. I would rather say 'He comes to us'


.. "zu uns" is "to our home, our house, our place".

An English expression that conveys the same would be, "He's going to our place..." in a situation when you're out and telling someone that another friend is joining you at home when you return.

Nevertheless, an English speaker would more standardly say, "He's coming to our place..." since, pragmatically, this still expresses movement towards you / your home.

UPDATE (26-Oct-2017): This expression happens to be quite standard in German. Not only can it mean the above (ie. He's going/coming to our place) but also, "He's joining us..." in situations referring to "our team, our club, our party, our company or employer" and so on.


Thanks: your update is helpful, because it indicates that the phrase is common in German, regardless of its oddness in English.


Krommlech -- This is an excellent and very helpful explanation. The English translation should be corrected to reflect this actual meaning in German.


I wrote "to our place" but it wasn't accepted.


"He goes to us" Is not correct English and doesnt indicate or give a clue to the actual meaning. "He goes to (our house)"

This is transliteration, not translation.


This is incorrect. He cannot GO to us. He can COME to us


Why is "He is walking to us" incorrect?


Agree. Given that "he goes to us" would be an improper English sentence, why not "He walks to us"? That would be grammatically correct in English (in addition to actually making sense) and "gehen" seems to be regularly used to mean "walk" as well as "go".


that's better than 'he goes to us' but it's not accepted, reported 8/2/19


It makes sense in English to say "He walks to us." but Duo doesn't accept, yet. Reported July 5, 2018.


I'm pretty certain that this can be translated to "he walks to us" which would make more sense in English I think.


'He goes....' is what we call the Present Simple tense. It is used to describe generalities and habits. 'He reads the bible.' 'He drinks red wine, rather than white.' etc. To describe an event that has begun and is in progress we use the 'Present Continuous', which used the verb BE as an auxiliary. 'He is going to ours.' would be a better way of expressing that 'he' is on his way to our home. I agree with the comment of Richard below: 'He goes to us.' is something an English speaker would not consider as correct syntax and should never say. Therefore, if we are at home and 'he' is on his way to see us, the correct phrase is 'he is coming to us' for example 'He's coming to us for dinner.'


This is a totally wrong translation. Sorry, I am a native English speaker from the USA who has also lived in the UK and this is simply not correct to say in English.


going suggests going away not coming towards , i agree with Richard , as an English person , the above statement sounds odd


Why do the reporting options not include, "The English sentence is wrong or nonsensical?" I worry that on the other side, Duolingo is telling English learners that this is an acceptable English phrase. Also it's annoying I'm getting it wrong. So many options: He is coming to us, he comes to us, he's on his way, he's coming here, he's coming to our house, he's on his way over, he's joining us, maybe even get fancy with "he'll be joining us."


I put my feedback in the free text window. Click on "other" then write in the space below. It may well be ignored but I am guessing the more comments they get, the more likely they are to teview their answer (?)


"He goes to us" is incorrect. "He is coming to us" is preferred. (Native English speaker.)


Can't it be "He is walking towards us"?


This should be classified as an Idiom!


He goes to us is WRONG. Either "He comes to us" or "He goes from us"


"He's going to us..." is not a correct English sentence.


As stated in almost all the other comments on this exercise, the English translation is wrong because it is bad English. Assuming the sentence means that he is moving toward us to end up with us, the translation must be "He comes to us". You can never say "He goes to us" in English.


"He comes to us"


"He is going to us " is equally ridiculous


"He goes to us" never said in English as it's meaningless


Bogus. It might be a perfectly correct german sentence. But we are being asked to translate it into a correct english sentence. Perfectly clear that this has not happened here.


In Canadian English: "He is coming over"


Can't zu mean "with"?


I am not a native German speaker, so I cannot say for sure. If we can see him, I would say, He is coming towards us. If not, He is on his way, or Heś on his way here.


For native American English speakers I think this needs to be remembered more as a phrase and not as a sentence. For example needed is the prep 'for' as in "he goes to us for...." So my question is what is the context for the German. Is this a location change - if so 'comes' would be better. Or is this some object. If so, then the sentence needs to be a bit longer.

My overall question though is if the German is natural to Germans. No sense in learning something not really used.


If it's a phrase rather than a sentence then remove it from this lesson and throw it into an "Idioms" lesson of some kind.


Doesn't make send who says "he is going to us" but supposed to be "he is coming to us"


is going to ours is not a full statement either, it would be going to our house/place/family


No, "he is going to ours" is fine. It just implies that you won't be there when he gets there.


Nothing can go to me - or indeed "us" I and (and we are) where I am (or at least I go out of my way to be) He cannot "go to us", he can only come to us.


Verbatim - "He is going to us" another way to think about it is "Toward us - he goes"


Most here understand that the German phrase is legit. The issue is, "He is going to us," or "He goes to us" doesn't make any sense in English. (Unrelated: Go Ducks!)


Which is exactly the problem with higher-level DL modules: They arbitrarily bounce back and forth between allowing "correct meaning or intent" and requiring "correct word-for-word translation."


Well, what does that suppose to mean?


Just wondering why this abysmal English translation still stands when so many wonderfully superior translations and explanations have been offered. :


gehen is to walk in Austrian (and South German) German. He walks to us also makes a lot more sense than the "correct" translation, but currently isn't accepted.


I wrote "he comes to us" (which was marked wrong) as I would not myself say "he goes to us" , that sounds just very odd and strange to me... and Im an Australian, living and bred.

I see Im not the only one here who has said something about this. Please duolingo read the comments here and correct it.


OK: it doesn't accept 'He is going towards us'. It doesn't accept 'He is going to our house'. 'He is going to us' must mean one or the other, surely (if not both). Quis lib duo suggests it means the second. Is that the one I should report?


"He goes to our place" is not accepted.


I typed: He is goes to our place and it was wrong! What is this sentence anyway?


That would have to be either “He is going to our place”, or “He goes to our place”.


I dont understand it. I'm accepting it and moving on.


"He goes to us" is incorrect English.
"Us" is where we are - right now. "He" is somewhere else, not with us. For him to join us, he must COME to us. If he is leaving us and heading home, then he "goes" or "is going" AWAY from us.

So, my question is: Is this the wording commonly used in German to say someone is going (for 'coming') to us? If so, then fine. I can learn the German way to speak. But, if this is another funky Duo oddity then it would be nice to know so I don't try to make some rule or exception for it.

Thus, in the same sense, how would Germans say something like, "The football is coming towards us.", or, "The taxi is coming to pick us up"? Would Germans use Gehen or Kommen?


This one really needs a little TLC from the admins: so many acceptable English translations aren't included, and the one that is accepted is not even correct English.


Er geht zu uns was translated "He goes to us".... but proper English is "He comes to us" indicating direction


I am an Afghan. And I am sure in no language this sentence is possible. Best way is (He comes to is). Er kommt zu uns.


WTF? The German may be correct, but the English is not at all well. In English one would say "he is coming to us" but never he is going to us.


Why is 'zu' needed in this sentence if 'uns' in the dative form mean 'to us' . Seems redundant?


zu indicates direction so it is needed in this sentence. Er goes to the building= er geht zum Gebäude. Whereas uns (to us) is a dative personal pronoun. He gives the book to us= er gibt uns das Buch, doesn't involve direction. A native speaker can shed more light..@ mizinamo


lmao. spoken like a Terminator


Get down! He "goes to us".


Why not 'He is walking to us' ?


'he goes to us' is not A sentence, it isn't even part of A sentence, at no point would any native english speaker (like me) say this. 'he is coming to us', 'he is going to them.' he doesn't ever 'go to us'.


"He goes to us" is wrong and I sunitted a comment to say so, starting with, "Duolingo, read these messages and allow more answers."

I had originally tried, "He walks to us" (not accepted), then, following advice from a native German speaker who posted below, "He joins us" (also not accepted). I may try, "He goes to ours" but I can't see that working!

It will pain me to have to write nonsense in order to get out of the exercise! Ho hum!


Can someone please explain to the Duo people that "He goes to us" is NOT proper English? We would say, "He is coming to us." "He is coming towards us." But NEVER would you say, "he goes to us." The verb "go" means he is leaving, or going away from, it doesn't mean coming towards you. For example, you would not say he is going to the store if you were at the store, you would say he is coming to the store. If I am speaking (and I'm part of an us), he can't be going to us or me, but only coming toward/to me/us.


Even in Spanish (Castellano) is a wrong translation. Sound like in English. Is not correct.


if he is approaching us, it means he comes to us. He goes to us would mean he would be leaving, not getting closer, it cannot be like that. It is wrong.


Surprised this hasn't been removed or changed yet.

"He goes to us" is a contextually impossible sentence. I understand that it may mean "He goes to our house", but THAT should be the answer; no one in English would say the given sentence.

As I understand it, Germans learning English will get the flip side of this question, and keeping it like this isn't doing them any favours if they want to speak fluently.


You should remember German is pretty basic language. Uses a lot of context clues and subtle changes.


He is coming He is coming to us He is on his way What


I failed on purpose with "He is coming to us"

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