Breakdown of Ich lese nicht dieses Buch, ich lese das andere.
ich
I
das Buch
the book
nicht
not
lesen
to read
andere
other, different
Questions & Answers about Ich lese nicht dieses Buch, ich lese das andere.
Why is it dieses Buch instead of diese or dieser?
The word for book, Buch, is a neuter noun (das Buch). In this sentence, it is the direct object (the thing being read), which means it is in the accusative case. For neuter nouns in the accusative case, the demonstrative word for 'this' takes the ending -es, making it dieses.
The translation says 'the other one', but where is the word for 'one' in das andere?
German does not use a translation for the pronoun 'one' in cases like this. Instead, it just uses the demonstrative pronoun das and the adjective andere (other). The neuter word das points back to the neuter noun Buch, so das andere perfectly captures 'the other one'.
Why is nicht placed right in front of dieses Buch? I thought nicht usually goes at the end.
Why is there no word for 'am' in the German sentence for 'I am reading'?
German does not have an equivalent to the English '-ing' form (the continuous tense). The single present tense verb lese covers both 'read' and 'am reading'. The context tells us which one makes the most sense when translating to English.
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