Word
Hier darf man nicht baden.
Meaning
You are not allowed to swim here.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Lesson
Breakdown of Hier darf man nicht baden.
hier
here
nicht
not
dürfen
to be allowed to, may
man
one / you (impersonal)
Questions & Answers about Hier darf man nicht baden.
The translation says "You", but shouldn't that be du or Sie instead of man?
In German, man is an impersonal pronoun like "one" in English. It is used to talk about people in general. When a sign or rule applies to everyone, German uses man, which usually translates to a general "you" or "people" in natural English.
Why isn't the subject man at the beginning, like in "Hier man darf..."?
German has a strict rule where the conjugated verb must be the second idea in a normal statement. Since this sentence starts with the location Hier (Here), the verb darf must come immediately after it. The subject man then gets pushed to the third position.
Why is baden at the very end of the sentence?
This sentence uses a modal verb, which is a helper verb like can, must, or may. Here it is darf (is allowed to). In German, the modal verb takes the second position in the sentence, and the main action verb (baden) gets pushed all the way to the end in its dictionary form (the infinitive).
The English translation says "swim", but doesn't baden mean "bathe"?