Can someone explai Hello, Can someone please explain this sentence: "es muss dir nicht leid tun" Why does it mean "You don't have to be sorry"? What is the 'es'? Why is there a subject 'es' and an i

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Stephanie Qiao

Can someone explai Hello, Can someone please explain this sentence: "es muss dir nicht leid tun" Why does it mean "You don't have to be sorry"? What is the 'es'? Why is there a subject 'es' and an indirect object 'dir'? Can I say "Du brauchst nicht leid tun" or "...leid seid"? (leid seid = be sorry?) In English we just have one subject "You". Thanks Kann jemand diesen Satz erklären bitte: "es muss dir nicht leid tun" Wieso bedeutet es "You don't have to be sorry"? Was bedeutet 'es'? Warum es gibt ein (subject) 'es' und auch (an indirect object) 'dir'? Kann ich sagen "Du brauchst nicht leid tun" oder "...leid seid"? (leid seid = be sorry?). Auf englisch haben wir nur ein (subject). Danke ----Edit---- I just learnt from user Eve that it is the negation of "Etwas tut einem Leid." I believe this literally means "Something does a sorrow" (is that correct?), so the message is "something is sorry". Since "es muss dir nicht leid tun" is the negation, does it mean "[something is sorry, but/and] it should not be you that is sorry"?

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Can someone explain

Hello,
can someone please explain this sentence:

"es muss dir nicht leid tun"

Why does it mean "You don't have to be sorry"? What is the 'es'? Why is there a subject 'es' and an indirect object 'dir'? Can I say "Du brauchst nicht leid tun" or "...leid seid"? (leid seid = be sorry?) In English we just have one subject "You".

Thanks

Kann jemand diesen Satz bitte erklären bitte:

"es muss dir nicht leid tun"

Wieso bedeutet es "You don't have to be sorry"? Was bedeutet 'es'? Warum es gibt ein Subjekt 'es' und auch ein indirektes Objekt 'dir'? Kann ich sagen "Du brauchst nicht leid tun" oder "...leid seid"? (leid seid = be sorry?). Auf Englisch haben wir nur ein Subjekt.

Danke

----Edit----
I just learnt from user Eve that it is the negation of "Etwas tut einem Leid." I believe this literally means "Something does a sorrow" (is that correct?), so the message is "something is sorry". Since "es muss dir nicht leid tun" is the negation, does it mean "[something is sorry, but/and] it should not be you that is sorry"?

I think most of the problem is that some idioms cannot be translated literally.

With Lisa's explanation you actually got a good explanation.

Es tut mir leid - Es tut mir nicht leid. -> the negation

I am sorry - I am not sorry -> I think here in English it would rather be "I do not feel sorry".

"Jemandem leidtun" is an expression with a verb connected with an adjective and the affected person "jemand". Maybe you have noticed that in some languages a verb is reflexive and in another language it is not. Here we have 'jemandem" you might not find in other languages.

A person/thing that is affected in general needs to be in Dativ -> mir/dir

The "es" refers to the what you feel sorry for.

So, wie end up with: es tut dir (nicht) leid

Still needs the" muss" = have to

Es muss - es muss tun - es muss nicht tun - es muss dir nicht tun - es muss dir nicht leid tun

"You don't have to be sorry"? Du musst nicht leid sein...-> with the German idioma -> es muss dir nicht leid tun...

Ich habe dein Brot aufgegessen. Es (-> the fact that I ate up your bread) tut mir ( the affected person) leid.

Es ( the eating issue) muss dir nicht ( there is no need) leid (sorry) tun .

I still think this must be rather confusing. We just had this discussion another place, literal translations...

maybe the correct translation is more like: Es muss dir nicht leid tun. - You don't have to be sorry for that. "For that" means "es". Es braucht dir nicht leid tun. You can say it so.

Hi Eve Thanks for your fast response! I have another question then. You said it is the German way of saying: "Etwas tut einem Leid." What do you mean by this? If no one said "Etwas tut einem Leid.", why would you negate it by saying "Es muss dir nicht leid tun"? For example, if someone says "Are you John?" and you can negate it and say "I am not John." But if no one asked, you would never just say "I am not John." unless someone said something to imply it, for example, someone hands you a note with the name 'John' on it and you say "I am not John" (the note is not for me). So, is "Etwas tut einem Leid." an implied question? When would you say it?

Hey, it´s just the german way of saying: "Etwas tut einem Leid." the negation is "Es muss dir nicht leid tun." We just change the "etwas" to "es" . "Du brauchst nicht leid tun"-> is definitely wrong. In this matter I don´t think you can exactly explain everything logically. Maybe someone else has a more grammatical explanation?

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