Level 55 in A1 German.
Memrise says that “the flight is delayed = der flug verspatet sich” but I think a better and easier tranlation should be “der flug is verspatet”.
These courses are no longer being curated, so any changes you suggest will not be acted upon, as far as I understand.
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There are multiple ways to say one thing in any language. It’s not ‘‘verspatet’’ it’s verspätet or verspaetet if you don’t want to bother installing the German keyboard on windows. sich verspäten is correct, and I don’t see them changing something in a course they don’t support anymore.
Memrise says “Der Flug verspaetet sich” = “the flight has been delayed”. The English translation of this should be “The flight is late”. The correct translation of “The flight has been delayed” should be “Der Flug ist gewesen verspaetet”.
The context of this particular part of the course uses the term “ist gewesen” = “has been”. But the term “ist gewesen” is not used in this example whereas it should be and that is my point. It should be used in “Der Flug is gewesen verspaetet” but Memrise haven’t done that and so the learning progression is wrong here.
If Memrise care about their product and want to beat their competitors they should surely always be supporting and trying to improve their language courses. They ask for feedback and I am providing it. Surely if there is a genuine mistake then it should be corrected no matter how long after it has been published.
sich verspäten - to be late, delayed
der Flug verspätet sich - the plane is delayed/late
this is correct. Sorry.
Der Flug ist gewesen verspätet - is bad grammar.
Der Flug ist verspätet gewesen. - better
Der Flug verspätet sich - Der Flug ist verspätet gewesen - do not mean the same thing exactly. This is ‘‘the flight is late’’ vs. ‘‘the flight was delayed’’.
If they wrote the flight is late, then I don’t know what is wrong.
You can also use the passive in such cases.
Der Flug wird verspätet - the plane is delayed (von…)
Der Flug wurde verspätet - the plane was delayed (von…)
Der Flug ist verspätet worden - the plane has been delayed (von…)
der Gebrauch des Passivs (letzter Abschnitt) in der angegebenen Form scheint mir etwas unüblich/unklar zu sein.
Der Flug wird sich verspäten/ hat sich verspätet/ hatte sich verspätet erscheint mir klarer und besser. Natürlich gäbe es noch andere Übersetzungsmöglichkeiten…der Flug wurde verschoben (not word by word).
Freundliche Grüße!
The correct translation of “the flight has been delayed” is absolutely NOT and NEVER EVER “der Flug ist gewesen verspätet”.
If you knew anything about German or about translating - which it appears you don’t - then you would know that such a construction is absolutely impossible in German and is horrible and painful and utterly utterly wrong.
Before you criticise memrise for a “bad product”, maybe you should learn a bit more about German grammar.
They are no longer curating these courses, as I mentioned earlier.
When I read the phrase “der Flug verspätet sich”, I imagine a passenger sitting in an airport, listening to an announcement.
“Wir müssen Sie leider informieren, dass der Flug mit der Nummer BA 6576 nach London Heathrow sich um einige Minuten verspätet. Wir bitten um Geduld und hoffen, dass die Maschine bald startbereit ist.”
So the translation, “the flight has been delayed” seems to be perfectly all right to me for this context.
Firstly, if I knew much about the German language I would not be doing the A1 German course!
Secondly, whilst I accept that translations between languages may not always be exact it seems there is some sort of error here. In fact, the “Help Me Learn This” notes makes the exact same point I am raising. If you care to look at Level 55 for A1 German you will see.
I repeat, Memrise ask for feedback and I am merely providing it. If they choose to take no notice then maybe I will switch to Babbel.
If it says this specifically on the course you are doing, the memrise team should really remove it or change the description.
@MemriseSupport, @MemriseMatty, @Lien
Could somebody change the descriptions on the old memrise courses so they no longer include this misleading information?
Exactly my point!
Which is why I am surprised that you are offering “better” translations, which are not better at all.
Hi,
All official Memrise A1 and A2 courses are no longer supported.
We now advise our users switch to the brand new (and improved) Memrise courses!
You can read more about our decision to switch to this new format here: https://blog.memrise.com/2016/06/17/language-learning-for-the-rest-of-us/
It’s worth mentioning that if you’ve previously signed up to an A1 course, you may still be able to access the course (but they may contain bugs or inconsistencies).
I hope this helps for now 
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Yes that is very helpful, thank you.
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