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by tkot 450 days ago
> For example, the German "Ich sehe die Frau mit dem Fernglas" (I see the woman with the binoculars) is _unambiguous_ because "die Frau" and "mit dem Fernglas" match in both gender and case. If this weren't the case, it could be either "I see (the woman with the binoculars)" or "I see (the woman) with [using] the binoculars".

My German is pretty rusty, why exactly is it unambiguous?

I don't see how changing the noun would make a difference. "Ich sehe" followed by any of these: "den Mann mit dem Fernglas", "die Frau mit dem Fernglas", "das Mädchen mit dem Fernglas" sounds equally ambiguous to me.

1 comments

It is indeed ambiguous. I don't understand which alternative the parent is implying.