Hi Not too clear on the above: Section 2.1 shows" Aber es gibt eine ......" and translates as but there is!!! Section 2.2 shows "Gibt es dort Toiletten" ..... and translates Is there a toilet there. Why is es (is) before gibt on the first line stating a positive whilst on the second line it comes after gibt and states a question?..... if you see what I mean. Richard

Hallo Richard, viellicht ich kann ihnen helfen. "Es Gibt" and "Gibt es" can be translated into English as "it gives" and Gives it?". "Es" means *it* and *Gibt* is the form of the verb "Geben" ( _to give_ )that you use with "es" ;therefore, literally translated, it's "_it gives/gives it_". Hope that helped. Viel Glück mit deinem Deutsch Lernen! Tschüs! -Cooper

Idiomatically they are translated as "There is, There are". So, Es gibt zwei Zwiebeln would be "there are two onions."

Hi, I am not sure if this is correct, but my understanding is that when simply stating something like "es gibt Zwei Blumen" (there are 2 flowers), the correct word order for the phrase there is/there are, and other general verb phrases, is "es gibt" with the verb coming second. BUT, with yes or no questions (meaning the response can either only be yes or no) the correct word order is for the verb to come as the first word ex. "Gibt es zwei Blumen?" (are there 2 flowers?). So since "are there 2 flowers?" is a yes or no question, the verb (which in this case is geben) comes first, followed by the rest of the sentence. So in the conversations, section 2.1 uses "es gibt" to state that there is something, and in section 2.2, the yes or no question "gibt es dort Toiletten?" is asked, which changes the order of the words, putting gibt first. Some other examples for clarification are: "Sind Sie aus Vancouver?" -- (Are you from Vancouver?) The verb sein is first, conjugated as sind, because the answer to this question will be yes or no. But if it wasn't in question form it would simply be "Sie sind aus Vancouver." "Kommt er?" -- (Is he coming?). Or if not as a yes or no question, it would be just "er kommt," with the conjugated verb in the second position. Hope even a bit of that helps!

I am confused about the word order. "Aber heute ist es geschlossen" sounds like a question. Why is "ist" before "es?" Also, "Aber es gibt eine Stadtrundfahrt." I read that as "But it gives a sightseeing tour." I am confused by this lesson.

This is because the subject of the sentence is first and followed by the verb of the sentence. So, when you form the sentence, es ist geschlossen(it is closed), "it" is the subject followed by the verb "is". In the sentence, "heute ist es geschlossen"(Today it is closed), "today" is now the subject of the sentence which needs to be followed by the verb "is". It's all about word order and realizing that what you start the sentence with is the subject and needs to be followed by the verb.

Ah, thanks David L1, that is a most useful and helpful explanation!