questions-2

[tulip cargo]

its more clear now, thxx

[fervent kernel]

hallo

[wintry geode]

Hallo

[tulip cargo]

pardon me, "Vom anderen Flussufer des Neckars aus hat man einen wunderbaren Blick über die Alte Neckarbrücke", can somebody explain to me the function of the word/preposition aus in that sentence, i don't know why its there, danke im voraus

[bleak sparrow]

If i want to write: „I am writing you a letter“, would the appropriate preposition be „an dich“? Thanks 😄

[fervent kernel]

vielen dank

Dank*

[willow socket]

von etw. aus kinda like looking out from somewhere.

you may also see this construction in something like 'working from home' --> von zu Hause aus

[tulip cargo]

okaayy thxx

[tulip cargo]

i think u wouldnt use a preposition anyways, "ich schreibe dir ein Schreiben/einen Brief" cmiiw im still learning deutsch too 👍

[bleak sparrow]

Thanks 🙂 I also suspected so

[modest cedar]

"ich schreibe dir einen Brief"

ich denke, "Schreiben" da (als Substantiv) ist nicht richtig.

ah, ich sehe gerade, es bedeutet 'ein offizieller Brief'

[tulip cargo]

ahh so a letter would be better using "der Brief"?

[modest cedar]

yes, use "Brief".
"Schreiben" is also probably used, but in special contexts. I've never seen it myself, but that doesn't mean much.

But I came across "Rundschreiben", which means 'circular', 'newsletter'. An official letter which you send to several people belonging to some community, living in the same block of flats etc. for the general interest.

[willow socket]

You can indeed an jemanden einen Brief/ein Schreiben schreiben

it just sounds more formal.

wouldn't say to a pal, maybe to the ausländerbehörde 😉

[modest cedar]

right, and then you'd have two accusatives. an jemanden, and einen Brief 🙂

[willow socket]

that doesn't matter

prepositional phrases you can have as many accusative or dative objects as you want

[modest cedar]

I was just describing the sentence...

wasn't an assessment of the quality of the sentence.

[bleak sparrow]

So would it be coorrect if i wrote an dich as well?

[willow socket]

oh, it just seemed like a weird thing to state. Sometimes people get confused on how many objects you can have in a sentence.

it wouldn't be incorrect, but the odds you'd say 'an dich' (informal 'dich') in a formal construction like that is....slim

[modest cedar]

because I was contrasting it to dir (dative 🙂 )

if you're not familiar with 'an', you might be using a dative (thinking of 'dir', which it replaces)

that's what I was saying it

[bleak sparrow]

Hehe I think i will use dir then we are on a du-basis

[tulip cargo]

an is akkusativ right

[willow socket]

gute Wahl!

an is changeable, it can take either akk or dat

depending on the verb and situation

[modest cedar]

yes, am See, an dem Ort etc 🙂

[willow socket]

Ich erkenne ihn an seinem hässlichen Gesicht.
Ich schreibe an Sie einen Brief.

[tulip cargo]

i see..

[shut briar]

Der Vorteil: Schorle hat weniger Kalorien, ist nicht so süß, ||leichter verträglich und erfrischender als purer Saft.||

adjectives in the black part verstehe ich nicht, easily compatible?!!!

[swift bough]

„more tolerable and more refreshing than pure juice“

[fathom roost]

Hi everyone, can someone check this email for me that I wrote and tell me if it sound okay to send to a teacher?
Sehr geehrte xyz
ich würde gerne mit Ihnen ein Termin vereinbaren für die kommende Woche um meine Studienarbeit zu besprechen. Ich würde gerne ein Paar Fragen die ich habe aufklären.
Jetzt, dass wir die Vorlesungsfreiezeit haben bin ich sehr flexibel also nennen sie bitte eine Zeit die Ihnen passt.
Mit freundlichen Grüßen

[fallen galleon]

Sie

[wintry geode]

*einen Termin

[fallen galleon]

in

nennen sie

[fathom roost]

good catch

[fathom roost]

thanks

[wintry geode]

Just some Minor mistakes

[fallow ledge]

ein paar should be lower case

Ein Paar is a couple 👩‍❤️‍💋‍👩
Ein paar is a few

[fathom roost]

ohhhh i didn't know that. thxxx

[fallow ledge]

Also im not 100% sure but i think ich würde gerne ein paar Fragen die ich habe aufklären, might need some revision

[wintry geode]

Ein Paar Schuhe = a pair of shoes
ein Paar is also definded for a pair of two

[kind knoll]

What's the difference between anstelle and anstatt?

[willow socket]

practically synonymous

according to duden... 'anstatt' can also have a negative function (as a conjunction in this case) which would be unusual for anstelle.
i.e. Ich verheiratete meinen Freund anstatt meinen Bruder.

[kind knoll]

i dont see how its negative to not marry your brother lmao

But i understand what you mean

thank you

[modest cedar]

I wonder if you use 'anstatt' more often than 'anstelle'. I haven't come across 'anstelle' that often, but I'm not point of reference 🙂

in Duden they say 3/5 frequency for both.

[swift bough]

„anstelle von“ is more common in my experience than the genitive construction.

[willow socket]

it depends on what you're doing. In a paper I think you'll just as well see with genitiv

[plain umbra]

Yeah, I mean, in general, if it's anything remotely formal and you're a learner, you should stick with genitive for genitive prepositions anyway.

Unless this one is just an exception to that or something.

[kind knoll]

dont you use anstelle with von when its plural tho?

[modest cedar]

I don't think this has something to do with the grammatical number.

Ich esse Brot anstelle von Fleisch.
Ich esse Brot anstelle von Äpfeln.

[kind knoll]

can you say ich esse Brot statt Fleisch too?

and btw: are ich käme and ich würde kommen the same?

[long whale]

Yes, you can.

[long whale]

In spoken German, they are, yes. :)

[kind knoll]

so in written german which one would be used?

[long whale]

Whichever one would fit the grammar rules: https://deutsch.lingolia.com/de/grammatik/satzbau/konditionalsaetze :)

@kind knoll

[kind knoll]

it changes depending on the tense?

man this language is hard

[long whale]

To my knowledge, it changes according to which you've used in the other part of the conditional sentence. 🤷

[kind knoll]

thank god its not that complicated

[modest cedar]

I think the hard part is the fact that it's very inconsistent, in this case when it comes to how you express a conditional. It's very frustrating for foreign learners 🙂

for most verbs you'd use würde + infinitive form of the verb: ich würde sagen, ich würde schlafen, er würde essen.
But there are some verbs for which you need to use Konjunktiv II. Normally these are the modal verbs and some but not all of the irregular verbs and some regular verbs also 😄

[kind knoll]

the passive and the konjuktiv are whats killing me tbh

[modest cedar]

You kind of have to learn it as is, unfortunately 😄

so much for the logical/mathematical structure of German (although of course there is also truth in that 🙂 )

[willow socket]

just remember, if you use konj. II in one part of your sentence, also use it in the other.

[modest cedar]

but when it comes to modal verbs, you mostly use their Konjunktiv II form: ich könnte (not: ich würde können), ich müsste (not ich würde müssen).
But even here you've got exceptions. Ich wollte doesn't mean "I would like" (I think Germans would interpret it as the past - "Ich wollte kommenn, aber ich konnte es nicht", because the forms are identical for Präteritum and Konjunktiv II wollte)

[kind knoll]

"Wenn ich Zeit hätte, würde ich dir helfen"

does t his imply that if he had time he would help him (in something that happened in the past"

or does it imply that if he has time he will help him (in the future)

[willow socket]

wollte can be either 'would like' or would have liked (past)

same with sollte can be 'should have' or präteritum of sollen

[modest cedar]

I feel that this is mostly in theory, actually. But maybe I'm wrong.

and I feel that 'sollen' falls in this respect into a different category.

[willow socket]

mmmmm I think they use it for expressing wish statements sometimes

but maybe a native speaker can clarify that. I remember seeing that convo in one of these channels before, tho

[modest cedar]

I don't think I've heard it (only once in class, but then never). I've heard 'möchte' instead.
whereas with "sollten", sure, you often express a wish.

[willow socket]

and sollte isn't a different category. It is konj. II and präteritum modalverb.

[modest cedar]

I wasn't referring to that 🙂 But to this particular subject. Or aspect.

[kind knoll]

thank you for the link i can understand it now

[modest cedar]

yes, that creates some terrible ambiguities in the language sometimes, because Germans are very innacurate when it comes to the grammatical tense 🙂 I find this very difficult to understand.

It's the opposite of how English handles tenses 🙂 Which is extremely accurate.

[willow socket]

in what sense?
'could have' in english is both konj. II and past as well, right?

I almost feel like it's often as if not more ambiguous in english, I notice myself flying between konj. II and past tense forms in german because I don't know the difference in my native language haha

[modest cedar]

in English there's no konj II, I mean, the correspont is the conditional - I suppose that's what you are referring to. But no: "could have" is past. It's not conditional present.

it's very clear

[willow socket]

conditional past

[kind knoll]

What's the difference between hätte and wäre in KII they look like theyre used the same

[modest cedar]

and your native language is English?:)

[willow socket]

yeah

is there no conditional past in english?

[modest cedar]

I know what's that like. You're not aware of the language, you just speak it and it works 😄

when you learn it... you have to go through all that stuff... etc 😄

[modest cedar]

from a grammatical point of view they're mostly the same, taken as such. Yes, they're both Konjunktiv II.

Ich hätte gerne eine Flashche Wasser.
Ich wäre glücklicher, wenn du kommen würdest.

[willow socket]

I could do it.
I could have done it.
There, so I could do it is conditional present, could have done it is conditional past...there is no plain past for can that isn't conditional, or else it's the same...and 'I can do it' is the normal present

[kind knoll]

but why is it hätte gesagt but wäre gekommen

[willow socket]

kommen takes 'sein' as its helping verb

sagen takes haben

[modest cedar]

could have done it - refers to the past 🙂

[kind knoll]

ohhhhhhhh

that makes a lot of sense

just like the sein haben past rule

thank you dude you solved a 3 month old mystery

[modest cedar]

that's the plusquamperfekt von Konjunktiv II - I could have said; I would have come. In those cases sein and haben are auxiliary verbs that build the tense.

anyway, the past form 🙂

and yes, what Gray has said - sein vs haben - depends on the verb 🙂

[willow socket]

Yes, but that's what I'm saying. In German you have a difference for 'können' in past and conditional past. In english, that doesn't exist.

1. Ich hätte es machen können = konj. II vergangenheit
2. Ich könnte es machen. = konj. II present
3. Ich konnte es machen// Ich habe es machen können. = vergangenheit
   For english, 1 and 3 cannot be differentiated...

both are just 'I could have done it.'

no...wait am I stupid. 'I could do it.' would be #3 😂 yeah this is what I mean. I can't even do it in english.
edit: it has come to my attention that I cannot speak my own language and that 'I could do it' could be either past or conditional present. I will never speak on this topic again to avoid blowing up my brain for good

[modest cedar]

that's an exception 🙂

[willow socket]

no wait no.

I was right the first time

[modest cedar]

generally the exact opposite is true - English is much, much more accurate. There's no comparison. Maybe Spanish is similarly accurate as far as tenses are concerned.
German is actually lacking in this respect. Even poorer than Romanian.
There's not even a continuous form in German!

[willow socket]

I could do it is present tense

[modest cedar]

It's insane. Do you know how hard it is to express a continuous action in the past in German? You have to add helping adverbs, conjunctions, whatever.

[willow socket]

I've never noticed it being difficult, what exactly do you mean

[kind knoll]

i wish this language was less complicated with tenses

[modest cedar]

in English you've got, I don't know, 10 alternatives to express the past 🙂

[kind knoll]

i think theyre 3 actually

[modest cedar]

well, translate: I was leaving school, when I saw the car.

[willow socket]

Als ich die Schule verließ, sah ich ein Auto.

[modest cedar]

really? This is how you'd say it in spoken German?:D

[willow socket]

well if I were talking, I'd either say it that way for a chuckle, or I'd say
Als ich die Schule verlassen habe, habe ich ein Auto gesehen!

[modest cedar]

exactly 😄

[willow socket]

They mean the same thing.

[modest cedar]

so the difference between Präteritum and Perfekt hasn't got much to do with the action being continuous or not.

you you cannot express the difference.

in Romanian I can! Funnily enough, although not even Romanian is very flexible in this respect.

[willow socket]

right, but this is what it means in german? What would even be a discontinuous version of this sentence?

The construction tells you that as you left the school, you saw a car.

[modest cedar]

It depends on what you're referring. They do mean the same thing, yes, meaning, you're not interpreting the action differently.
But they're obviously different, because the register is different (you often encounter Präteritum in the press on in certain parts of Germany instead of Perfekt)

[modest cedar]

no you're arguing the continuous forms are unnecessary basically 😄

[willow socket]

I am pretty aware of the difference between präteritum and perfekt, but the issue of continuity, as you said, has little to do with that.

[modest cedar]

'cause you're going to understand anyway what the speaker means.

[modest cedar]

that's exactly what I'm saying too.

[willow socket]

Right, I'm just saying that I don't feel like it's especially ambiguous or difficult to get this meaning across in german.

[modest cedar]

well, if you're saying that the continuous form is not that important.... then... yeah, not much I can add to it 🙂

[willow socket]

you said: It's insane. Do you know how hard it is to express a continuous action in the past in German? You have to add helping adverbs, conjunctions, whatever.
I just don't think it was very hard.

[modest cedar]

should I continue with "I had been leaving" vs "I had left" vs "I was leaving" etc.?:)

[willow socket]

Als ich etwas machte, machte ich was anderes.

[modest cedar]

I find it weird that you'd say that as a native English speaker, really 😄

what about

I have been eating all day.
How would you get across that?

what about

I have been eating all day
I have eaten all day
I ate all day
?

[willow socket]

Ich habe den ganzen Tag über gegessen. Or something like that

[modest cedar]

so, one tense 🙂

no difference.

[delicate tiger]

"Ich war am lesen" (not standard yet, but used by roughly half the population)

[willow socket]

There's a difference between something being difficult to do, and something being less 'exact' (although I'd argue that even in english these are pretty unnecessary.)
When would you say 'I've been eating all day' that you couldn't as well say 'I have eaten all day' or 'I ate all day'?

[modest cedar]

it's spoken German, so that's enough. But indeed, it doesn't cover everything and it does so only at a certain language register.

[willow socket]

gee Grayphi, do you wanna order a pizza?
Nah, I've been eating all day.
Nah, I ate all day.
Nah, I have eaten all day.

all of the above

[modest cedar]

I find it... unsettling that I'd have to explain the difference...

[willow socket]

if it is unsettling to you, maybe you oughtn't do it

[modest cedar]

but 'ate' is quite different from 'i have eaten'

[willow socket]

I am a native speaker and I am telling you that if anyone said any of those three in response to that question, they would mean the exact same thing. I'm trying to think of a situation where one would be incorrect or even meaningfully different, but coming up blank.

I suppose if you talked about a time long ago and said 'back then I ate all day' that would be different

But you could say I ate all day and mean today

so again, you'd need more info to differentiate

[modest cedar]

I've been eating all day means that you're probably still eating - it's still relevant to the present.

not necessarily still eating, but you might have just finished or something to that effect.

I ate all day - means, it happened at a certain point/interval. And it's finished, completely. It's no longer relevant for the present.

In any case, this is probably not the best example to differentiate between the different past forms.

[willow socket]

probably pushing (or 100 miles past) the limit for what would be appropriate for this channel, too. Since we're discussing english 😂

[modest cedar]

we're contrasting it to German 🙂

[willow socket]

In that case, I can kinda see what you're saying. And in a strict grammatical sense, it would be reasonable. But the truth of the matter is that in the general usage of the english language, very, very few people will differentiate between those statements. If you spent the day surfing and then meet a friend at a restaurant later, you may as well say 'I've been surfing all day' and 'I surfed all day.' It doesn't have a strong feeling of continuation in the first case, since both cases reflect back on what you've done during the course of the day.
In fact, I think many might prefer the first.

[modest cedar]

There are very clear differences in English, and very often you cannot use the tenses interchangeably.
For instance, you cannot say:

I have eaten yesterday.

You say:

I ate yesterday.

[modest cedar]

yes, I understand what you mean. But there are also clearer differences that don't come to mind right now 🙂

what English do you speak?:) That's also a fair question. Australian? British? American?

[willow socket]

American english

midwestern american english, to be exact

[modest cedar]

I see. Yeah, I'm not clever enough to differentiate between English variants in the USA (except for the accent to some extent only 🙂 ), but I think Americans use the past simple more often instead of the present perfect, whereas in GB they might a little more strict about that.
But I know what you mean, the differences are getting blurred.

[willow socket]

My main point, after all of this, is that english has ambiguities when it comes to expressing conditional present, past, conditional past. Similarly to German. Which sometimes make learning Konj. II and präteritum and when to use them difficult for native english speakers.

[modest cedar]

My main point is that those ambiguities are not as significant as they are in German and that in German you very often need helper words to express what you can express in English only by means of the tense itself.

But I agree that understanding when to use Präteritum/Konj. II Präsens etc. is difficult, and not only to native English speakers

I jut think the causes are different :))

[willow socket]

I would have had to have had it. 5/8 verbs, 4/8 ‘have’. Clunky, confusing, too many h's!
vs. Ich hätte es haben müssen. sleek, beautiful, stylish. 😂

[modest cedar]

but you're never going to translate it like that English 🙂 I mean, I know you're joking, but I'm not sure regarding what parts 😄

[willow socket]

I say that all the time.

I would've had to've had it. pretty normal thing to say

[modest cedar]

by the way, Germans also never use the future when they speak - another thing. Do you know that?

[modest cedar]

ok, but that doesn't mean you're supposed to translate it like that anyway. No one will translate 'ich hätte es haben müssen' like that.

🙂

[willow socket]

yeah, esp. because 'Ich hätte es gebraucht' is a little bit more correct for it. But I'm never great at translating perfectly back and forth, esp. into german

[modest cedar]

it's true there's a little bit of ambiguity here in English if you translated it "I should have had it" - because "must" geht verloren 🙂
"I must have had it" is a supposition in the past.

[modest cedar]

You were right. I've just asked a German friend of mine. He said, it works both ways 🙂

[modest cedar]

it seems, no :)) He said he was wrong. "Wollte" is interpreted in the past...

[willow socket]

@long whale maybe you can help with this question. I have the feeling that 'wollte' can be and is used with konj. II/conditional meaning, not just past tense/präteritum?
z.B. Er wollte, er wäre ein Mensch. Doch er ist ein Hund.

My Mitbewohner is concurring with me @modest cedar and he's a native speaker, but better get a tiebreaker

[modest cedar]

Really? I'm surprised. I'd also want to understand.
The interesting thing was that he initially said, yes, it's both, when I only mentioned 'wollte'. But then he I said "er wollte kommen", he said that's only in the past.

Of course, we're not talking theoretically - grammatically it does mean both. The question is what Germans practically understand 🙂

[willow socket]

It would depend on context afaik. But Susana is a genius so she can almost certainly help

[worthy igloo]

https://youtu.be/fzN2neXmm8s what does und zwar mean in the context of the very beginning of this video?

i know it can have a bunch of meanings

[modest cedar]

I'm unable to hear the video now, but it mostly means "namely". It specifies what they're talking about, makes it clearer, as it were.

there's also zwar... aber... - which is different. Er ist zwar jung, er ist aber nicht klug. / he may be young, but he's not smart.

[fervent kernel]

when should i use reflexive pronouns?

in a sentence

[icy flax]

when the verb requires reflexive pronoun.

[spring socket]

Some verbs typically have a reflexive element built in, like sich treffen - they can be memorised by heart. A good rule of thumb is, if you're doing something to yourself, then use a reflexive verb.

Ich wasche mir die Haare (you're washing your hair, so it's reflexive in that sense)

Ich erinnere mich an deinen Namen (I remember myself your name, weird, I know, but you've just got to go with it)

[fervent kernel]

ohhhh

thank you so much

[long whale]

I concur. However, there have indeed been discussions about this on the server, and it's been pointed out to me that my age disqualifies me. 😹

[spring socket]

You're very welcome!

[long whale]

@modest cedar I'd like to point out that English is not without these apparently so clumsy and difficult to use adverbs. How about "I'm about to + infinitive"? In German, you'll just use a similar construction to express present/past continuous: Ich bin/war gerade dabei, X zu tun. And as to us not using the future tense, so what? What's ambiguous about it if you add in "tomorrow" or "next month"? Seems to me, adding in the future tense on top of that is just gilding the lily, isn't it? (And yes, there are other languages which likewise consider the future tense surplus to requirements in that case.) ;)

[spring socket]

About to is clumsy? :o @long whale

[modest cedar]

I mostly disagree with your statement. And about to + inf is not a great example, because it doesn't replace anything, it's simply something different, it comes on top of that.
As far as the future is concerned, it sometimes creates terrible ambiguities. It's not only about time adverbs, it's also about other circumstances.
You often use future in other languages simply to make sure you're not referring to the present and you don't need to add anything else.
I admit that I, as a foreigner, have to struggle more to understand this in German and that's of course my problem, any language needs to be understood as such. But that's weird and it's lacking in any case 🙂

[modest cedar]

Could you give me a simple example of 'wollte' meaning something like "I would", "I wish"?
If I told you just "er wollte kommen", would you instinctively interpret it both ways (to the same degree) without a clearer context?

[willow socket]

https://starke-gedanken.de/wenn-er-mit-dir-zusammen-sein-wollte-waere-er-auch-mit-dir-zusammen/

👀

[modest cedar]

a simple example: a friend goes to the airport. I want to ask him if he's going to go get something to eat, not if he's eating now.

isst du etwas?
not very precise is it? You have to say:
isst to etwas im Flughafen/im Restaurant/bei deinem Bruder?
Most probably this is how you're going to say it, right? Annoying and useless.
Why would you have to think of a location/additional detail if I simply want to ask if he is going to eat sth soon? Or maybe you'd have to add "bald"?:)

[willow socket]

Ich wollte, ich könnte perfektes Deutsch 🙏

[modest cedar]

Thanks. I do wonder though why some Germans don't perceive it as clearer. I find that relevant in itself also.

[modest cedar]

but I guess it's simply because it's the same form 🙂

(which is silly :)) )

[willow socket]

In your example, it's because you wrote the second half of the sentence in präteritum.
If you said 'Ich wollte kommen, aber ich konnte nicht.' it wouldn't make sense in conditional.
Ich wollte kommen, aber ich könnte nicht would make more sense as conditional, right?

[modest cedar]

Yeah, that obviously makes it clear.
But I wanted to know if there's a natural tendency to interpret in a certain way when you don't have a context.

That's why I only mentioned "er wollte kommen".

[willow socket]

yeah, i assume it's more common just standalone as präteritum. Same way in english, if a stranger walked up to me and said 'I could do it.' I would assume they were talking about conditional present and not the past.

[modest cedar]

right, and that wouldn't rule out: "when I was a child, I could run 10 miles" 🙂

[willow socket]

yes 😂

[modest cedar]

regarding our previous topic, maybe you can sense the difference here much more clearly:
"Where you have you been?

I've been searching for you"
vs
"I searched for you."

I don't think you need to add anything to those sentences to automatically separate the time intervals in your mind.

Just through tense. And if you think the difference is irrelevant, then you clearly don't appreciate your own language 🙂

there are examples galore, I'm just not smart enough to come up with proper sentences.

[willow socket]

Where you have you been? = Where were you?
I've been searching for you. --> I looked for you/I searched for you.
Maybe some other native english speaker can weigh in on this, but either tense could easily replace the other in a conversation. You could even mix them. 'Where have you been? I looked for you!' 'I've been searching for you! Where were you?'.
I'm not equating them to be trite, but rather because no one I have ever met would differentiate the meaning of those in anything except a grammatical way.

Of course, if you're talking about a specific point in the past rather than the past (however long) in general, then you would only use 'Where were you (i.e. from 2018-2019)?'

[spring socket]

I've been searching for you sounds a bit formal, but I agree, the examples are interchangeable

[modest cedar]

the 'you' was just a typo 🙂
I understand. What you're saying is interesting.
to me: "I've been searching for you" means basically I've been searching for you up until the point I asked the question (more or less)
"I searched for you" - I stopped searching some time ago, so some time passed and then I came across you.
But, yeah, I'm not a native speaker and this is how I've learnt the language. Maybe it's a BrE vs AmE thing 🙂

I find the difference subtle and quite nice, actually, because I think it adds a lot to the language. But that might be too subjective.

[long whale]

I'm definitely not a genius (but thank you very much, anyway) -> Ich wollte, ich wäre ein Genie/du hättest recht -> wollte + KII -> "wollte" is also KII. But in "Er wollte kommen" it is indeed clear it's past, it cannot be KII. As to the why, I'm afraid I can't anwer that. 🤷

[onyx rain]

Wir werden einen Tag das gelesen müssen.
Ich möchte dieser Satz (We will have to read it one day) sagen. Ich weiß man nutzt haben/sein mit Futur II aber ist das richtig?

[modest cedar]

Das kommt auf das Verb an, soweit ich weiß, auch bei Futur II

also mit "lesen" benutzt man "haben".

[spring socket]

Eines Tages müssen wir es lesen comes to mind. I'm no native though so

[modest cedar]

Aber ja, das hat nichts mit Futur II zu tun, sondern mit Futur I. Futur II entspricht ungefähr Future Perfect:

I will have seen it.
Ich werde es gesehen haben.

[icy flax]

What is your first language? The difference you perceive is the one me, as a portuguese speaker, used to take for reality.
As far as I remember the difference of simples past and present perfect is that the latter is used when there is some kind of implication in the present.

Simple past is used when a thing happened in the past, usually in a specific time.

[icy flax]

This is one of the strange constructions.

Wir werden einen Tag das haben lesen müssen, wenn [füge hier etw von der Zukunft hinzu].

https://deutschegrammatik20.de/spezielle-verben/modalverben/konjugation-modalverben-futur-ii-2/

[modest cedar]

Romanian

[tulip cargo]

does "befindet sich" only mean "is located" or are other meaning to it

i thought when i firs saw it, it meant smth like "you can find" as in, "in that city, you can find ....."

"In Mecklenburg-Vorpommern befi ndet sich im Zentrum der Stadt Schwerin auf
einer Insel gelegen ein prächtiges Schloss." this is the sentence i was refering to

[swift bough]

„Es befindet sich“ literally means „it finds itself“ which you can also say in English

But it can also just be „to be located“

[tulip cargo]

if its to be located, why in that sentence there is befindet sich and then theres also gelegen

don't those too mean "to be located"

[swift bough]

It literally means „it finds itself lying“; gelegen is also the past participle of „liegen“ which is literally „to lie“. When you talk about where something is located it’s also very common to say for example „Es liegt in dieser Stadt“.

You don’t need to use „gelegen“ there, but you can.

[tulip cargo]

ahh i see

so the gelegen is optional

[swift bough]

But it is also referring here to that it is on an island

You would often say „es liegt auf der Insel“

[tulip cargo]

now i get it, its like saying there is a castle located on an island

rather than saying there is a castle on an island

[swift bough]

Idk why but I wouldn’t have even used „gelegen“, „liegend“ feels better for some reason. Pretty sure that works too.

Where was it that you found that sentence?

[tulip cargo]

on a B2 ubungen Buch

thx for ur explanation tho its clearer now

[shut briar]

Es gibt zu allen möglichen Interessen Vereine

Was ist zu allen here?

Wenn es eine Wendung ist, ist es nicht im Wörterbuch

[willow socket]

Zu allen möglichen Interessen = for all possible interests

[tulip cargo]

eine durchgehende Vertiefung in der Erde um
eine Burg herum, damit Feinde die Burg nicht
leicht erreichen können

what does durchgehende vertiefung mean in that context

[modest cedar]

I think the meaning is basically the one that you find in the dictionary. Do you use any german-english and german-german dictionaries?
I recommend https://dwds.de and https://dict.cc

[dusk sinew]

Can someone please give me examples of when to use du dich oder dir

[plain umbra]

Do you know about cases?

[dusk sinew]

Yes

[plain umbra]

Okay, so du = nominative, dich = accusative, dir = dative.

What do you know about cases so far? Do you know when these cases are used?

[dusk sinew]

Ja

Danke

[plain umbra]

Okay, no problem.

[shut briar]

Ich finde, man kann die Zeit, die man hier für Bürokratie verwendet, sinnvoller gestalten.

Ich verstehe, was dieser Satz bedeutet, aber auf Englisch werde ich spend für beider Verben sagen

Also was ist der Unterschied zwischen verwendet und gestalten

Gestalten macht mir kein Sinn

[modest cedar]

spenden = donate 🙂
"verbingen" kann man auch benutzen (this means "spend" in English)

[modest cedar]

but "gestalten" means something else:
https://www.dict.cc/?s=gestalten

[willow socket]

think of 'structure your time better' for gestalten

[modest cedar]

I meant to say "verbringen", with an "r" 🙂

[fervent kernel]

Anyone have any tips for pronouncing the German R?

Or any tips for German pronunciation in general.

I’m still beginning learning German and would like to learn good pronunciation habits early on.

[kind knoll]

Try gurgling on water or practice first, the german r practically sounds like gurgling on water without the water

for**

[night dagger]

or pretend you're a motorbike

[fervent kernel]

I have a ridiculous question.

How does one gargle water?

[night dagger]

youtube

[fervent kernel]

put only the middle of your tounge up until it touches the top part of your mouth, then breathe air through it until you get a rolling motion and vocalize it

[solid hull]

das hast du sicherlich selber ausprobiert bevor du ihm erklärt hast oder 😆

[fervent kernel]

hab mir schon öfter gedanken über diese frage gemacht ich glaube ich habe jetzt mit dieser den ablauf perfektioniert xD

[solid hull]

lol

[fervent kernel]

now i just need to know if people get it

[icy flax]

i tried it here and it kinda worked. By breathing in is easier than out tho. I like the cup of water method hehe

[onyx rain]

I made some sound lol, don't if it is the German r

[proven sphinx]

You can post it here so that we can judge it.

Using Vocaroo for that is the easiest way.

[fervent kernel]

you can also make tiger sounds

[delicate tiger]

use the one that is easiest for you, almost any "r" is used somewhere in the German speaking area. It also never changes the meaning of words or makes you hard to understand. Every other sound is more important to get right. The most important ones are the vowels, you need to practice them. They DO change the meaning of words and make you hard to understand

[spring socket]

Er ist Hamburger... was? Meinst du Hambürger? Ja, tschuldigung

[proven sphinx]

Hamburg is a city.

It's a person from Hamburg.

[spring socket]

Oo I always thought that was a person from Hamburg lmao

like a Citizen of hamburg

[worthy sky]

ihm fällt Mathe leicht

what's the Infinitiv for fällt?

it says fallen.... but er... doesn't that mean fall... wouldnt it be gefällt instead

[proven sphinx]

"gefällt" is the past participle. The infinitive really is just "fallen". It has several meanings.

[worthy sky]

😂 whot okay thank you.

[proven sphinx]

Many words are not used literally, just like in English as well. Or do you literally "fall" if you fall in love with someone? 😂

Phrasal verbs in English are very much not literal. I remember that being a problem for me when I first started learning English. German has idiomatic and metaphorical language just like English does, so you have to be careful not to take every word too literally.

[willow socket]

Isn’t the past participle of “fallen” — gefallen?
Gefällt is a conjugation of an entirely different verb “gefallen”

[teal mica]

zes

yes

"Es ist ihm leicht gefallen" would be past participle

[willow socket]

Jemandem leicht/schwer fallen = to be easy/hard for someone

[teal mica]

but "gefallen" itself is also an infinitve

[teal mica]

yes

it is, as Raven said, some fixed expression

[icy flax]

True. I didnt read it yesterday. The past particple of leichtfallen is leichtgefallen.

[proven sphinx]

Yeah, sorry. I'm not sure why I said "gefällt". 😂

[icy flax]

Bc it is confusing; the german lango, that is

[fervent kernel]

Ich habe kleine Probleme mit dem Verb lassen. Habe ich es hier richtig verwendet?
Er lässt die Mutter seine Schuld begleichen.

[wise pendant]

The first is not possible, the second might be, thou you would use "begleichen" instead of "bezahlen"

[fervent kernel]

Oh the first sentence is just an introduction to the actual question 😆

Ok thx what about : meine Aura lässt ihn nicht konzentrieren können

Is that correct?

[wise pendant]

"Meine Aura lässt ihn sich nicht konzentrieren"

No idea. This sentence I just wrote just seems better than the one you wrote, tho I'd not use both tbh

[fervent kernel]

Hrm, then how would you phrase it

So that it sounds natural

[wise pendant]

"Meine Aura hält ihn davon ab, sich konzentrieren zu können", "Meine Aura hält ihn davon ab, sich zu konzentrieren" or "Meine Aura hält ihn vom Konzentrieren ab"
So without "lassen" at all

[fervent kernel]

Ok, last sentence,,

Lässt du ihn mir Wein einschenken?

[wise pendant]

thats fine

[fervent kernel]

😆 nicee

Thanks!

[wise pendant]

zB:

Mein kleiner Bruder wollte mir etwas Wein einschenken, aber meine Mutter hält ihn davon. "Lässt du ihn mir Wein einschenken? Also halt ihn nicht dauernd davon ab, Mama!"

[gusty zinc]

hmmm

[fathom roost]

Kann man eine Dozentin mit "Liebe Frau xzy" ansprechen wenn Sie dich so anspricht? Oder ist das zu nah und man soll bei "Sehr geehrte Frau xyz" bleiben?

[wintry geode]

Kommt darauf an, ob man persönlich mit denen spricht, oder ob man per E-Mail schreibt.

[icy flax]

Lexa, eine deutsche Professorin sagte uns einmal "wenn jemand dich duzt, duze du auch". Ich glaub, du zeigst damit Gegenseitigkeit (und in der Universität willst du das größte mögliche Freunden-netzwerk haben).

[lyric vortex]

Ist folgender Satz in Ordnung? Reiche Menschen habe ich hier noch keine gesehen

[opal narwhal]

Ja 👍

[plush pelican]

When you "join" a discord server, or a minecraft server, etc, is the verb for that "beitreten"?

z.B.: Ich habe den Discord Server beigetreten?

[plain umbra]

Ja.

[plush pelican]

danke 😄

[slim yew]

what is he trying to say

[plush pelican]

I think it's idiomatic, means "when he regained consciousness"

almost like "when he came to"

[slim yew]

i interpreet it as
when i come to me again, i am in a big room

oh

[plush pelican]

Pro-tip: DeepL is pretty good for translating

https://www.deepl.com/en/translator#de/en/Als ich wieder zu mir komme

Now ask me why I know all this?

[slim yew]

why

[plush pelican]

Because I've done that exact sentence on Duolingo already xD

You should try to type it in if you can, btw. Much harder, system gets finnicky about alternate translations, but it really fucking forces that memory into your brain

[spring socket]

Is Vakzin a new loan word of sorts? I've only ever heard Impstoff until now, is it common for people to say Vakzin instead of impstoff or is it just this writer being a bit quirky?

[fervent kernel]

Impfstoff is more common of course.

Basically the same

[spring socket]

My might the writer have chosen Vakzin here?

[fervent kernel]

Its just more formal and Vakzin comes from the latin "vaccinus"

[spring socket]

Interesting, thanks Chris

[fervent kernel]

You're welcome.

[untold ravine]

Hi I have a question and I was wondering if someone can help me (I'm not so good at German yet).
I saw this dialogue: "Wie creepy ist das denn"; and I wanted to know why "denn" if "Wie" is already there

[fervent kernel]

Wie creepy is das denn is pretty colloquial and roughly translates to "How creepy is that, man"

You can ask questions like "Wie groß ist denn das Autohaus?"

"Wie alt bist du denn?"

the "denn" adds a bit of pressure or curiosity to the question

depending on the context

[untold ravine]

Vielen Dank!

[fervent kernel]

for example:
A: "Ich würde gerne diese Achterbahn fahren"
B: "Dafür musst du über 14 Jahre alt sein. Wie alt bist du denn?"

A: "Hehe ich habe deine Mütze geklaut"
B: "Was soll denn das?!"

ah https://www.duden.de/rechtschreibung/denn_verstaerkende_Partikel

@untold ravine so there are mainly three different words "denn": the Adverb "denn", the Konjunktion "denn" und the Partikel "denn". This is the Partikel

[untold ravine]

Danke

[worthy sky]

when i say im with someone
why do we need to add an?
bei dir an

wouldn't bei dir be enough?

[long whale]

I suspect your full sentence is something like "Ich komme um 4 bei dir an"? In which case the "an" is part of the separable verb "ankommen". :)

If not, please do copy in the whole sentence. :)

[worthy sky]

oh ye ich komme immer wieder bei dir an

[south kite]

Does anyone have a good explanation for why German negates nouns over verbs I keep trying to answer on some forums online and the "Ich will keinen Käse" (I want no cheese) instead of the English "I do not want cheese" doesn't seem to satisfy many early learners

[near folio]

Any question about "why" a language has a certain linguistic property tends to be very hard to answer and generally you just have to accept the answer "that's how it is".

But in this case, it is possible to negate the verb, but it has a different meaning. If you were to say Ich will den Käse nicht, then it implies that you do not want that cheese, but some other cheese that is available. Using kein implies more "I do not want any cheese."

[south kite]

Yeah I usually right the English "translation" as "I do not want any cheese" or clearly incorrect English but seemingly reasonable "I want not any cheese". Some people obviously seem to accept but just wondered if someone more intelligent than I had come up with a great explanation haha

Thanks!

[near folio]

Yeah, fair enough, unfortunately I don't know enough about linguistics to know why German has an article like kein and English doesn't. I imagine English had it once too (since the two languages come from the same ancestor), and it was simply lost over time along with a lot of other grammatical stuff as English got simpler. You could maybe ask on the linguistics reddit, maybe someone there has a better idea.

[south kite]

Yeah that's a good idea.
Yeah English got much easier except some of the tensing like "I am doing" (then this can even be future with present) or "I do" and then "I will future"

Languages are so cool

[bleak sparrow]

Hi I stunbled upon this sentence:
Wenn es regnet, würde alles nass sein.
Is there a difference between that and „wenn es regnet, wäre alles nass?
Do they give different meanings?

[night dagger]

no difference :) your second example is using konjunktiv II

i think of konjunktiv II as a type of shortcut in german

zB:
"es wäre gut" - konunktiv II
"es würde gut sein" - würde + infinitiv (Present subjunctive)

[bleak sparrow]

Yeah, wäre/hätte is most often than not preferred over würde sein/haben or?

[night dagger]

i think it depends on whats being said tbh

maybe with sein/haben this is true, but not so much for other verbs

[bleak sparrow]

Gotcha thanks 🙂

[uneven sparrow]

Was ist eine Apflesine? 🧐
https://dict.leo.org/german-english/apfelsine
Says it's an orange tree?

[fervent kernel]

Eine frucht

Ah Apfelsine is another name for orange

din't even know lol

[spring socket]

In welchen Bundesländern nutzt man diesen Begriff?

[fervent kernel]

wikipedia says roughly north of the "speyerer linie"

(appel / apfel)

[spring socket]

Danke schön, Untertan. Sie haben mir geholfen

[midnight portal]

Translate lesson
Heiße du nicht Theresa
Doch, ich heiße Theresa
Kommst du nicht Aus Deutschland?
Doch, ich komme aus Deutschland

Is your name not Theresa
But My name is Theresa
Are you not from Germany?
But, I am from Germany

Is this correct?

[scenic drift]

Heiße du nicht Theresa
something's wrong here :^)

[spring socket]

Think about your verb conjugations

[scenic drift]

(assuming you're translating en -> de)

[midnight portal]

I@didn’t make the question

[scenic drift]

although come to think of it the en is also a bit funky

[midnight portal]

I’m just translating 😭

[scenic drift]

who wrote it then, because either it's wrong or maybe you've typoed while typing it in?

[spring socket]

Oh mikey, quick on the keyboard :)

[scenic drift]

typing go brrr

[midnight portal]

I put

Heiße

Instead of heißt

That was my bad 😭

[scenic drift]

gotcha :)

ok to answer your question

i think there's a better way to translate "doch" here

[midnight portal]

Ohh

[scenic drift]

i'm actually not sure if usage of 'doch' is covered at a1/a2 so that's no big deal

[midnight portal]

It’s not

😞

[scenic drift]

"on the contrary" is probably what i'd translate it as here?

[midnight portal]

I see

Thank you

I’ll correct my mistake

[steep dew]

how do I join voice channels?

[plain umbra]

Read #getting-started

[steep dew]

done

how do I join voice channels?

[plain umbra]

It's explained there...

[steep dew]

oh

where is it standing how to join?

I can't find it

[sly ferry]

In the section labelled "Roles"

[steep dew]

still can't join

doesn't work

oh

wait

I have it

thank you :D

[frosty heart]

If someone said they weren’t feeling well would I respond with Es tut mir leid or entschuldigung or something else?

[willow socket]

you could say es tut mir Leid

z.B. es tut mir leid, dass du krank bist

entschuldigung...I probably wouldn't say it unless you made them sick? Or if you've done/said something that you regret without knowing they're sick?

[lament topaz]

If someone told me they were sick I'd probably respond with "Gute Besserung" (="get well soon").

[cursive rain]

Sind beide richtig?
"A ist nicht gleich B"
"A ist nicht das Gleiche wie B"

[proven sphinx]

Ja, aber das Zweite klingt halt etwas umständlicher.

In der Mathematik würde man deswegen praktisch nur das Erste benutzen.

[worthy sky]

okay this is something I've been confused for a while

when i try to say something related to myself/yourself....how do i say it properly?

du kannst dich das machen/ du kannst selbst das machen

[willow socket]

du kannst das selbst/selber machen

[bleak sparrow]

When should you use selbst and when selber?

[willow socket]

I think they're synonymous. One website says that 'selbst' is better than 'selber' in written/more formal, but in everyday language they can be interchanged

[bleak sparrow]

Okay thanks 👍

[midnight portal]

Is this correct?

[proven sphinx]

You've made a few mistakes. You can just look them up in a dictionary to see which gender the word should be.

[midnight portal]

Ok thank you

[tame plank]

nennt man in Deutschland Marijuana „Maracuja“ als (scherzhafter) Deckname?

[lament topaz]

Maracuja hab ich bis jetzt noch nie als Synonym für Marijuana gehört. Die gängigste Bezeichnung ist wahrscheinlich „Gras“

[fervent kernel]

ziemlich sicher nicht lol

weed, gras

[tame plank]

Ok. Meine Freunde sagen immer maracuja lol

[fervent kernel]

kann sein das das in bestimmten regionen gemacht wird

insider gibts ja gewissermaßen überall

[fallen galleon]

Könnte man in diesem Fall „die häufige" statt die gängigste benutzen?

[fervent kernel]

klingt etwas schräg

die häufigste vielleicht

[fallen galleon]

achso

okay

[fervent kernel]

die meistgenutzte

[fallen galleon]

Aber ist die häufigste nicht so wie eine Vergleich?

[proven sphinx]

Es ist ein Superlativ, ja.

[fallen galleon]

daher sind diese beiden Sätze nicht gleich oder

[fervent kernel]

Die Bezeichnung wird häufig genutzt = often used
Die Bezeichnung wird am häufigsten genutzt = most used

[fallen galleon]

Ja

[proven sphinx]

"gängig" heißt einfach, dass man es häufig benutzt.

[fallen galleon]

achso

so wie die häufig benutztende

[proven sphinx]

gebräuchlich, üblich

[fallen galleon]

kapiert danke

das würde ja irgendwie ziemlich komisch klingen aber kann man immer häufig benutzt durch gängig ersetzen

die englische Sprache ist gängig z.B

[proven sphinx]

Nee, es wird nicht wirklich so benutzt.

[fallen galleon]

oh verstehe

[proven sphinx]

"gängig" heißt "üblich, gebräuchlich"

[fallen galleon]

nur als ein Adjektiv dann

[proven sphinx]

Vergiss "häufig benutzt"

[fallen galleon]

Okay

[proven sphinx]

Das hat nichts damit zu tun.

Ich meine, es hat ein bisschen etwas damit zu tun, aber das ist nicht wirklich, was "gängig" bedeutet.

[fallen galleon]

verstehe

[proven sphinx]

Man kann z. B. von der "gängigen Meinung" sprechen.

Das wäre einfach die übliche Meinung, nicht die "häufig benutzte Meinung". LOL.

[fallen galleon]

alright xd

[sudden ivy]

eine Meinung, die häufig verkommt ist allerdings im Umkehrschluss die gängige Meinung, gängig oder auch üblich ist sogar teilweise als häufiger Sachverhalt definiert.
somit geht das in den meisten fällen auch.
man könnte zum Beispiel sehr wohl sagen, dass die englische Sprache, in vielen ländern gängig ist oder auch einfach nur, dass es eine gängige sprach ist

[proven sphinx]

Ja, da hast du sicher auch recht.

[grim coyote]

Gibt es ein Unterschied zwischen "sinn machen" und "sinn ergeben"? Wann wird was genutzt?

[long whale]

*einen Unterschied; "Sinn machen" is a direct translation from English, the idiomatic German expression is "Sinn ergeben". :)

[grim coyote]

i knew that but is "sinn machen" more common in Umgangssprache?

[night dagger]

both are common

fwiw i personally come across "Sinn machen" more frequently.

[proven sphinx]

Pedants love saying that "Sinn machen" is bad German, but it's been used for ages and almost everyone uses it. However, if you want to be really sure, you can just say "Sinn ergeben" instead.

https://blog.zhaw.ch/marketingmanagement/warum-es-macht-sinn-gerade-keinen-sinn-ergibt/

A lot of people have very strong opinions on it, though, like the person on this article from my very university, no less.

It's a Swiss university, but the interviewee is apparently German.

[icy flax]

bei diesem Artikel steht es 'Gerade im Marketing sind Werbebotschaften nicht immer von Sinn gekrönt. „Komm hinein und finde wieder heraus“ ist hier nur ein Beispiel von vielen.'. Warum nicht von Sinn gekrönnt? Hört sich deutlich klar an "come inside and find (it) once again".

[proven sphinx]

Es ist so ein Werbespruch, den viele Menschen nicht richtig verstanden haben.

Come here and find out

Das soll also heißen: "Komm hinein und finde heraus, was wir alles im Sortiment haben!", aber viele Leute haben es so verstanden, dass es "Komm hinein und finde den Weg wieder heraus" bedeutet. 😂

[icy flax]

HAHAHA! Den Weg heraus finden... ach ja!

[icy flax]

gemeinhin [ɡəˈmaɪ̯nhɪn]

shouldn't those "i"s be pronounced as :i as there is only one consonant after them?

[long whale]

The first i is part of the diphtong ei, so, how would that be possible? And as to "hin" - for 1-syllable-words, there is no fixed rule, unfortunately. Just think of "Weg" vs. "weg". :)

[mossy sleet]

can Mittagessen be used as a verb?

[swift bough]

No

But there is „zu Mittag essen“ (to eat lunch).

[mossy sleet]

ah i see, thanks!

[swift bough]

I stand corrected. Apparently in Austrian German you can actually use it as a verb. I guess it just depends on what you’re going for with your learning process.

But yeah you won’t hear it in Germany really at all.

Possibly maybe right on the boarder between Germany and Austria, but I can’t know for certain.

I mean, I used to live there for a short time actually, but I never heard it (in Oberbayern right on the boarder).

[mossy sleet]

ooo, thanks!

[swift bough]

Np

I also learned that just now myself

[woven hawk]

so like...are there any neutral singular pronouns in german?

[plain umbra]

You mean for people?

[woven hawk]

yeah

[plain umbra]

There aren't any that are commonly used, unfortunately.

[woven hawk]

damn. thanks though!

[plain umbra]

No problem. If you're interested in it from an LGBT perspective, there are sources online where you can read more about people's ideas about the issue, such as this: https://nonbinary.wiki/wiki/Pronouns#German_neutral_pronouns

But there's no universally accepted standard German solution. Just proposed/niche stuff.

[woven hawk]

ah, thanks!

[woven hawk]

and yeah, that's mainly it

[hollow elbow]

warum ist C richtig?

i thought gehört is to have heard

[fallow ledge]

Gehört is heard yes, but theres also the verb gehören meaning to belong to

The sentence is using gehören

You can spot it because its a dative verb and wem is in dative

[hollow elbow]

oh i see, thanks

[fallow ledge]

Also if you wanted to use gehört in the past tense you also need an auxiliary verb haben

Wen hast du gehört? Who did you hear?

[tulip cargo]

Gesundes Abnehmen mit Motivation
Nach zahlreichen gescheiterten Diäten haben viele Menschen mit Übergewicht Glauben an einen Erfolg verloren. Der Gang zur Waage wird zur psychischen Belastung. Zu einem wirkungsvollen Therapieansatz gehört deshalb auch die Fähigkeit, die eigene Schwäche, den „inneren Schweinehund“, zu überwinden u mit Rückschlägen fertig zu werden. Der Vortrag ,Gesundes Abnehmen" zeigt, wie Sie gesund abnehmen und Ihre Motivation dazu erhalten können.

Zu einem wirkungsvollen Therapieansatz gehort

what does that mean

[scenic drift]

An effective therapeutic approach includes... (Lit. To an effective therapeutic approach belongs...)

[jovial moth]

Is the grammar correct here: Ich entschuldige für die verspätung, ich vergesste über der termin, wir werden uns acht Uhr bei der Cafe treffen.

[fallen galleon]

isnt it sich um etw entschuldigen

Check out the cases in ur sentence

[jovial moth]

I have never heard of "sich um etw entschuldigen" before

isn't entschuldigen the verb which means "to apologize" ?

[fervent kernel]

Hallo

To which noun should the Genitive case ending be applied?

The possesor or the possesed?

[tender panther]

Is this a homework question

I get that vibe from it

[swift bough]

If you’re asking for an explanation about a concept, it’s fine. As long as you aren’t asking for answers to your homework questions.

[tender panther]

I know

Didn't know if it was the former or latter, assuming it is HW

[queen oyster]

Hi, may i ask whats the difference with sie kommen and Sie kommen?

like the capital s what difference does it make?

[tender panther]

lowercase sie means they
uppercase Sie means you

[fervent kernel]

Sie = formal you

[queen oyster]

how does one differentiaite that word is male or female?

[swift bough]

Just a side note; you don’t need to address anyone with „Sie“ on discord, it’s much too formal

[queen oyster]

if Sie if formal, whats the informal one?

[fervent kernel]

du

[swift bough]

„Sie“ is gender neutral. It doesn’t refer to only one gender, since it just means „you“.

[queen oyster]

ahh right

[swift bough]

However, lowercase sie also means „she“.

[fervent kernel]

ich
du/Sie
er/sie/es

wir
ihr/Sie
sie

But you use it gramatically like 3rd person

[tepid snow]

Warum schreiben wir oft ohne Konjunktionen? Zum bespiel; ,,dass,,? Jedoch die Satze klignt wie bei einer Konjunktion.

Jeder Mensch traum davon, ausgezeichnete Arbeitstelle und gedugendes Gehalt haben.

oder

mit ,,dass,,

[long whale]

This only works with certain verbs "davon träumen, etwas zu tun", or "vorhaben, etwas zu tun", for example. :)

[shut briar]

Hat die Wohnung eine Küche oder muss man erst selber eine kaufen?

What is erst doing here?

To the sentence

[proven sphinx]

erst = first

Does the apartment have a kitchen or do you have to buy one yourself first?

[shut briar]

Oh its not a modal particle? Because i considered First, but it seemed so unnecessary to add it

[shut briar]

Thanks

[proven sphinx]

It's an adverb of time.

[proven sphinx]

It's not unnecessary, since it emphasizes that you should buy a kitchen before moving to the apartment.

[shut briar]

Yeah, but it seems the idea was more about selbst. Is the kitvhen available or do i have to buy one myself

But anyway the person did use it so i cant change that

[proven sphinx]

It just sounds more idiomatic to me with the "erst".

So I agree with that person.

"erst selbst/selber" is a very common collocation.

[shut briar]

Oh okay so it's sort of mixed with selber

[shut briar]

Then i agree with you

[fervent kernel]

@tacit trellis der echte Held der Steine?

[wintry geode]

Wer sonst

[lime crater]

What would someone reccomend to learn german on? like an app/website or? cause i have duolingo but

[fervent kernel]

idk

[summer crystal]

Babbel was pretty good for me at the start.

[swift bough]

faq duolingo

[stoic mauve]

Duolingo

Duolingo is a decent resource to start with if you're a complete beginner, but it's neither efficient nor comprehensive!

What Duolingo will teach you about grammar is very limited, and none of the systems they use will help you practise much of it.
You can learn some vocabulary with it, but their method (based on the concept of spaced repetition) doesn't work for everybody, and the way Duolingo teaches is not very effective compared to the amount of time it requires from you.

So, if you find it useful, by all means keep using it, but remember not to fall for its gamification of language learning, and move past it when it stops being beneficial. Ignore the streaks.

In any case, keep in mind that Duolingo is not enough to learn a language, ever.

If you're looking for guidance or alternatives, check out >faq beginner in our #botchannel .

[summer crystal]

Yeah, I myself started using Babbel because Duolingo wasn't getting me any far.

[uneven sparrow]

I'm quite confused with this sentence: "In der Klasse lernen sie ihren Lehrer, Herrn Mayer, kennen." - They lern their teacher?

[sly ferry]

The verb is kennenlernen, it's separable

[faint pumice]

Hallo an alle, ich habe eine kurze Frage: „Es ist EINE/DIE (oder ohne Artikel) Tatsache, dass viele Mütter eine Babysitterin einstellen, um Karriere zu machen“. Was passt am besten?

[icy flax]

Ich glaub, eine passt hier besser, aber es könnte auch die sein. Schau dir mal ein Beispiel mit "die"

„Es ist nicht so, dass der Klimawandel selbst schneller voranschreitet als erwartet – die Erwärmung entspricht genau den Modellvorhersagen von vor Jahrzehnten. Es ist die Tatsache, dass einige der Auswirkungen größer sind, als Wissenschaftler erwartet haben.“

Hier brauchen sie das "die".
Nicht das sondern die Tatsache, dass...

[faint pumice]

Mit „eine“ führen wir eine neue Informationen zum ersten Mal ein, deswegen vllt braucht man dann den unbestimmten Artikel

Wäre das mehrmals erwähnt, könnte man dann „die“ schreiben, weil es dann um eine konkrete und mehrmals wiederholte Tatsache ginge

[alpine wharf]

soo they say that you need to know about 8k words to pass c1
what kind of words should i know?
like words in what topic?

[faint pumice]

You can check vocabulary from Goethe-Institut for each level to C1

It is called „Wortschatzliste“

[alpine wharf]

i found it until b1

[faint pumice]

You should speak about certain themes like work and studying, climate, weather and technical progress, about your daily life (flat, town, shopping), traveling and so one - the themes are almost the same, but the topics which could be discussed became more difficult. For example, at A1 you can just say something about your favorite subjects at school and at C1 you already knows how to describe your type of degree, foundation of studying abroad, you understand lessons in German and so one

It doesn’t make sense to learn just certain words, the main thing is that you can understand, write and talk about many difficult topics (and you will definitely learn all the important words according to the themes while trying to understand and describe them itself)

You can always find all the needed themes you should know for the certain level at the beginning of each coursebook)

Just a moment

This is Erkundungen C1

You can also find some lists of words to some books on the website of Schubert-Verlag

[alpine wharf]

thank you so much

[faint pumice]

You are welcome

[icy flax]

Gute Zusammenfassung. Muss im Prinzip sowas sein. Mir scheint es, dass man mit dem "bei" mehr Aufmerksamkeit schenken will. Das Beispiel ohne Artikel sieht aus, eine von allem gewissene Sache zu sein.

"Es geht um den Selbstschutz jedes einzelnen"

Dass eine vierte Welle kommen wird, ist laut Uwe Schubart sicher - und sie wird den Erfolg der Impfkampagne auf die Probe stellen. Schubart: "Es ist Tatsache, dass wir vor einem Jahr schon einmal soweit waren und damals im Herbst mit der britischen Variante eine Infektionsproblematik hatten. Damals hatten wir aber noch keinen Impfstoff." Holmer rät deshalb eindringlich, dass die Landshuter die zweite Dosis nicht einfach weggelassen.

[faint pumice]

I recommend especially Erkundungen and its lists of words, because they are made to prepare you for the Goethe exams (the exercises are similar)

[alpine wharf]

is erkundungen only b2 and c1?

[faint pumice]

It is called Begegnungen at A1/2 and it is called Erkundungen from B1 to C2

[alpine wharf]

ok thank you

[uneven sparrow]

vielen dank 🙂

[silk flame]

Which is more correct? „weißt du diese Band“ or „kennst du diese Band“?

[wintry geode]

2nd

[silk flame]

Also „die Band“ is the correct article for a musical band right?

[swift bough]

yes

Band is a funny one because it can be used with all 3 articles but they all mean something different

There're a lot more words that can be used with 2 articles than there are with 3

[wintry geode]

I just realised that

[swift bough]

haha

[spring socket]

How do you express ,,to cath the bus/train" in German? My natural assumption is ,,ich nehm den Bus / Zug", but I'm not 100% sure if a native would actually say that

[vale fossil]

Yes, you are right. It's that or just "ich fahr mit dem Bus/Zug"

[spring socket]

Thank you Ruebe

[willow socket]

You can also say 'den Bus erwischen' iirc

that's kinda like 'catching' the bus in english

[spring socket]

Thanks! I was looking for one like this - ,,ich fang den Bus" doesn't sound right haha

[long whale]

I'm not quite sure whether they really correspond here. If you say "den Bus [noch] erwischen" it means you almost missed it - you probably had to run, or maybe the bus was a minute late, something like that. It isn't really like that with "to catch the bus" - or is it?

[onyx rain]

I was listening an audio and can't remember he preposition well, it's something like "Das Buch liegt auf den/dem Tisch"

I can't make out whether its den oder dem

[delicate tiger]

auf dem Tisch (aber "Ich lege das Buch auf den Tisch")

[onyx rain]

Then it's accusativ coz you made the change in position/motion right ?

[spring socket]

I'm not Not a bad, but yes, if there is motion, then the accusative has to be used.

Since the book is lying on the table already , it must be auf dem Tisch.

But in the action of placing the book on the table, it must be auf den Tisch since there is motion.

[willow socket]

ehm...it depends. But yeah, generally when I would talk about catching the bus it would be in the context of it being close/me worrying about the time or the bus driving away without me.

Sometimes if you're speaking casually someone might mean it more generally? As in just taking the bus (mit dem Bus fahren)...but where I'm from it would be more common to text your roommate 'I caught the bus!' to imply that you managed to make the bus you planned and will return at a certain time. Or, infuriatingly, that you didn't catch the bus and that you'll have to wait for the next.

[long whale]

Thanks for your answer. :) Yes, I think I've seen it in this more general sense, at least occasionally, in books - often enough for me to feel there was at least some difference in usage.

[mossy sleet]

is the dw course enough to learn german?

[willow socket]

You will learn some German by doing a beginners course but of course you will not be fluent from that.

[mossy sleet]

ah, thanks

[queen oyster]

Hallo, can someone explain wht is the difference with sie and Sie

Its so confusing jeez

[modest cedar]

"sie" means she or they.
"Sie", written always with a capital letter, means "you", but it's a... I'm not sure what they call it in English, a politeness pronoun. You say "Sie" when you talk to a stranger, some authority (shows a sort of respect)

A lot of European languages have this distinction. English lacks it though 🙂

you'll find 'siezen' and 'duzen' even more confusing then :))

[long whale]

"sie" + verb in 3rd person singular = she; "sie" + verb in 3rd person plural = they. "Sie" is formal address, it's always used with the verb in 3rd person plural, whether you're addressing 1 person or several people. :)

sie trinkt = she drinks; sie trinken = they drink; Trinken Sie...? = Do you/y'all (formal) drink...?

[queen oyster]

So to confirm, sie + verb is she
er + verb is he

is there a formal she and formal he? or is it Sie is gender neutral?

[long whale]

Sie is gender neutral, yes.

[queen oyster]

if ihr seid is you (plural) and informal, what is you (plural) and informal? or is there no such thing?

[long whale]

du bist = singular informal -> you are; ihr seid = plural informal -> y'all are

If that was your question. ;)

[queen oyster]

ok thanks

[queen oyster]

so Sie can be used for singular or plural formal. while singular informal and plural informal are the one u mentioned above right?

and btw where can i like translate german to english? like besides google translate

in my place no one uses yall xd people will just look at u in a weird way

[willow socket]

deepL

[lime crater]

"Wo kommst" translates to "where do you come from" right? i have that saved in my notes but i dont know if that's correct

[long whale]

No, it doesn't and no it isn't. It translates to "Where do you come?" (which makes as much sense in English as in German)

@harsh berry@queen oysterFor the record, I've never used "y'all", either. But then, how would you explain what "ihr" means/is for? :)

[queen oyster]

i still get the idea its just that i dont use it xd

thanks btw

[lime crater]

Oh, what would 'where do you come from' translate to in german then?

[long whale]

Might be because of films/games/dubbing/translations - most European languages I know of distinguish between "you singular" and "you plural". :)

[long whale]

Wo kommst du her? :)

No, you couldn't. You could also say "Woher kommst du?", that would mean the same. :)

"kommen" = towards the speaker; "wohin" = away from the speaker. That's why it doesn't work. :)@harsh berry

[queen oyster]

what does sie heißen and Sie heißen means

[long whale]

"heißen" = to be called.

As in: somebody's name is...

geh hin! = go there! vs. komm her! = come here! ;)

That's why I gave you those 2 exclamations .- hoping to help. :)

I guess, yes. Since "you guys" would a) take up more space and b) raise the question of whether you're addressing the girls/women in the group, as well (at least in some non-native speakers).

Hmm... If you were one person out of a group of people I was addressing formally, and I only wanted to invite you, specifically, I guess I'd just add your name: Kommen Sie mit, Vila? (Are you coming, Vila?), to make it clear my invitation wasn't addressed to everyone (Kommen Sie alle mit?). Plus, don't forget, in personal contact, there is body language as well. I can't recall ever having been confused about sie/Sie, at any rate. :)

[scenic drift]

Otoh i am not from texas and i use y'all all the time 🤣

[desert crown]

Not from the USA, I use y'all a lot. Love DP but I wouldn't consider myself a big enough fan to be copying her mannerisms

It pleases the part of my brain that desires a you plural

Yes. My father speaks Swiss German though, which made my inital German experience equal parts significantly easier and significantly harder

Easier because I had been immersed in german since baby
harder because the german I knew was... pretty much entirely different

youse hurts my soul though

it does not work with my accent at all (middle-upper class)
not that y'all works much better, but... youse just sounds like the queen saying she wants to go get maccies

I just wish there was a you plural in this goshdang language

[willow socket]

there is a you plural. It is you. 🙏

[gray oxide]

Hello

How to say I need you to do this for me

[willow socket]

would you like to give it a go first?

Or try a translator like deepL?

[gray oxide]

The only problem is that the structure is still hard for me

I know the words but I can't build the sentence

[willow socket]

what is the context of what you're saying?

Germans wouldn't tend to word it like this literally. i.e. you probably wouldn't hear anything like 'Ich brauche, dass du...'

[gray oxide]

Borrowing a book from a library

[willow socket]

you need someone to borrow a book from the library for you?

So if you want to be polite, you could say something like
Würdest du mir einen Gefallen tun...
Ich möchte dich um einen Gefallen bitten...
Würde's dir etwas ausmachen....XYZ für mich zu tun?
Or you could just ask if someone can do something for you
Kannst/Könntest du X (für mich)?

[gray oxide]

Ok so I put für mich at the end

[willow socket]

it depends on what you're saying

für mich doesn't just automatically come at the end, no.

[gray oxide]

Ich brauche an dich
Is this right

[willow socket]

no

[gray oxide]

So there's no direct translation for the expression I need you to

[willow socket]

I have given you some options...
If you're feeling authoritative you could go for 'du musst das für mich tun'

Ich brauche deine Hilfe = I need your help

[gray oxide]

I see

Can I ask one last question

Sorry for taking your time

[willow socket]

no worries, ask as many questions as you need 🙂

others may pop in and give a go at answering as well

[gray oxide]

Thank you
I appreciate that

Why did we use um einen in the second sentence

Is omitting the um ok?

[willow socket]

'jemanden um etwas bitten' is a fixed verb/preposition pair. It is similar to 'asking someone for something' in english

you shouldn't just omit it, and you also shouldn't sub in another random preposition

[gray oxide]

Ahh yes now everything is clear

Thank you so much

[long whale]

Ah. In that situation, you'd usually say either "Man hat mir gesagt" or "Ich habe gehört" instead of "sie haben mir gesagt". :)

[sullen canyon]

I'm trying to write 'It rained today whilst I walked home', and so far I've got 'Es hat heute geregnet, während ich bin nach Hause gehen'. I know that gehen is wrong but I am unsure how to change it into it's past participle equivalent - what do I do to words that begin with 'ge'?

Ah right, ok xD

[willow socket]

also note the word order in the Nebensatz. Conjugated verb comes at the end 🙏

[sullen canyon]

So would it be 'Es hat heute geregnet, während ich nach Hause gegangen bin'?

[swift bough]

Just in case you wanted a list of all verbs starting with ge- (there’s actually way more than you’d think but most of them are uncommon). https://www.verblisten.de/listen/verben/vorsilbe/untrennbar/zusammengesetzt/erstteil-ge/vollstaendig.html

I think I only know like 40% of these lol

[willow socket]

yeah 🙂

[swift bough]

Maybe 45

[sullen canyon]

thanks!

^ also I hope I never have to deal with one of those words then 🤣

[swift bough]

Depends on how long you keep learning German. You’ll need quite a lot of them if you get really far. 😅

[willow socket]

most of them are rather simple. Not as weird as 'gegangen'

so don't worry about it too, too much 🙏

gestehen --> gestanden
stehen --> gestanden

but how many places are you going to get those mixed up, really?

admitting vs. standing

seems very unlikely

[swift bough]

Yes that was the point. It’s literally a list of verbs starting with ge- in their Infinitive forms. Those aren’t participles.

It’s not usually like that

But even when it is

It’s pretty obvious because you also will have a helping Verb

Whereas if it’s just present tense

That won’t be there

Yes

But some of them also just have different grammatical structures which let you know their different meaning.

So for the verb gehören

„Es gehört mir“ nobody would ever interpret this as „hören“.

Not only just because it uses dative, but because there’s no helping verb and a participle doesn’t just sit there without a helping verb, unless of course it’s working as an adjective.

In the case of gehören then your main clue is the dative

Es hat mir gehört.

Yeah

Context too

Here is another example

For „gestehen“

Ich habe etwas gestanden.

This makes the meaning clear by having a direct object. „Stehen“ never has a direct object, it only has a subject.

@harsh berry

The more you know

German doesn’t really let you know „too much“.

I just came across a Verb today I haven’t seen in a very long time (so I also forgot what it meant), I think this is only the second time I’ve ever seen it actually and it’s „beweihräuchern“ (in the context „sich selbst beweihräuchern“ (to toot one‘s own horn)). You can always find some verbs like this where you’re like how does this even exist lol @harsh berry

[fervent kernel]

Where did you even find that verb?

Seems difficult to find in one meaningful sentence in that context

[swift bough]

Someone used it in another server

[long whale]

@swift bough I'm curious - isn't "[sich selbst] beweihräuchern" pretty self-explanatory? For all it's rareness, very much unlike "gestehen"? As in "to burn frankincense [for yourself]"?

[night dagger]

TIL: frankincense.

[swift bough]

I’ve never heard of that English expression even once for the record

@long whale also this is what i was referring to cuz it’s on dict.cc as well

I mean I’ve heard of frankincense but never heard of anyone burning it.

Only two definitions for it on Duden

[long whale]

I wasn't trying to claim it was an English expression. Only, what else are you going to do with frankincense, except burn it? 🤔

https://www.dwds.de/wb/beweihräuchern (for more examples)

[swift bough]

I knew what the word was, not what it’s actually for.

[onyx rain]

Will it be Kannst du "mir" eine Nachricht senden? Oder soll ich "mich" nutzen?

[fervent kernel]

mich is wrong

doesnt work yes

[onyx rain]

So the first sentence is okay?

[fervent kernel]

yeep

[onyx rain]

Klar, danke!

[fervent kernel]

Kein Ding

[icy flax]

Hi! 2 Fragen.

1. Hat die Anni (1. Frau) total vom Thema gewechelst?
   (Die sollten¹ reden, ob sie sich schon ganz schnell aus dem Nichts in jemandem verliebt haben, und zwar so sehr bis zum Punkt vom Heiraten, und dann auch genau so sprunghaft gar keine Interesse mehr hatten)
   https://youtu.be/UPmA8smXQ9Y?t=426
   Anni: "ich bin so einen Tag "ich bik meine Haare, ich mache es wieder lag, ich ziehe..."
   Reved: "es gibt jz schon einen Unterschied zwischen Haaren und heiraten, oder?"
   Anni: ".. ja, ich ziehe nach Berlin... kA"

2. @long whale, wie schon von Dir beigrachat, ¹sollen translates to "be supposed to"; sollten, to "should".
   How would you then express "were supposed to"? I ask bc that's what I meant up there.

[long whale]

She first says "Ich bin sehr sprunghaft - ich bin der unentschiedenste Mensch auf dem Planeten" (am very changeable, am the most undecided person on the planet), and then she illustrates that by talking about her hair, that one day, she wants to cut it (schneiden), the next day she wants it long again, then she wants to move to Berlin. 🤷

"were supposed to" = sollten is fine; if it didn't happen: "hätten sollen". And btw, it's "das Thema (Akk) wechseln", or "vom Thema abweichen", not a mixture of these. :)

[icy flax]

Danke dir :)
Aufgeschrieben!

👊 @long whale

[summer crystal]

Is this sentence correct?

...und traute weder mochte die Königstochter nicht.

[brisk crest]

Depends on how the sentence begins. Isnt incorrect right now.

[summer crystal]

The complete sentence is:

Aber nach die Hochzeit fand die Königstochter heraus, dass die Mutter des Königs eine sehr böse Frau war und traute weder mochte die Königstochter nicht.

[fallen galleon]

nach der Hochzeit denke ich

da nach den dativ regiert

[brisk crest]

Aber nach DER Hochzeit fand die Königstochter heraus, dass die Mutter des Königs eine sehr böse Frau war und traute weder mochte die Königstochter nicht.

(Correct but a little bit confusing when it gets to the meaning. Is the kings mother not trusting nor liking the kings daughter? Or is it the other way around)

[summer crystal]

Danke! And throughout the tale she is referred simply as "Königtochter", so inside the context of the whole text it's not so confusing.

And is "nach" being used here as a conjunction? Because I wrote "die Hochzeit" as I assumed it was being used as an adverb.

[willow socket]

it's a preposition

nach der Hochzeit = after the wedding

nach is always used with dative

nachdem is a conjunction.

kinda like with 'vor' vs. 'bevor'

[long whale]

This doesn't make any sense at all. :)

It's "weder... noch..." (neither... nor..." -> the "noch"-part is missing. Then, it's "jemandem trauen", therefore, the indirect object is missing.

[fervent kernel]

Hallo! Eine freundin, die nur Deutsch spricht, hat mir geschrieben:

"Vielleicht können wir auch schon den Anfang, na… na… na…? "

Aber ich verstehe nicht was das bedeutet. Could you help me? 😄

[whole portal]

Well context is required as usual

[fervent kernel]

The context is that I'm about to go visit her

[whole portal]

But if you directly translate it, it means "Maybe we can already [not specified] the Beginning, na?

[fervent kernel]

Ah, so I think the sentence wasn't over yet, but the question mark tricked me 😆

[whole portal]

Na is hard to translate, I think in this context it means what do you think but it could also be just hey/how are you

[fervent kernel]

Okay I think now I get it... thanks a lot! 😁

[steel walrus]

Hallo Leute, quick question guys. Is "Nimm die Kiste und lege sie unter den Tisch" a good translation for "grab the box and put it under the table"? or does it sound unnatural?

[delicate tiger]

besser: legen -> stellen

[steel walrus]

so i should replace lege with stelle? sorry, i don't know the difference 😅

[long whale]

legen = to lay; stellen = to put upright. German's a lot more specific in this instance than English. For example, you'd have great difficulty in putting a pen or a newspaper in an upright position (unless you put them in some sort of holder), right? So, you'd have to use "legen" for those. For things which would usually be put in an upright position, like a glass, a chair or a box, you'd use "stellen". Does that help?

[steel walrus]

Yes 😁 a lot. Thank you, that's a really good explanation.

[ancient kernel]

Unterschied zwischen Weit und Breit?

[whole portal]

Weite steht für Distanz.

Weit in Englisch wäre far.

Breit ist hingegen die Dicke, Ausdehnung einer Sache.

[ancient kernel]

Danke

[summer crystal]

Verstanden, danke! And by "indirect object" you mean just switching to "der"?

[icy flax]

Jein, Töchter is plural, then, "den". She said that "treuen" requires dativ (she called it indirect object).

Ich traue den Königstöchtern
Ich traue die Königtöchter

[long whale]

Yes, trauen requires Dativ: Ich traue der Königstochter, Ich traue den Königstöchtern (in the original sentence, it was Tochter (singular)) @icy flax@summer crystal

[long whale]

No, I didn't just mean "switching". You've got 2 verbs here, 1 of which requires Dativ, 1 of which requires Akkusativ. Both need an object. You can't just drop one (as you could in English). 🤷

[tepid saffron]

"So I just need to now, are frau and fraulein the same. Also is there an alternative to herr for sir/mister" (Asking for a friend)

[long whale]

No, they aren't. The "Fräulein" died out together with the English "Miss". "Frau" means woman, wife and Ms (Ms Müller = Frau Müller), and there is no alternative to "Herr" which corresponds to "Mr".

[proven sphinx]

German sure loves using just one word for what English uses several words. Well, there are cases where it's the opposite, such as "wall", which is both "Wand" and "Mauer" in German.

[long whale]

Please tell your friend both capitalization of nouns and the little dots aren't optional, they're part of German orthography.@tepid saffron

[fervent kernel]

Do you if Fräulein would’ve been used in the 40s

[stoic dirge]

Just write things like this: das Ma:dchen, die Ha:nde, die Sto:cke

[delicate tiger]

no, don't (it can be hard to tell that you're joking with just text)

[fervent kernel]

Hah thanks

And does frauchen have any of the dots and stuff?

[fallow ledge]

Adding chen and lein usually results in a vowel change

Hund -> Hündchen

But Fräuchen isnt a word

[whole portal]

Frauchen is tho

[fervent kernel]

Oh…. My friend it was oops

[fervent kernel]

Oh

[delicate tiger]

("das Frauchen" is, "female dog owner")

[fallow ledge]

Omg its is

[whole portal]

Or an old Lady like a Mütterchen

[fervent kernel]

Like a b*tch?

[whole portal]

No, the one who owns the dog

Not the dog

[fervent kernel]

Oh

My friend said frauchen was a condescending way of saying Ms. I assume that’s wrong?

[long whale]

It can't be combined with a last name the way "Frau" can, no Frauchen Müller. But it is indeed a condescending way to talk about a woman (unless it's in the sense of "animal owner", in which case "Herrchen" works as well, for a man).

[fervent kernel]

Okay ty

[long whale]

Yes, it was used until about 1970.

[proven sphinx]

Older people still use it sometimes, but it's usually met with eyerolls by younger women.

[fervent kernel]

Hahah

[devout condor]

wait fraulein is no longer used?

[whole portal]

Fräulein is more used in an satirical way

Like your mom would call you that when you havent cleaned your room

[devout condor]

oh wow i never knew that

then again im only a beginner and that's why i joined

[whole portal]

Yea dw everyone starts at some point

[devout condor]

what's the proper term that is taken seriously then?

[fervent kernel]

My mom would be calling me this a lot

[whole portal]

What exact term are you looking for

[devout condor]

well, the equivalent of señorita or miss

[whole portal]

I am not sure what these are tbh

You'd probably just say Frau X

[devout condor]

so just Frau will do

[swift bough]

Yeah if you put Frau before a name it means „Miss“

[whole portal]

Frau and Herr

[devout condor]

danke danke

[devout condor]

are german numbers easy to learn?

[whole portal]

Well

We got some weird twist that fucks even me as a native up sometimes

167 is Einhundertsiebenundsechzig

One hundred seven and sixty

So the 1 comes before the 10 for some weird ass reason

But besides that it's easy I'd say

[plain umbra]

Yeah, it's not one of those languages that has weird, random patterns for numbers.

It's all pretty much consistent.

[whole portal]

quatre vingt dix neuf

[plain umbra]

It's basically the same as English, in terms of difficulty.

They have almost the same structure for numbers (German and English, I mean).

[whole portal]

Ah

One thing

German uses the long scale

Millionen
Milliarden
Billionen
Billiarden
Trillionen
Trilliarden

English uses the short scale

Million
Billion
Trillion
Quadrillion
Quintillion
Sextillion

[devout condor]

im scared

[swift bough]

In English it’s not even any worse, it’s just that we don’t make it into one word. „One hundred (and) sixty seven“ is pretty much just as long too.

[devout condor]

yeah that's true

[woeful cedar]

Arabic numbers ftw

I've heard french numbers were the worse though

[thick helm]

French numbers are easy

[swift bough]

French numbers apparently just don’t make sense because you’re doing math while counting or something

[wheat bolt]

Hi

Guys

Wuts everyone doin

[plain umbra]

@wheat bolt Sorry but casual conversation needs to go in one of the general discussion channels like #general.

[alpine wharf]

Hi,
so for you to pass the C1 test for example you need to know like 16k words.
my question is how am i supposed to know how many words do i know??

[plain umbra]

You can't really know an exact count but I would say that rather than worrying about how many you know, just read a bunch of C1-rated texts and see how many words you come across that you don't know.

[alpine wharf]

ok ty

can you recommend me some resource for reading such text?

online ones

[proven sphinx]

In der Westschweiz und in Belgien sagt man dazu "nonante-neuf", was definitiv viel mehr Sinn ergibt.

[long whale]

Just googling "deutsch text C1" will get you lots of results. Since at C1 you're supposed to understand pretty much any text the average (!) German native speaker would understand, you're unlikely to come across a lot of texts which would give you a wrong impression of your abilities, I'd say. :)

[proven sphinx]

If at C1 you're supposed to understand any text the average German native speaker would understand, what is C2 then? Understanding a text an educated German native speaker would understand?

I just know that looking at the texts they tend to choose for the C2 exam, they're pretty complicated, though by no means all that hard for a native speaker to understand. But even as a native speaker, you need to read very carefully.

[summer crystal]

Sorry for the delay! Is this better?

...und weder traute der Königstochter noch mochte sie.

[long whale]

Better, but still incorrect. You'd have to say: ... und weder traute sie (die Stiefmutter) der Königstochter, noch mochte sie (die Stiefmutter) sie (die Königstochter). :)

You see, both "trauen" and "mögen" require a subject and an object each.

@summer crystal

[summer crystal]

Even if the subject has been stated before?

[long whale]

Mm... you'd have to be careful about your construction. I think you'd need to re-phrase: "Die Stiefmutter war eine böse Frau und traute ihr (der Stieftochter) weder, noch mochte sie sie." would work. But if you put "weder" after the "und", the subject would be necessary, because und weder traute ihr, noch... is definitely not possible, grammar-wise. 🤷

[modest cedar]

Kann man auf Deutsch einfach sagen "Ich denke an dich", so, mitgefühlend?

[long whale]

"mitfühlend" (no -ge-), you mean? Hmm... I'd say it's more of a romantic thing a lover would say. 🤔

[fallen stratus]

wo kann man lernen umganssprache auf deutsch

oder ein dialekte

?

[modest cedar]

also zum Beispiel wenn man leidet an eine Krankheit? Wie würdest du es sagen?

nicht sehr persönlich, aber auch nicht zu formell

und ja, mitfühlend 🙂

[long whale]

*wenn man an einer Krankheit leidet (word order)

[long whale]

What I'd say would be "Ich drücke dir die Daumen, damit es dir bald wieder besser geht/damit du bald wieder gesund wirst" Other native speakers might have different ideas, maybe? But "Ich denke an dich" isn't really what comes to mind, at least not to mine.

[modest cedar]

aber du würdest nicht so sagen, wenn die Krankheit ziemlich ernst ist, oder?

[long whale]

Yikes. Oof. Difficult. On the other hand, the version with "besser geht" would still be okay, I suppose. Unless the person were actually on their deathbed. In which case... but "Ich denke so oft an dich" still feels kind of... intimate. 🤷

Is it about writing a card?

[modest cedar]

for instance, yeah

[long whale]

If the person can be expected to die pretty soon, I'd probably just write "Mit meinen besten/allerbesten Wünschen, [insert name]". Not exactly what you were hoping for, I suppose, but I guess most language lack the appropriate vocabulary for such a case. 🤷

[willow socket]

It somehow feels sarcastic after so much discussion about their immanent demise 😂

[modest cedar]

:))

yeah...

[long whale]

🤷

[ancient kernel]

"Er muss sich nicht an die Regeln halten"

Ich weiß das "Er" ist das Subjekt

halten das Prädikat

die Regeln das direkte Objekte

muss sich nicht <- ?

[icy flax]

(ich glaub, "muss sich nicht an die Regeln halten" ist das Prädikat)

muss = Nebenverb/Hilfsverb/Nicht-Vollverb
halten = Hauptverb/Vollverb

sich = Reflexive Pronomen
nicht = Adverbien von Negation

[ancient kernel]

makes sense

[whole portal]

sich ist ein ähh Akkusativobjekt?

[ancient kernel]

?

[whole portal]

Wen oder was muss er nicht an die Regeln halten? Sich.

Funktioniert das so? xd

Keine Ahnung, wo Reflexivpronomen dazugehören

[icy flax]

syntaktisch, schon. Ich hab die grammatikalische Klasse erwähnt ;P

[mellow viper]

als vs. als wenn vs. als ob?
Nach dem, was ich gesehen habe, sind sie gleich.

[swift bough]

Nein, gleichzusetzen sind sie leider nicht.

„Als“ wird benutzt um zwei Sachen (nämlich zwei Gegenstände, Orte, oder Personen) zu vergleichen.
Zum Beispiel:
Sie ist hübscher als ihre beste Freundin.

„Als wenn“ wird benutzt um zwei Handlungen zu vergleichen.

„Im Grunde nicht anders, als wenn man mit der rechten Hand darüber streicht.“

„Als ob“ ist mit „als sei/wäre/hätte/würde“ gleichzusetzen. Aber es kann auch halt eine Interjektion sein.
„Als ob!“

Du siehst so aus, als ob dich jemand gerade krankenhausreif geschlagen hätte.

Oder

Du siehst so aus, als hätte jemand dich gerade krankenhausreif geschlagen.

Die zwei Sätze sind gleichbedeutend

[mellow viper]

Achso, wenn sie mit den Wörtern "sei", "wäre", und "hätte" sind, sind "als ob" und "als" gleich, aber mit einer anderen Wortstellung?

[swift bough]

Bei einer der Konstruktionen wird das „Ob“ halt weggelassen, aber das heißt nicht, dass „als ob“ und „als“ gleich sind.

[mellow viper]

Ich verstehe, dass sie nicht das gleiche Wort sind. "Ich sehe ihn als ob Freund." ist kein richtiger Satz.

[swift bough]

Dann habe ich wohl nicht verstanden was du mit der letzten Nachricht gemeint hast.

[mellow viper]

Aber, wenn ich korrekt verstehe, sind diese Sätze grammatikalisch richtig:
"Ich sehe ihn als ob er ein Freund wäre."
"Ich sehe ihn als wäre er ein Freund."
Aber dieser Satz ist nicht:
"Ich sehe ihn als wenn er ein Freund wäre."

[swift bough]

Zuallererst: du hast es wortwörtlich übersetzt. Man sagt das nicht wirklich im Deutschen also „ich sehe ihn als einen Freund“. Ne. Man sagt „Ich halte ihn nur für einen Freund“ oder „Ich betrachte ihn als nur einen Freund von mir“.

Du könntest sagen „ich sehe ihn an, als wäre er ein Freund (von mir)“

[mellow viper]

Ich werde... mir ein Bier holen. Und mache eine laaaange Pause.

[swift bough]

Lol

Bedenk auch mal; das was ich dir gerade erklärt hab ist bloß laut meiner eigenen Erfahrung. Es könnte irgendwelche geben, die so was schon sagen, und dann eher wie einen Anglizismus, aber ich habe persönlich nie so was gehört. @mellow viper

Aber gönn dir safe ein Bier, das tut einem gut

[swift bough]

(Ich wollte mal nachgucken und das gibt es lustigerweise laut dict.cc anscheinend, aber ich stoße irgendwie nie drauf)

[onyx rain]

Das Auto rennt durch die Straße
I wanted to say - The car is running through the street or maybe racing through the street

[whole portal]

I don't think that would work in english either

A car cant run it has no legs

Specifically for cars there would be the word „brettern“.

Driving would just be fahren

Rasen would also work good

[swift bough]

Yeah I would not use running either

But racing is fine

[delicate tiger]

(naja, "der Kühlschank läuft"/"the fridge is running" funktioniert in beiden Sprachen, aber natürlich nicht in diesem Kontext)

[onyx rain]

Das Auto rast durch die Straße ? Geht das?

[whole portal]

Straße__n__