Hot answers tagged adverbs
20
Willkürlich has two different meanings:
bewusst, vom eigenen Willen gesteuert (voluntary, deliberately)
This one is the exact opposite of unwillkürlich (involuntary).
The second meaning,
auf Willkür beruhend (arbitrary)
is rather different, because the word "Willkür" has shifted in meaning over the years. It used to mean doing something of your ...
13
Mixing them up is a common mistake. In fact so common that the Duden decided to add the definition of "anscheinend" to "scheinbar", too. It's marked as "selten", though.
"Anscheinend" is used if something looks like it is the case. "Es hat den Anschein."
Er schläft anscheinend.
You think he is sleeping.
"Scheinbar" is used if you know something is ...
13
In my feeling, vorhin might be a bit longer ago than eben. If something happened in the immediate past (a few seconds ago), then you can say eben but not vorhin to express this. Moreover, eben sounds a bit more colloquial than vorhin to me. A less colloquial word is gerade, which can also express the immediate past.
Another thing is that eben has a lot more ...
13
Erst is used to describe a temporal order, i.e. to denote that something happens first, and something else afterwards.
A second usage pattern of erst is indeed close to only, in cases where it is used to show that so far, something has happened not very often, but this is intended to be changed.
Your examples:
He only went there to see the museum. - Er ...
13
There is no difference between the two forms in meaning, and they are interchangeable in usage. The dictionary typically even lists them as "gern(e)" rather than as separate entries.
The original form from Old High German down through Middle High German, as Duden and others indicate, was "gerne". The form "gern" is just an example of how often the final ...
12
Keiner der beiden Begriffe ist falsch. Sie bedeuten im Wesentlichen dasselbe, auch wenn sie nicht beliebig austauschbar sind.
grammatikalisch: ausschließlich die Grammatik betreffend
grammatisch: zusätzlich der Grammatik gemäß
Näheres hier.
12
Both are correct. To me, Ich esse gerne Pizza hints at a question like Was ist Dein Lieblingsessen, whereas Ich esse Pizza gern would be more appropriate as an answer to Magst Du Pizza? That is, I would put the important word (the one carrying new information) at the end of the phrase.
11
Both examples come from a contraction of two words into one evolving from Middle High German:
draußen - mhd. dār ūʒenDuden
or, in your other example from
droben - dort obenDuden
Examples where both variants coexist are
dran - daran, drüber - darüber, drum - darum, drauf - darauf [...]
9
Schlecht is a word that means bad, not good, poor in a fairly neutral way - it's simply the opposite of good. Schlimm can also mean all those things, but carries connotations of something being threateningly wrong or having serious consequences.
The English word "bad" can have both connotations, the neutral "not good" or the "uh oh, this is bad" one, so it ...
9
DE-A: Ich habe mir einen neuen Hartschalenkoffer gekauft.
EN-A: I bought a new hard-shell suitcase.
DE-B: Ich habe mir dann einen neuen Hartschalenkoffer gekauft.
(Here dann/then is an adverb used to denote a point in time or a conjunctive with antecedent implied.)
EN-B: I then bought a new hard-shell suitcase.
DE-C1: Ich habe mir dann ...
8
I think the two words are synonyms with the exact same meaning.
Maybe there is a situation I'd prefer "eben": when I want to emphasize that somehting suddenly, maybe unpredictedly has changed:
Eben noch funktionierte es.
Eben war er noch da.
Which contains an element of surprise. Also, not much time has passed since the situation has changed. The ...
8
Da is either a conjunction connecting the main clause with a causal clause or it is an adverb.
As a conjunction Duden defines three different usages one of which is archaic. The other two usages are quite common. First it has the meaning of because, since as in
Diese Frage ist einfach für mich, da Deutsch meine Muttersprache ist.
(This questions is ...
7
Generally, if 'hier', 'da' and 'dort' are used to designate place of varying distance, then
- 'hier' refers to closest proximity
- 'da' refers to a larger distance from the speaker
- 'dort' indicates largest distance.
Imagine you talk to someone within an interesting park full of interesting features.
'Hier stand die alte Mauer der Stadt, da war der ...
6
The adverb droben is a short form of "dort oben". It's contracted for "daroben" which is not used anymore. The word "droben" itself isn't very commonly used in everyday language though.
draußen is a popular adverb, meaning outside or outdoors. I'm not sure, but it could also have its origin from the word "dort" (in combination with außen) or as Takkat ...
6
"Eigentlich" ist nicht Umgangssprache. Es gibt je nach Situation einem Satz eine andere Betonung, eine andere Note.
Die Behauptung, man könne das Wort einfach weglassen (reines, überflüssiges Füllwort), ist so nicht haltbar. Schauen wir uns den ersten Satz an:
Eigentlich sollten Sie diese Arbeit doch schon bis gestern erledigt haben.
Er läßt sich ...
6
There is no difference in semantics only in phonetics.
I have desire burning for you.
I have a burning desire for you.
Just a more elaborate way of saying things. Also sounds more old fashioned to say:
Er liebte sie immer noch. <-- past tense --> he still loved her
Er liebt sie noch immer. <-- present progressive --> he loves ...
6
Der Frage-Aussage-Ansatz führt m.E. in die Irre:
Dort, wo ich herkomme, kann man „wo“ ohne Weiteres auch in einen Aussagesatz einbauen.
Der Duden kennt zwei „wo“:
wo als Konjunktion, synonym zu da / zumal:
warum hast du das gesagt, wo du doch weißt, wie empfindlich er ist (Duden-Originalbeispiel)
Interessanterweise nennt noch das Grimm'sche ...
6
Du hast recht: Beide Sätze sind richtig.
Allerdings liegt der Fokus beim Satz
Die Kinder sind fröhlich, weil die Ferien heute beginnen.
eher auf der Tatsache, dass sie eben genau heute beginnen. Durch diesen Satzbau wirkt es für mich als Leser so, als sei das Temporaladverb der wichtige Teil.
Die Kinder sind fröhlich, weil heute die Ferien ...
5
Zum Stil: das ist natürlich immer sehr subjektiv.
Richtig ist wohl, dass "zeitnah" vor allem im "Business-Deutsch" verwendet wird.
Dieses Projekt sollten wir möglichst zeitnah angehen.
Ob man das jetzt als wichtigtuerisch empfindet oder nicht, liegt dann an an der eigenen Einstellung gegenüber dieser Branche bzw. deren Repräsentanten.
Allerdings ...
5
With nur one points to the state in which things are; with erst the emphasis lies on the point when things change or the progress in general.
– Ich habe nur zwei Kekse übrig. — I only have two biscuits left and their amount is not going to increase.
– Ich habe erst zwei Kekse übrig. — I only have two biscuits left but I’m expecting to get more of them.
The ...
5
Präsens: In wenigen gesprochenen Situationen, um anzudeuten, dass das Gegenüber das vermutlich gleich sagen wird , aber nicht soll:
Weißt du, wer im neuen Harry Potter stirbt?!?
Bisher weiß ich das nicht! *bös schau*
Perfekt: Die übliche gesprochene Form, nachdem man die Sache jetzt erfahren hat.
Präteritum: Dasselbe schriftlich.
...
5
First of all it is important to point out that we are talking about a nuance here.
So AFAIK there is no written rule about it.
I think you're right with you're assumption that "noch immer" can have a slightly negative touch.
If a context or an opinion on the subject is given in the same sentence or a preceding one there is no difference between the two.
...
5
Correct are
Ich mag gern(e) Schnee.
(without the der, if you want to place an article there, it would be den, but it's ugly)
Ich trinke gern(e) Kaffee.
Ich will gern(e) nach Deutschland in den Urlaub fahren.
or
Ich will gern(e) in den Urluab nach Deutschland fahren.
(but the first solution is way better).
Generally, gerne is lovelier ...
5
Q1: Ja es gibt so eine Grenze: In Österreich werden häufig Wörter mit -s am Ende verwendet, was in Deutschland als ungrammatikalisch gelten würde. Zum Beispiel heißt es in Österreich "weiters", in Deutschland aber "weiterhin", wobei das eine andere Bedeutung hat als "weiter". Ähnliche Unterschiede gibt es auch bei -s- als Fugenlaut. In Deutschland sagt man ...
5
I wouldn't trust this TeKaMoLo rule too much. It is often "wrong". If anything, it is good advice but I can write down pages and pages and pages of examples where it does not apply.
So it is not a rule that is broken. It is a "most likely" scenario.
Generally, German word order follows this rule: "The more relevant the later"
You can replace immer with ...
5
The function of adverbs is to qualify verbs, adverbs or - as in this example - adjectives. Adverbs do not have any inflection.
If original would be an adjective, describing the noun, only then this word had to be adapt to indicate number, case etc.
That said, originales Eis would describe Eis as original which, obviously, is not what this sentence intend to ...
4
There is in my opinion a very simple rule of thumb:
use schlimm if something feels bad, affects you emotionally in a very negative sense
use schlecht to judge objectively something which doesnt affect you emotionally, like grade.
A teacher would say objectively to a mother:
Ihr Sohn hat schlechte Noten und fällt eventuell durch.
while the mother ...
3
There is no difference in meaning between the three options. Google Ngrams Viewer shows that warum is the most commonly used word in questions:
Among the "answer" words, "deshalb" is the most used term. The usage of darum/deshalb/deswegen:
3
The positioning of adverbs in a sentence can be tricky as the word order is quite specific in German. If you place an adverb (or an adverbial phrase) at the beginning of the sentence, then the predicate (verb) must come next followed immediately by the subject of the clause (inverted word order).
Leider kenne ich sie nicht.
Unfortunately I don't know ...
Only top voted, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible
