Hot answers tagged german-to-english
37
"Ich liebe dich" is stronger and more profound than "Ich habe dich lieb". The difference is hard, if not impossible, to translate to English, or only with some extra language acrobatics; but in German, there is indeed a difference.
"Ich habe dich lieb" is commonly used among somewhat close and beloved family members, such as towards ...
23
Deine Mudda is just an intentionally misspelled Deine Mutter (your mother) to phonetically mimic the pronunciation of this phrase by a low-educated street bully.
Joking viciously about your mother is an indirect way to insult you: if your mother is so bad, you seem to be even worse.
The typical jokes include some negative comparisons of smb's mother with ...
23
In addition to Alexander's answer, I would like to add that simply replying "Deine Mudda!" means something like "Get lost!". Of course, as with all youth slang, usage probably varies highly by region and even social circle.
This is shortened from a form of exchange often seen among adolescents:
"Du schuldest mir noch zehn Euro." - "Deine Mutter schuldet ...
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 ...
16
It basically tells your audience you like drinking Cognac. Whether or not that's bad is for you to decide.
Both "Jäckchen" and "Cognac-chen" are diminutive forms, of "Jacke" (jacket) and "Cognac", respectively. And they rhyme.
Both a jacket and Cognac would warm you up, hence the question about warmth.
The joke is that "Cognac-chen" sounds like a compound ...
13
"Ein Erlebnis" is something you experience, like an event:
Diese Reise war ein Erlebnis.
Ich habe letzte Nacht ein furchtbares Erlebnis gehabt.
It is from "erleben", which means to experience something. It typically describes exciting things. The mentioned voyage was definitely not boring. This does not necessarily mean it was good, though without ...
13
Someone is schön blöd by doing something stupid; though the person should/could have known better, or because of being stubborn. It's always his/her own fault. For example:
when you pay more for something than necessary because you are too lazy to walk a few meters.
when you let a great opportunity slip.
when you do more work than necessary.
when you lose ...
13
08/15 - "null-acht fünfzehn", sometimes sloppily pronounced "null-acht fuffzehn" - is a rather colloquial expression and means "nothing special, average, business as usual" like the English "run-of-the-mill."
You can use it with all kind of words, people, things, abstract concepts etc.
Other German words and expression meaning the same are
Allerwelts-...
...
13
The sentence plays with two meanings of verkehrt:
verkehrt as in Sie sind hier verkehrt! (You are wrong here!)
verkehrt as in Wir verkehren nicht mit diesen Leuten! (We do not keep company with these people!)
If you substitute the 1st one with falsch for example, the sentence would be easier to understand:
Selbst wer dort, wo alles falsch verkehrt, ...
12
The expression "08/15" is used in colloquial German to express that procedures or objects are on average or mediocre.
"Dieses Verfahren ist 08/15" - This procedure is pretty standard
The use of "08/15" goes back to world war I when for the first time all German soldiers had a standard machine gun of the type MG 08/15. Not only was this gun on average ...
11
Originally, "thou" was used if you were addressing a single person, whereas "you" was used for addressing more people. Thou was saved only for intimate or disrespectful uses. So really it was more like "thou" was the same as "du", and "you" was the same as "ihr."
Sources: Wikipedia's article about Thou
11
By using the suffix "-gerecht" we can build an adjective from a noun to expresses that something meets criteria for defined usage ("Etwas wird seiner Sache gerecht").
In a technical context from cast iron I would translate "Beanspruchung" with strain.
Thus "Beanspruchungsgerecht" would translate to something like: "to meet requirements for strain"
11
The word in question is probably räsonieren:
(bildungssprachlich) sich wortreich äußern, sich [überflüssigerweise] über etwas auslassen
(umgangssprachlich) seinem Unmut, seiner Unzufriedenheit durch [ständiges] Schimpfen Ausdruck geben
(veraltet) vernünftig reden, Schlüsse ziehen Duden
This means: to make wordy explanations, to argue, to ...
11
From a discussion on dict.leo.org:
Just over thirty kilometers.
When combined with something countable, gut means slightly more (it's opposite being knapp, which means slightly less).
10
"Pleasant" is too general for my taste. Dict.cc gives the words "comfortable" and "cozy", which are better translations in my opinion.
Note also that "Gemütlichkeit" not only describes an atmosphere but also a state of mind, something like "laziness" but not so strong.
By using the word for your work place, you essentially say that you have (and use) the ...
10
You're right with your assumption about the meaning.
It means that someone can not follow or does not understand a conversation or what it is about.
Another common subject on which this can be used is the plot of a movie or maybe a play or similar.
In this case the meaning is explained above, but can also include, that the plot isn't making sense to the ...
10
This "question" has been posted on at least three different sections of Stack Exchange (Spanish and French as well as German). I'm not sure whether it's a joke or a serious project. If it's intended seriously, then I must say that in my opinion it's hopeless.
To try to give the reason in one sentence: letters are not phonetically consistent in different ...
10
I guess the title alludes to Philippians 2,2, which reads in German:
dann macht meine Freude dadurch vollkommen, dass ...
The English Standard Version has:
complete my joy by ...,
so your translation is fine.
Grün's German publisher Herder translates the title as
Joy will be perfect
(see herder.de/foreign_rights) and informs us that ...
9
So is one of the most complicated words in German. The Grimm has dozens (if not hundreds) of pages (the link generator is somewhat broken - follow the link, search for "so", and click on the second "so" entry) on this word. "So" can be an adverb, a conjunction or a particle. Most of the uses are the adverb. From the chat:
Also, das deutsche und englische ...
9
Since the word is a noun, it's spelled
Kampfmittelbeseitigungsdienst
It's a group of specialists who are in charge of disposing explosive material. In English:
bomb disposal team
explosive ordnance disposal
The word is a combination of three nouns:
Kampfmittel: weapons (Kampf = fight, Mittel = resource)
Beseitigung: disposal
Dienst: service
...
9
Oh dear, this is one of those poor words that tend to get thoroughly violated in today's media, marketing and political speak.
Duden lists the following meanings:
(Technik) das Angesetzte; Verlängerungsstück
erstes sichtbares Zeichen; Spross, Anflug von etwas
a das Ansetzen
b Schicht, die sich angesetzt hat
(Anatomie) ...
9
Schau doch im englischen Wikipedia nach, dort steht:
The Metro environment will feature a new tile-based Start screen similar to the Windows Phone operating system. Each tile will represent an application, ...
Tile bei dict.leo.org führt wiederum zu Kachel, Fliese, Platte, Ziegel. Scheint also das gesuchte Wort zu sein.
9
Jungs, zieht euch warm an
The meaning is not a recommendation to wear warm clothes, it is something like "macht Euch auf 'was gefasst",
You can find some discussions on it at Leo:
sich warm anziehen
zieht euch warm an!
There was a question for an English translation of the meaning at wer-weiss-was.de
8
Chats are not representative for how to write words, of course, neither in German, nor in English or French. Like most other composite words, this is written in one word. Duden has an entry on it, with the meaning:
sich stellvertretend für andere, für deren als peinlich empfundenes Auftreten schämen
In English: If someone does something which makes you ...
8
I'd also interpret beanspruchungsgerecht as referring to the intensitivity of usage the object will be subject to.
The following quote suggests that load-dependent is a translation for beanspruchungsgerecht:
Verfahren zur Herstellung beanspruchungsgerecht verschleissfester, rotierend bewegter Draht-, Seil- und/oder Drahtseillaufflaechen, insbesondere ...
8
I never heard that in this way you conjecture. And I can hardly imagine that this is just regional.
Mensch is used as interjection, especially when you're surprised about something.
It means gosh, gee, ... LEO
Alternatively you can say Menschenskind(er). LEO AGAIN
Both sentence you give sounds odd to me. Maybe they fit in context, but I would use it ...
8
Yes, "no one may enter" is a correct interpretation.
In this context, the word "nein" does not mean "no" but is actually a shortened version of the hochdeutsch "hinein" (english: "in", "inside"). In this prayer, you can think of "darf niemand hier hinein kommen" to get the connection to the verb "to come in(side)" or "to enter".
This short version of ...
8
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 ...
7
There is the colloquial (youth language) expression
tote Hose
which means "nothing going on" or "off-time.", something that is lacking in energy.
For example
Gestern Abend war echt tote Hose in der Innenstadt.
Yesterday there was nothing going on downtown.
The literal translation is "dead trousers."
7
IATE, a european inter-institutional terminology database (“Inter-Active Terminology for Europe"), offers
Gesamtbetriebsrat: central works council
Betriebsrat (besides works council): works committee, employee committees
But i'm sure that "joint works council" as proposed by Takkat is a good match ,too!
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