Hot answers tagged word-usage
24
There are already good answers to the question, but I would like to add a slightly more general one.
The word "doch" is in this context an example of a modal particle. These are words that are added to a sentence to convey mood or emphasis. They have no grammatical purpose so the sentence you get by removing the particle is always a proper sentence. But you ...
18
This comes from the fact that newborn do have blue eyes, without exception. Since newborn are obviously unacquainted with everything, blauäugig sein means to be naive, unexperienced and credulous.
Here is a quite good explanation which points out:
Blauäugig sein bezieht sich also auf die Unbedarftheit eines Kleinkindes.
17
I bet this is very subjective and fuzzy but by my definition it would be something like this:
up to about 10 am is Morgen
until noon (12 o'clock sharp) it's Vormittag
12 till 1 or maybe 2 pm is Mittag
until 5 or 6 pm it's Nachmittag
after that it's Abend until about 10 pm
after that it's Nacht
I think especially the transitions from Morgen to Vormittag ...
17
One possibility would be to form complete sentences. This can convey to your conversation partner that this conversation is important enough for you to give up some more of your precious time in order to be polite/correct.
In this example, I would say:
"Ich hätte gerne drei Brötchen und einen Kaffee."
Also, "bitte", "danke", "guten Tag" and "auf ...
17
I think if it's obvious that you're not his girlfriend from the context you can write
Deine Freundin Brittany
Especially when "Freundin" is used with a name it commonly denominates platonic friendships.
Tom: "Meine Freundin studiert Geschichte." (girlfriend)
Tom: "Meine Freundin Anja studiert Geschichte." (friend)
17
"halb links"/"halb rechts" means that you need to turn left or right, but at an angle of less than 90°. I'd say "halb rechts" is roughly between 20° to 60°.
The angles I provide assume that 0° is straight ahead: you deviate 0° from the straight line.
For example, if you come towards a fork in the road with one road going (almost) straight ahead and another ...
15
Essen: if you are talking about the food of a particular meal in an ordinary setting.
Das Essen ist fertig. (Dinner/lunch is ready.)
Lebensmittel: refers to food as goods you can buy and sell, as in food production or food prices.
Die Lebensmittelpreise sind überdurchschnittlich stark angestiegen.
Speise: refers to a particular dish, as in my ...
15
Generally, those cover two different aspects:
Leiche/Leichnam are used to refer to the dead body. "Die Leiche wurde aus dem Autowrack geborgen."
Der Tote/die Verstorbene is used to refer to the person, that has died. "Der Verstorbene war ein guter Freund von mir".
I'm not aware of any major difference in meaning between Leiche and Leichnam, they are ...
15
The Council of Europe made great efforts to define language skill levels. From this the three classic divisions basic, intermediate, and advanced are further elaborated to give us six levels of skill.
The detailed definitions given (see link above) can roughly be translated as follows
Proficient User C1 C2 Verhandlungssicher
Independent User B1 B2 ...
15
Welcome to GL&U!
"Entschuldigen" is the verb form.
"Entschuldigung" is the noun form.
EDIT--additional information:
If you are asking about the difference between "das Entschuldigen" and "die Entschuldigung", then this has to do with a grammar rule rather than just a dictionary entry definition.
"Das Entschuldigen" is an example of a gerund ...
15
Die Seitenbezeichnungen sind exakt so, wie Du es bei Dir selbst sagen würdest:
Meine rechte Hand schmerzt = Der Patient hat Schmerzen in der rechten Hand.
Grundlage ist die anatomische Nomenklatur, in der Seitenangaben aus der Sicht des Körpers definiert sind.
14
To match the English (as I understand it) as closely as possible (including the "tone") I'd suggest forgetting any literal attempt...
I would expect to hear "Wow, that was random" from someone rather young (under 40 maybe?) who just saw or heard something odd, but also if he experienced some unusual social behaviour (e.g. someone jostled him and then ...
14
english "to stop" is in german "anhalten" (The server stopped - Der Server hielt an), but in context of a server I would prefere "ausfallen" (Der Server fiel aus).
Identify the server by its name:
english: The server mail.example.org stopped.
german: Der Server mail.example.org fiel aus.
No prepositions needed.
Identify the server by its place:
...
14
Sitt has been introduced by the Duden Verlag after some kind of contest about finding the drinking equivalent of satt.
You should not expect anyone to know what the word means. Most people use it either for fun, and I've absolutely never heard anyone it use it for real.
Duden, by the way, does not list it. I'm not sure if it ever did. As noted by Em1, ...
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
Es gibt im heutigen Deutschen keinen semantischen Unterschied zwischen den frei Frageadverbien (genauer: Kausalfrageadverbien) warum, weshalb und wieso. Die drei Wörter sind also Synonyme und somit beliebig miteinander austauschbar.
Wenn man sehr feinsinnig ist, könnte man im Ursprung der drei Wörter folgende Unterscheidung finden:
warum als Frage nach ...
13
Short answer: No.
Technical answer: If you really want to, you can use it.
Long answer:
The word is the winner of a contest held by the publishing house "Duden Verlag" and the soft drink manufacturer Lipton in 1999. The aforementioned (German) Wikipedia page tells us that it was included in "the Duden" (a popular orthographic dictionary of the German ...
12
Lebensmittel is the technical term. You would say "Ein Supermarkt verkauft Lebensmittel"; an official food inspector is called Lebensmittelkontrolleur.
Nahrung usually stands for nourishment or nutrition, not only referring to food, but also, for example, "Öl ist Nahrung für das Feuer" — "oil feeds the fire".
Essen is either the act of eating or the ...
12
According to Duden there are three meanings for German "die Queen":
britische Königin
(umgangssprachlich) weibliche Person, die in einer Gruppe, in ihrer Umgebung aufgrund bestimmter Vorzüge im Mittelpunkt steht
(Jargon) sich feminin gebender Homosexueller
By far the most used meaning is however Her Majesty The Queen of Britain. This can ...
12
Polite expressions are often complicated:
Drei Brötchen und einen Kaffee, wenn's keine Umstände macht.
Drei Brötchen und einen Kaffee, wenn Sie so freundlich wären.
Könnten Sie mir drei Brötchen und einen Kaffee bringen?
But you could always append a 'bitte'.
In a modern conversation, it is polite not to disturb your conversational partner ...
12
Tatsächlich ist es so, das die "Strippe" ursprünglich ein Wort für Strick, Kordel, Bindfaden, Riemen etc. ist. Dazu schreiben die Grimms
STRIPPE, f. , schlinge, schlaufe; riemen, strick, bindfaden. nd.
[...]
das in der bedeutung 'riemen; gedrehter strick, bindfaden' (s. u. 2) im 19. jh. vor allem von Berlin aus sich weiterverbreitete (s. Kluge-Götze ...
11
There's almost no difference, both verbs can be replaced by each other without a significant difference in meaning in most cases. So usually it isn't a mistake to use prüfen instead of überprüfen and vice versa.
To narrow down the slight difference: I would prefer überprüfen to prüfen if it's about verifying or double-checking a certain fact. However, if ...
11
Actually, wenn has more than just these two meanings but most times it is unambiguous. In context you will nearly always understand which one is meant.
Wenn ich zu deiner Party gehe, bringe ich einen Salat mit.
It's obviously that it is a condition because the subordinate clause is telling about what I'm gonna do if the part of the main clause will be ...
11
"Ehrlich" is about being honest, while "wirklich" is about being real. The difference in usage is practically the same as in English.
For example, someone can be real, but dishonest:
Er ist nicht ehrlich.
means "he is not honest", while
Er ist nicht wirklich.
would mean, that he's not real.
In the example you gave, "ehrlich?" also would ...
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
Ich soll das Buch lesen
means "I'm supposed to read this book", like when a teacher assigns you the book to read as your homework.
Ich sollte das Buch lesen.
can mean both "I should read this book", as in "all things considered, I really should...", and "I was supposed to read this book", as in "What was my homework for today? Oh, right, I was ...
10
"jemanden anrufen" is about the activity of picking up the phone and calling a number.
"mit jemandem telefonieren" is more about the actual conversation that is conducted on the phone (VoIP included).
"anrufen" is a very short activity, whereas "telefonieren" can last for anything from a few seconds to several hours.
Ich habe dich gestern mehrmals ...
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
Die beiden Wörter sind keineswegs Synonyme, auch wenn sie ähnlich klingen und wohl auch nicht immer richtig eingesetzt werden.
"Authentisieren" ist ein Fachbegriff aus der Rechtssprache und bedeutet, einen Sachverhalt rechtsgültig zu machen.
"Authentifizieren" wird auch in anderen Bereichen angewandt, wenn die Echtheit eines Sachverhalts bezeugt wird. Ein ...
10
Ich denke, die Phrase "Okay?" wird hier ähnlich genutzt wie ein langgezogenes "Jjaa?" und beinhaltet meist einen fragenden Gesichtsausdruck.
Es dient dazu, dem Gesprächspartner zu signalisieren, dass man das Gesagte zwar im Wortlaut verstanden hat (deshalb das bestätigende "okay" oder "ja"), aber noch mehr Informationen benötigt, um die vom Gesprächspartner ...
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