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| bio | website | |
|---|---|---|
| location | Munich. Germany | |
| age | ||
| visits | member for | 1 year, 10 months |
| seen | Dec 20 '11 at 20:52 | |
| stats | profile views | 24 |
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Oct 25 |
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Which adjectives can be used in connection with “Chuzpe”? Huh, I'd never heard that before. Interesting. |
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Oct 5 |
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Ursprung von “Nicht verzagen, … fragen” Es gibt eine Fernsehserie aus 1964 namens "Nicht verzagen - Stangl fragen", aber ich weiß nicht, ob das der Ursprung dieser Redewendung ist, oder nur eine bekannt Redewendung als Titel verwendet wurde. |
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Oct 5 |
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Wie funktioniert “Das König der Biere”? Es ist auch eine Anspielung auf Warsteiners Werbespruch, "Eine Königin unter den Bieren". |
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Oct 4 |
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What is the literal meaning of “Hau ab!”? @Takkat: edited my answer, hope that clears it up. Now why this particular word has a Latin prefix and not a Germanic one, I don't know either. |
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Oct 4 |
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What is the literal meaning of “Hau ab!”? I agree that it's stronger than "Geh weg", but I'd say "Go away" is still a pretty good translation. English doesn't seem to have as many nuanced ways to tell someone to leave. It goes directly from "Go away" to various vulgarities. |
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Oct 3 |
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Is it “als” or “wie” (or both) that is translated, “as”? Don't do that, though! My dialect (Bavarian) does this, but it is WRONG and HORRIBLE and WRONG. ;) |
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Sep 30 |
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Redewendung wenn man an ein fremdes Telefon gehen muss "Bei" ist Standard, aber erfahrungsgemäß wird es oft überhört - wenn man sich angewöhnt, immer den eigenen Namen dazuzusagen, kann man sich viel Verwirrung sparen. ("Ich hab bei Schmidt gesagt! Stop, ich bin nicht Schmidt!") |
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Sep 26 |
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Best way to address a business contact you're on a first name basis with in an email? @Jan It sounded sounded informal and clumsy to me, but since you and at least two other people apparently think it isn't, I might stick with that. You might want to turn this into an answer, and then we can see from the votes if it really is a popular option? |
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Sep 26 |
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Can “nochmal” be used in correct, formal German? Yeah, the news usually sound less like "spoken language" and more like "reading a written text out loud" - they use a lot of constructs that wouldn't sound natural in conversation. |
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Sep 20 |
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Why genitive pronoun “des” used with proper nouns? Good explanation! I disagree that "Die Leiden vom jungen Werther" sounds awkward because of the adjective, though - it's the combination of the very modern, highly colloquial von + dative construction and the very old-fashioned word "Leiden" that makes it sound weird. Something like "Was suchst du?" "Die Akte vom letzten Patienten." would sound completely natural, despite the adjective. |
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Sep 19 |
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What's a good translation for “outcome measures”? @elena: It sounded good to me at first, too, but I think I was confused because it sounded so much like the English metrics, which can be used that way, and I knew it was a valid German word - it took me a while to remember that as a German word it means a different thing. |
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Sep 11 |
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Possibilities in German to minimize a term? I edited my answer to be a bit more general. Someone else should probably add some more detail on how to know whether it's "-chen" or "-lein", or when to use an umlaut, because I actually don't know what the rules are there. |
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Sep 11 |
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“Schlimm” vs. “Schlecht”? @Hendrik: You're right, something more colloquial would probably sound more natural, but I think the parallel structure illustrates the point better. I figured the difference was confusing enough without also going into the finer pints of how schlimm can sound kind of old-fashioned or weird if you don't get it exactly right. |
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Sep 10 |
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What does the abbreviation “gem.” mean? @Hendrik: Yeah, it's not a great list, but at least it gives you some idea of what options there are. I tried to find a more comprehensive list, but had no success. Gem. is a very common abbreviation of gemäß, although I agree that it doesn't save much space. |
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Aug 30 |
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Expression for someone with very broad and detailed knowledge I suspect a lot of Germans wouldn't be familiar with that term. I've certainly never heard it used. |
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Aug 30 |
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What's a good translation for “awkward” in the context of “awkward person” or “awkward situation”? @Hendrik: I'd say "awkward" is pretty strong and somewhat hurtful when applied to a person, too. But of course you're right, it depends on the context. |
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Aug 27 |
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What's a good translation for “awkward” in the context of “awkward person” or “awkward situation”? I really like "linkisch" as a translation. |
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Aug 21 |
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Genitiv von “Hof von König Karl dem Vierten” Takkat, do you have a source for that? "Ich lebe auf dem Hof [des] Königs Karl des Vierten" sounds really wrong to me, like you're saying you're living on the court of the king of Karl the 4th, i.e. that the king and Karl are not the same person. But I can't back up my feeling with any grammar resources - I was hoping someone else would be able to. |
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Aug 21 |
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Genitiv von “Hof von König Karl dem Vierten” I can't explain it very well beyond "it just sounds right to me", unfortunately - I was really hoping someone would come in with a better explanation. The anon above is right, I think - König needs to be in the genitiv, but Karl der Vierte doesn't because it's not answering the "whose court?" question, it's answering "Who is the king?" I think. Sorry, this isn't very helpful. |
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Aug 17 |
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Is there a difference in colloquial/juristic use of “Jugendlicher/Teenager/Schulkind” in German? Both "7. Klasse" and "siebte Klasse" are quite common, but I've hardly ever seen "siebente Klasse," although it's grammatically correct. Might be a regional difference? I'm Bavarian. |
