4

I'm doing a German project where I need to write "It was a 14 hour trip there!".

Is the following translation equivalent?

Es war eine 14-Stunden-Reise dahin!

I'm struggling, for one, with Reise and Fahrt. What is the difference between the two words? For another, is dahin correct or should it be da.

Improve this question
5
  • I venture to say that the knowing the difference between reisen and fahren could help.
    – c.p.
    Commented Mar 31, 2017 at 0:07
  • To travel and to drive/go? Reise means journey/trip and Fahrt can also mean trip (as well as a drive). I'm mostly unsure about da vs. dahin.
    – Katenw
    Commented Mar 31, 2017 at 0:08
  • da is rather there, whilel dahin is in direction of, I would say.
    – c.p.
    Commented Mar 31, 2017 at 0:22
  • Thanks for the info! Would you say that dahin is used correctly in my sentence? Essentially in the sentence I'm saying it was a 14 hour trip in the direction of the city.
    – Katenw
    Commented Mar 31, 2017 at 1:42
  • 1
    Welcome to this site. For future question, narrow your questions down to one question, please. Also show why a dictionary (or Internet research) couldn't answer your question. Both your questions should easily be answered by a dictionary. Finally, this question also needs more context. As you realised yourself, trip can be synynom to journey and drive. We can't know what you meant to say. (But, in fact, once this is resolved, we're back to the dictionary.)
    – Em1
    Commented Mar 31, 2017 at 6:52

3 Answers 3

Reset to default
5

Everything of the following is perfect:

The use of dahin is not wrong, but only makes sense in a context with mentioned location, see below. Fahrt is used a bit more than Reise if the trip was in a car/bus or similar, but none of them is wrong:

(Car, etc.: generally Fahrt is the noun drive but also used with ship or balloon for example)
Es war eine 14-Stunden-Fahrt. or
Es war eine 14-stündige Fahrt.

(General: Reise is travel or journey)
Es war eine Reise von 14 Stunden. or
Die Reise [Fahrt/Der Flug] dauerte 14 Stunden.

(Plane: Flug is flight)
Es war ein 14-Stunden-Flug. or
Es war ein 14-stündiger Flug.

The use of dahin, merely a synonym to dorthin, is common only, if the location has been explicitly mentioned before- especially, if you want to emphasize the location, but isn't it the same with there?

Do you know to which city my boss forced me to drive? Istanbul!.

Then you can use:

Es war eine 14-stündige Fahrt dahin/dorthin.

or without that precondition:

Ich war in Istanbul. Es war eine 14-Stunden-Fahrt dahin !

Addition: Others brought up da instead of dahin. But da as dort is only used, if you are already there :

Ich flog erst über London und hatte einen 14-Stunden Aufenthalt da.

Ich hatte eine 14-stündige Reise da.

(The last one is unusual but would mean that you started another trip there where you arrived :-)

Improve this answer
2
  • Thank you very much! In my project I went to a place by plane so thank you for also including the flight option. Also, thank you for clarifying dahin for me.
    – Katenw
    Commented Mar 31, 2017 at 3:55
  • I just clarified and extended the answer even a bit more.
    – Philm
    Commented Mar 31, 2017 at 8:04
2

"It was a 14 hour trip there!".

https://translate.google.com/?sl#auto/de/trip --> Trip = Ausflug

Ausflug is literally a usually short excursion or flying out.

It usually implicates a return on the same day.

So if you want to imply that this was not a short excursion but a long one you can say.

Unser Ausflug dahin hat 14 Stunden gedauert!

Improve this answer
2
  • Werde ich dafür bezahlt? ;)
    – DisplayName
    Commented Apr 24, 2017 at 9:40
  • 1
    Nö, wirst Du nicht, ich aber auch nicht und ich hatte keine Lust, das auseinanderzusortieren. Jetzt sieht's besser aus. Danke.
    – Takkat
    Commented Apr 24, 2017 at 9:52
1

"Da" refers to location. "Dahin" refers to destination. (And as one of the other posters pointed out, you need to specify the destination before using "dahin.")

Reise literally means "travel" or "journey" rather than "trip," but it is close enough that you can say, "Es war eine 14-Stunden-Reise dahin!"

As a third poster pointed out, a another translation for "trip" is "Ausflug" but that basically refers to a short "trip." I prefer your translation, above.

Improve this answer

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge you have read our privacy policy.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.