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Is there a general rule to derive this sort of colloquial despective nouns:

  • schreiben → das Geschreibe
  • rennen → das Gerenne
  • schreien → das Geschrei

I wanted to form that from sing but Gesang already exists, and it means of course something else, and Gesänge sounds like its plural. On the other hand Sängerei is my best option, but not having this Ge-, common to the others, I'm not sure at all if it would be understandable.

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singen -> Gesinge is valid, exactly follows the pattern and style of your other examples while Gesang definitely lacks the despective aspect. So the rule appears to be: drop the -n, add the Ge-.

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    Found a semi-exception: essen does not become Geesse but Gegesse. Avoiding the awkward ee-collision. Heard Geesse in use, too, but it feels inferior to Gegesse. Besides that, have a good day :-)
    – hiergiltdiestfu
    Commented Apr 4, 2015 at 22:39
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    Zu Ge(g)esse: books.google.de/…
    – Carsten S
    Commented Apr 5, 2015 at 0:26
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    @MartinSchwehla That's right. I didn't typed, though. Google did it from Fraktur; I just Ctr-C+Ctr-V-ed, since I couldn't identify some of the verbs. Whence "sein kann" because not all f there are s.
    – c.p.
    Commented Apr 5, 2015 at 8:23
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    Nicht schlecht, ein produktives Paradigma, um abwertende Bedeutung auszudrücken. Diese Sprache und ihr Prophet (dieses Forum) erstaunen mich immer wieder.
    – Veredomon
    Commented Apr 5, 2015 at 13:39
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    Veredomon, Danke fürs Gekommentiere ;) ...Ok, ohne Witz: Was würde man ohne die folgenden Worte machen: das Getue, das Gerenne, ... Die sind echt lieb. Nicht notwendiegerweise Abwertend, jedoch kann man ein Ding nicht ein Schreiben nennen, wenn es nur Geschreibe war.
    – c.p.
    Commented Apr 5, 2015 at 16:45

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