How do I translate the following question:
The higher he climbed up the mountain the lower he could see the village.
I made up this example just to ask you how to make such a construction like the higher ... the lower in German.
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3To all close voters: This is not a translation request and it should not be tagged as such. The sentence was given as an example for us to get an idea where the OP struggles. It clearly says so.– TakkatMay 22, 2017 at 10:08
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2 Answers
We have two more options:
(1) Je höher er den Berg hinaufkletterte, umso tiefer (or: weiter unten) konnte er das Dorf sehen.
(2) Je höher er den Berg hinaufkletterte, je tiefer konnte er das Dorf sehen.
(2) is antiquated except for short locutions like
- je länger, je lieber
- je schneller, je besser
- je oller, je doller
answered May 22, 2017 at 10:10
Je höher er den Berg hinaufkletterte, desto tiefer konnte er das Dorf sehen.
It works the same way, but the first "the" becomes a "je", the second a ", desto".
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1Hi. I'm curious to find out why it is necessary to say "hoch" after using "höher"? May 21, 2017 at 21:45
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@Alone-zee first, I should have written it altogether, that was a mistake. Can't tell you exactly why, but I feel that "kletterte" alone wouldn't be sufficient to emphasize the direction. Probably the same reason why you would say: The higher he climbed up the mountain. But you are right, it also sounds redundant. "hinaufkletterte" would be a better solution. May 21, 2017 at 22:07
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Oh, thanks. In the case of "die Ärmel höher hochkrempeln", on the other hand, do you think it necessary to use both "höher" and "hoch-"? May 21, 2017 at 22:22
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@Alone-zee "hochkrempeln" is a verb in itself. If you use "krempeln" alone, you will be using a different verb, which might have other meanings (depending on the region in this case). Just like "passen" and "aufpassen" are different words. But here again you have the issue of redundancy, which is only an aesthetic problem rather than a grammatical one. A possible solution could be: die Ärmel etwas weiter hochkrempeln. May 22, 2017 at 1:05