What is the difference between bauen and erbauen?
I mean, semantically. Or can they be used interchangeably?
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Sign up to join this communityNo. Erbauen means rather to erect and bauen, to build and I can't think of better examples as those given by @Em1 in the comments.
Rom wurde auch nicht an einem Tag erbaut
Often the prefix er means the prefix "re" in English; however I think that one has to learn each verb separetly (I mean, the verb alone and with prefix), because the meanings of the verbs er+verb
are not always guessable. The link above exhibits the pairs
- trinken and ertrinken, which mean to drink and to drown=drink repetitively to death
- zählen and erzählen, to count and to re-count
- kennen and erkennen, to know and recognize.
erbaut
nur für Immobilien benutzt wird, bin mir dessen aber nicht sicher. Lokomotiven, Joints und Software werden gebaut, aber nicht erbaut. Außerdem gibt es noch das Adjektiv(?):Ich bin erbaut von Virginis Lächeln.
welches ich auch mitwohlgestimmt, hochgestimmt, aufgemuntert
übersetzen würde.