Questions tagged [english]
For linguistical questions involving both the German and English language. For translation-oriented questions, please use [english-to-german] or [german-to-english] instead.
38
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Do Germans find the English phrase "it's giving [x]" confusing?
In German, there's a phrase "es gibt [x]" that is generally translated as "there is/are [x]" in English. (Or at least, that's what Duolingo has led me to believe.)
Recently, I've ...
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1
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176
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Is nutzen etymologically related to English “to use”? [closed]
Is the German verb “nutzen” etymologically related to the English verb “to use”? Before looking into it a little bit, I had guessed that they were related via a rebracketing thing, but then I learned ...
- 103
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How to express the idea of an object "stripped" of everything but the object itself, e.g. a stripped van or bed [closed]
I'm a native german speaker, but I'm struggling to find a usable translation for "stripped van". Is there german idiom similiar to the english stripped, in the sense of
strip
past tense: ...
- 141
3
votes
1
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Großschreibung Englischer (Unter-)Überschrift für deutsche Texte
Im Englischen gibt es eine Vielzahl von Großschreibweisen für Überschriften. Gelten die englischen Regeln auch, wenn man eine englische (Unter-)Überschrift für einen deutschen Text hat?
In meinem ...
3
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1
answer
138
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Wieso schreibt man "Numerus clausus" ohne Bindestrich?
Wenn man englische Worte eindeutscht, werde diese entweder mit Bindestrich ("Economy-Class") oder als zusammengesetzte Worte geschrieben ("Economyclass") [1]. Wieso wird "...
- 133
1
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2
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569
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What are the words for "Mathematische Umformung" and "Äquivalenzumformung" in English? [closed]
Not sure if I should ask this in German, English or Mathematics Stackexchange, but decided to ask here.
So I combed the Internet for the words "Mathematische Umformung" and "...
- 127
4
votes
3
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German word for "work-life balance"
First, I'd like to say this is my first time using German Language SE. I took the tour to learn a bit more about the scope before asking my first question, but if my question is off-topic, please let ...
- 141
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2
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Warum hat das deutsche Wort "Suggestion" eine ganz andere Bedeutung als das englische "Suggestion"? [closed]
Laut Duden trägt Suggestion die Bedeutung:
geistig-psychische Beeinflussung eines Menschen [mit dem Ziel, ihn zu einem bestimmten Verhalten zu veranlassen]
Obwohl das englische Wort "suggestion&...
- 1,118
4
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1
answer
264
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Herkunft des Wortes "eventuell"
Sind das Wort "eventuell" und das englische Wort "eventually" verwandt? Falls sie doch eine gemeinsame Abstammung haben, warum sind ihre Bedeutungen ganz anders?
Wenn nicht, was ist die Herkunft ...
- 1,118
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1
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English to German Question [closed]
Perhaps some of our German speakers can be of assistance. I want to name an iTunes playlist but I am unsure of the German translation.
If I want to say "Music for a Habsburg Day," would I say MUSIK ...
- 21
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2
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Do English and German languages share 60 % of their vocabulary?
The German language is different from the English language. Each language has its own words, sentences and grammar. However, I discovered from a website that the German and English languages share 60% ...
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1
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How is the idea of "girlfriend material" naturally expressed in German?
Elle n'est pas de l'étoffe dont on fait les copines...
{literally}: She's not of the material from which we make girlfriends.
То express the idea of "she's not (X)girlfriend material", &...
- 4,692
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3
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307
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"Why? - "No reason" auf Deutsch
Wenn man jemanden etwas fragt, und danach zurück gefragt wird mit
"Warum (hast du das gefragt)?"
wie soll man dann mit der Bedeutung des englischen "No reason" antworten?
Die direkte Übersetzung ...
user30446
2
votes
1
answer
366
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Englische Eigennamen ohne Bindestrich?
Der Duden gibt für die Schreibweise von englischen Begriffen die Bindestrichregel aus, Verbindungen aus zwei Substantiven zusammen zu schreiben, oder aber mit Bindestrich. Beispiele: Braintrust, ...
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Ist die Benutzung von "Platz" anstatt "Ort" eine Entlehnung aus dem Englischen?
Ich lese in letzter Zeit immer öfter Aussagen wie z.B. "Dies ist der schönste Platz der Welt".
Ich frage mich, ob der Verfasser dieses Satzes nicht eher "Dies ist der schönste Ort der Welt" sagen ...
- 221
1
vote
3
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177
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Use of the word "clever"
How common is the word "clever" in German these days? I hear it used everywhere, as if it's a native word. Also, Google NGrams shows a steady incline in use for phrases like "sehr clever" ever since ...
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2
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286
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Checking translation for "Durch meine Hände wird das größte Reich zerfallen"
As I am not a native speaker and I am only a beginner in the language, I just want to be clear that a sentence that I have tried translating on my own (for creative writing purposes) is correctly ...
- 103
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2
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258
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Old Pennsylvania German headstone translation needed [closed]
The cleaned gravestone seems fairly legible. Thank you!
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2
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103
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To catch someone‘s eye [closed]
Wie übersetzt man die Redewendung
to catch someone‘s eye
oft mit Bedienung bzw. Kellner benützt?
- 31
25
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6
answers
2k
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Why do Germans invent English words for themselves?
I've known about Handy (= mobile phone) for quite some time; I was quite surprised when I first met it but with time I’ve simply gotten used to it.
A few days ago however I’ve met another one: ...
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135
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Can English cognates help you remember a German past participle?
I'm at the stage of learning past participles, and I wanted to know if there's any advantage to knowing English past participles when it comes to forming them in German. I refer specifically to ...
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240
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English words in a German cover letter: How to?
I'm writing a cover letter in German for a job "Physical Design Engineer".
Do I write "physical design Ingenieur" in the main body of the letter?
Generally, what should I write in such cases?
I don'...
5
votes
3
answers
727
views
What would be an alternative of "poke" to German English speakers? [closed]
I'm facing a problem quite often when speaking in English with Germans. I'm used to say in some situations "Poke you later..." or "Poke me when you're done with this...".
I know that better ways ...
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4
votes
3
answers
289
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What's the article of Software Development Kit (SDK)?
Personally I'd say
das Software Development Kit (SDK)
but everyone tells me different articles. Which one is the correct one?
- 186
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3
answers
9k
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English analogues of Vorgangspassiv and Zustandspassiv
I'm learning German now and we studied in class the subject of passive voice. The German language has two forms of passive voice — “Vorgangspassiv” and “Zustandspassiv”.
In order to understand better ...
- 1,154
6
votes
2
answers
2k
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What's the right article for "Issue" in German?
In software development and IT slang, it is very common to adapt English expressions to German language.
Beispiele:
Ein Bug ist ein Programmierfehler.
Ein Commit ist ein eingesandter Beitrag eines ...
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1
answer
508
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Words in English sharing etymological roots with the German “toll”
Consider the German adjective toll meaning great or mad.
I am looking for the examples of English words (if any) containing some variation of toll and sharing some etymological root with toll (so ...
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3
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1k
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Does capitalization work differently in German than it does in English? [closed]
While trying to translate the German text in the following image, I was struck by the fact that some words are capitalized which wouldn't be capitalized in English.
The words in question are:
...
- 453
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votes
8
answers
934
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"Das ist nicht fair"
I was browsing the comments in a recent discussion and was struck by the use of English expressions by native German correspondents. One asked (in German) why his answer got a "downvote", and the ...
- 2,657
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6
answers
1k
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What is the "Hang der Deutschen zur doppelten Abstraktion"?
From the German translation of Philip K. Dick’s novel VALIS (bold by me):
Doch ein weit grundlegenderes semantisches Problem liegt hierin verborgen: Angenommen, ich sage zu Fat oder Kevin sagt zu ...
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3
votes
2
answers
533
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Etymology of the word "Aberglaube"
I am interested in the etymology of the German word "Aberglaube". As an anglophone, this word for 'superstition' has an interesting literal translation into English.
I am curious about the etymology ...
5
votes
4
answers
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Is there a German-English dictionary in PDF (or that works offline)?
Does any of these famous (dict, leo, dix, Wiktionary, etc.) online dictionaries have a free pdf dictionary? (I guess the answer is no, because less people would then visit the page again, but who ...
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3
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563
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German word for "probability score" or "likelihood"?
Ich suche Leute, die sowohl eine gewisse mathematische Grundbildung als auch gute Deutsch- und Englischkenntnisse haben.
Speziell geht es um folgende Frage:
Wie bezeichnet man im Deutschen einen ...
- 53
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votes
2
answers
233
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How to translate these loanwords in German? [closed]
Daily I use English loanwords in German emails. Then I found this forum and so I would like to ask what the best German translations would be for these words (if any) sothat I don't need to use the ...
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6
votes
2
answers
1k
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Changing the spelling of English words in German (Kop)
Yesterday I saw a headline in a German newspaper using the word 'Kop' and yes, they were writing about policemen.
Okay, I don't read much in German but I have not seen the usage of the word 'cop' ...
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votes
2
answers
2k
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How is the prefix "uber-" differently used in German vs. English?
In English usage the prefix "über" (loaned from German) has the meaning of:
über-, uber-: denoting an outstanding or supreme example of a particular kind of person or thing. Oxford Dictionaries
...
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12
votes
2
answers
7k
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Is it more common to write longer sentences in German than in English?
From my very personal view it looks like especially in scientific related texts Germans use in average longer sentences than in English literature. This could be wrong perception, as a lot of non ...
- 5,770
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votes
2
answers
1k
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Wann starb der Plural auf "-s" im (Alt-)Deutschen aus oder wo kommt der Plural auf "-s" im Englischen her?
Im Englischen werden die meisten Plurale mit der Endung "-s" gebildet ("houses", "cars") und nur die wenigsten auf die im Deutschen übliche Art mit "-en" ("oxen", "children").
Den Plural auf "-s" ...
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