27 votes
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What are the differences between "Kunststoff" and "Plastik"?

I don't think that what you found is really contradictory at all. The only thing I believe should be clarified is the distinction "formal" vs. "colloquial." Depending on your understanding of "...
johnl's user avatar
  • 7,698
24 votes
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How is the symbol § called in German?

§ is the Paragraphenzeichen - section sign in English. § is often used when referring to a specific section of legal code. It's used to refer to Paragraphen in German, e. g. § 1 des StGB (...
The Awful Language's user avatar
19 votes

What are the differences between "Kunststoff" and "Plastik"?

Plastik is often used in a derogatory sense. For instance, Plastikspielzeug is cheap and bad toy made of plastic. Plastiktüten or Plastikflaschen are often associated with waste (mountains of litter, ...
clemens's user avatar
  • 1,224
14 votes
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Translation of "Deutschländisch" into English

quick answer: deutsch = German deutschländisch = German elaborate answer: I don't like »deutschländisch« either, but this word was invented for this very special case, because »deutsch« has two ...
Hubert Schölnast's user avatar
13 votes
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Was heißt »nicht steig.« in einem Wörterbuch?

"Nicht steig." ist die Abkürzung für Nicht steigerbar. Bei den betreffenden Adjektiven oder Adverbien ist eine Steigerung üblicherweise nicht sinnvoll. Beispielsweise gibt es keinen Komparativ ...
IQV's user avatar
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11 votes
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Was genau unterscheidet einen Dialekt von Umgangssprache?

Ein Dialekt ist eine regional begrenzte Variation der Standardsprache. Z.B. bayrisch, schwäbisch, Berliner Schnauze, etc. sind Dialekte. Umgangssprache ist in der Tat ein sehr schwammiger Begriff. ...
outofthecave's user avatar
10 votes

Was ist der Begriff für charakteristische Kombinationen wie »stinksauer«, »affenheiß«, »schweinekalt«?

Es handelt sich um Präfix-Elative. Sie sind idiomatisch, d.h. nur teilweise semantisch transparent, und treten auch in anderen indo-europäischen Sprachen auf. (Eine Auflistung kenne ich nicht, aber ...
Kilian Foth's user avatar
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9 votes
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German words for “capitalise” vs. “uppercase”

If you refer to a word starting in upper case, like in Substantive werden im Deutschen großgeschrieben "großschreiben" or "groß schreiben" normally refers to the initial letter of a word only. ...
tofro's user avatar
  • 62.5k
9 votes

What are the differences between "Kunststoff" and "Plastik"?

While these terms are interchangeable in colloquial German, there may be differences in a technical context. Plastik is usually only applied to thermoplastics while Kunststoff can be applied to a ...
Zac67's user avatar
  • 1,089
8 votes

What is the stylistic device in “Pistolenstich und Messerschuss”

I do not know a name for this specific construction, but I see some more general devices in action here: It is a word play (German: Wortspiel). More specifically, it is an anagram (Anagramm) - at ...
Matthias's user avatar
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8 votes
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Two-component separable prefixes in German: What are they called in German?

To answer your question of the headline first: You are searching for the German word Doppelpartikelverben (in English, you could use double phrasal verbs or double particle verbs, but as they don’t ...
biolauri's user avatar
  • 591
8 votes
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What does the word "Blob" mean, used in German anno 2016? And what's its etymology?

Seemingly nonsensical talk is sometimes called Geblubber in German. This most probably derives from the sound bubbles make when emerging from the water - it is a sound that is annoying enough to be ...
Thorsten Dittmar's user avatar
8 votes

Gibt es ein Fremdwort für das Wort »Fremdwort«?

Ich muss hier leider den Teufelsanwalt spielen, und die Gegenfrage stellen, warum du überhaupt danach suchst? Es gibt ein eindeutiges, unmissverständliches Wort für »ein Wort, das aus einer anderen ...
Jan's user avatar
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7 votes
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Was ist das Antonym von ‚Fachwort‘?

Nicht für beliebige Begriffe aber für Namen von Dingen gibt es die Bezeichnung Trivialname.
Carsten S's user avatar
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7 votes
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Bewohner der Insel Lesbos

Die korrekte Bezeichnung in deutscher Sprache lautet "Lesvioten" oder "Lesvonier". Der Name "Lesbe" oder "Lesbierin" leitet sich allerdings tatsächlich vom Namen dieser Insel ab.
avh's user avatar
  • 86
6 votes

Was ist »Schweizerdeutsch«?

Wenn man entsprechende Publikationen aus der Schweiz liest, fällt auf, dass dort, wenn von "Schweizerdeutsch" geredet wird, die Mundart oder der Dialekt gemeint ist. Standardprache wird als "...
Takkat's user avatar
  • 70.2k
6 votes

Bezeichnungen für grammatische Geschlechter

Zunächst eine Anmerkung zur Sprachgeschichte: Eigentlich sind nicht die fachsprachlichen Adjektive von den Substantiven abgeleitet, sondern umgekehrt sind die Substantive substantivierte Adjektive; ...
chirlu's user avatar
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6 votes
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Traditional grammar on “noun centered” phrases

Indeed such constructions have been studied by grammarians since antiquity, and they are generally known as absolute constructions (absolute in the sense of ‘independent of other things’). The most ...
chirlu's user avatar
  • 19.7k
6 votes

Difference between "accusative" and "direct object"

It's quite simple. When talking about German grammar, don't use the term direct object — and indirect object for that matter. They simply don't apply. German grammar concerns about grammatical cases. ...
Em1's user avatar
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6 votes
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What is the stylistic device in “Pistolenstich und Messerschuss”

Nach Wikipedia werden Buchstabentausch und Wortsilbentausch zusammen aufgelistet. Das Beispiel, das dort als Erstes aufgelistet wird passt auch sehr gut mit obigen zusammen: Hauptpreis sind ein ...
Armin's user avatar
  • 1,779
6 votes

How to say "background check"

If this is about checking a criminal record the requested document is Führungszeugnis (Germany) Strafregisterbescheinigung (Austria) Strafregisterauszug (Switzerland, German) Regulations are ...
Janka's user avatar
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6 votes
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Term for Irregular Verb

The term for irregular Verb is unregelmässiges Verb, but you aren't looking for these. German verbs follow one of four patterns. schwache Beugung (weak conjugation) starke Beugung (strong conjugation)...
Janka's user avatar
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6 votes
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Meaning of 'uneingeleiteter Ergänzungssatz'

Ich glaube, dass er recht hat. I think that he is right. This is a sentence with a main clause and a dependent (here: object) clause introduced by dass. The object clause serves as an object to ...
Janka's user avatar
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5 votes
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Difference between "accusative" and "direct object"

Direct object and accusative object are nearly always the same thing in German, however there are a few exceptions. Consider a verb such as lehren 'teach' or kosten 'cost' that in the standard ...
spyrjandi og svarandi's user avatar
5 votes

German words for “capitalise” vs. “uppercase”

There are different terms for Uppercase (or: All caps) writing: Wikipedia has “Majuskelschrift, Versalschrift oder Kapitalschrift”. I’m not sure if Großschrift is synonymous to those terms; personally,...
tohuwawohu's user avatar
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5 votes
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How are the rules of phonetics/pronunciation named in standard german?

An integral part of phonetics (Phonetik in German) is research not only on rules of the quality but also on rules for the quantity of a vowel. The German term for this would be Vokalquantität or ...
Takkat's user avatar
  • 70.2k
5 votes

What does the word "Blob" mean, used in German anno 2016? And what's its etymology?

Blob doesn't mean anything in German. Thus no other meanings, and no etymology. With a lot of imagination, I could imagine it is a onomatopoeic expression featuring a goldfish in the glass, even if ...
tofro's user avatar
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5 votes
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Gibt es eine bestimmte Bezeichnung für Adjektive, die aussehen wie ein Partizip?

Es gibt dafür die Bezeichnung Scheinpartizipien oder auch Pseudopartizipien. Eine Quelle dafür: http://canoonet.eu/services/Controller?dispatch=glossary&input=Scheinpartizip&language=0&...
RHa's user avatar
  • 15.4k
5 votes

How do you say "heritage speaker" of German, in the linguistic sense of having informally learned the language growing up?

The German word is "Herkunftssprecher". See here and here. It was transferred from English to German (loan translation).
Paul Frost's user avatar
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