37
Absolutely; an adult is still someone’s Kind in exactly the same way as in English. Just two examples I quickly found via a web search:
Vor allem diese sonderbare Hilflosigkeit, wenn die eigenen Kinder fordern, dass man ihnen als Erwachsene auf Augenhöhe begegnen soll … (Kester Schlenz, Stern)
Meine erwachsenen Kinder vertragen sich einfach nicht (...
32
In my opinion:
Yes, you should learn about the genitive.
While it's use apparently is on the decline and there are many "substitutions", you should not expect it to disappear totally in the next decades.
Your cousin has a point in noting that at least in some regions (influence of dialect) and in spoken language more than in written (more informal) some ...
28
You can use "Freundliche Erinnerung". Anonther possibility often used is "Höfliche Erinnerung" (polite reminder).
And I would suggest to use the verb: "Wir möchten Sie höflich erinnern,...".
27
Yes. A common small-talk topic is “Wohin fahrt ihr dieses Jahr in den Urlaub?” and it is perfectly ok to answer “Wir fahren nach Island” even if you have your flight tickets booked already.
Same holds, of course, for London and Paris.
25
The way I always explain it is that Menschen is shifted toward human while Leute is shifted toward a colloquial use of people... maybe a bit like folk(s). Consequently, Leute is also fine if you're going down the derogatory route but it is not part of the word per se.
Let's look at some examples now.
If you talk about your last night out and you describe ...
23
Ganz allgemein gesprochen ist in diesem Kontext, also wenn es um Prädikative geht, Movierung nicht nötig. Viele Sprecher nehmen keinen Anstoß an Sätzen wie den folgenden, wo das Geschlecht (Sexus) durch das Subjekt gekennzeichnet wird.
Sie ist Professor/Informatiker/Nazi/…
Belege:
Denn sie war Nazi, geboren in der elitären Naziszene in Bayern. (FAZ)
...
20
"Müssen" in German can also imply direction - the usage you are expecting is as auxiliary verb, like "können", "dürfen", "sollen":
Etwas tun müssen
Gehen müssen
But you may use it without any verb to suggest movement without specifying the form (going, driving, flying, whatever) because it is important to be there, not how you got there.
Ich muss ...
20
Unfortunately another area where little understood English terms have taken the cake.
Geek: originally a person biting heads off of small animals
The subspecies technology geek is what is known in German as der Geek
Indirectly related to jeck (often heard during carnival season) - fool, jester ...
Reminds one of der Elf/die Elfe while the German word Alb/...
18
It is quite common to say akustisch nicht verstanden in contrast to inhaltlich nicht verstanden. The alternative would be nicht richtig gehört.
Some native speakers might regard akustisch nicht verstanden as unnatural preferring nicht richtig gehört. For others it's the opposite.
From a linguistic point of view, it's correct. It's a partial translation of
...
18
Don't compare German to English. In German we're not talking about direct and indirect objects. What we concern about are cases:
nominative
accusative
dative
genitive
The question "Wie geht es dir?" is an example of dative. And the dative form of du is dir.
In many cases you can consider the German dative case being an indirect object and the German ...
18
"Bitte" is the "standard" answer to "Danke".
"Gerne" is short for "Gern geschehen!".
According to the Duden, "gern" means
mit freudiger Bereitwilligkeit, Vergnügen
It therefore implies that the speaker was happy to help or do a favor ... and it all sounds more polite.
17
My gut feeling tells me that "Es gibt..." is used in more abstract contexts while "Es sind..." refers to specific situations.
"Es gibt viele Blumen im Garten." seems more like a general statement about the location of flowers and the structure of gardens.
"Es sind viele Blumen im Garten." sounds like the description of a specific garden that the speaker/...
17
I'm a native German speaker and I noticed that this is quite a hard question, but let my try to figure out a "rule" here (although I don't think there is a real "static" rule):
Sometimes you can use both "einige" and "etwas", i.e. you can say "Mit einigem Glück" (which means you need quite some luck) and "Mit etwas Glück" (-> a little luck...) but in those ...
16
I guess in this case "namely" is the closest thing you'll find.
But there are other situations where you would translate it to something completely different:
"You'll be in trouble, in fact in deep trouble." = "Du bekommst Ärger, und zwar gehörigen."
"..and rightly so!" = "..und zwar mit Recht!"
Using it as an amplifying word to underline or specify ...
16
Yes, they are both grammatically allowed in the right context, and there is a difference between them regarding the use of the neuter "[das] Wochenende".
"Schönes Wochenende" is singular Nominative or Accusative, like "[ein] schönes Wochenende".
"Schönen Wochenende" is singular Dative or Genitive, and you'd probably attach a definite article or ...
16
It is still used. Just not as much. You need it, if there is no info about time in the sentence, when you want to emphasize your resolve, or when the present tense could be misunderstood as a general statement of habit.... which is basically because no time is indicated.
Ich werde das nicht länger dulden.
In New York werde ich sooooo shoppen gehen, ey.
I'm ...
15
"Not even" can be translated with "nicht einmal" or "sogar nicht":
He didn't drink anything … not even the beer.
Er trank gar nichts … nicht einmal das Bier.
Er trank gar nichts … sogar das Bier nicht.
"Even" in positive use cannot be translated with "einmal" but with "sogar":
He drank everything … even the milk.
Er trank alles … ...
15
When negating something else than a noun, always use nicht.
When negating a noun, there are some guidelines:
Use kein if what you are negating is
a noun with which you would use ein if not negating
Nein, das ist kein BMW.
a noun not preceded by any article
Nein, ich spreche kein Schwedisch.
Use nicht if what you are negating is
a noun preceded by ...
15
In Germany the correct term is "Frühstück", nobody is using the term "Morgenessen" but in Switzerland the term "Morgenessen" is used.
I have to admit that it would be consistent, though, because there are both "Mittagessen" and "Abendessen".
15
First, “Sinn haben” and “Sinn machen” (but more to the latter below) have different meanings:
Es hat keinen Sinn, dies zu versuchen.
means that something is futile, ein sinnloses Unterfangen.
When we come to the expressions which are closer to the English “to make sense” we open a can of worms. The nearest proper German expression is “Sinn ergeben”.
...
15
These:
Meiner Auffassung nach ist aus der Position im Satz keine Schlussfolgerung zu ziehen, ob es exklusive oder inklusive gemeint ist. Der einzige Unterschied, den die Stellung im Satz ausmacht, ist Betonung.
Argumentation:
Häufig ergibt sich die Bedeutung aus dem Kontext. Das Beispiel aus der anderen Antwort kann nur auf eine Art und Weise verstanden ...
15
Ich kann nur für Berlin sprechen – und hier ist es ziemlich üblich geworden. Besonders amüsant ist diese Konstruktion bei (absichtlich) gekürzten Stationsnamen:
"Ich bin am Alexanderplatz" –> "Ich bin Alex"
"Ich bin am Rosenthaler Platz" –> "Ich bin Rosi"
Das wird hier auch gerne auf Bezirke ausgeweitet, was dem ganzen einen Hauch von Lokalpatriotismus ...
15
The usual word for that is he (often with a lengthened e and then spelt hee, heee, heeeeee or similar):
He, kannst du mir sagen, wie spät es ist?
Heee, was machen Sie denn da?
There are also huhu and ey. Ey is often used when addressing someone who may be misbehaving, whereas huhu is normally reserved for positive contexts such as when helping a friend ...
15
beide Sätze haben eine komplett unterschiedliche Bedeutung.
Er hat meine Unterschrift gefälscht
bedeutet: Er hat selbst die Unterschrift geschrieben / mit einem Kopierer kopiert / reproduziert.
Er hat meine Unterschrift verfälscht
bedeutet: Ich habe etwas unterschrieben, und der andere hat diese Unterschrift durch hinzufügen oder weglöschen von ...
14
What you're looking for is called "absoluter Komparativ".
Komparative in Ausdrücken wie ein älterer Herr oder auch ein kürzerer Beitrag werden als “absolut” bezeichnet, weil sie losgelöst von einer Vergleichskonstruktion gebraucht werden. Der absolute Komparativ beschäftigt schon seit der Antike Logiker und Sprachwissenschaftler, weil er sich als “...
14
(a) ist meines Wissens 100%ig korrekt und kann auch in der Schriftsprache verwendet werden. (b) hingegen wird rein umgangssprachlich gebraucht und klingt unsauber. Es ist durchaus weit verbreitet und ich würde darüber auch nicht stolpern, aber wenn ich mich bemühen würde, klar und deutlich zu sprechen (Vortrag etc.), würde ich es wahrscheinlich nicht sagen. ...
14
A neutral term would be ITler or, more German, EDVler, which is very broad. If people spend a lot of time with computers, they’re often called Computerfreak – I, however, don’t know whether it is still current. I know it from C64 times, when it was something special to have a computer.
14
In fact this is an idiomatic phrase; it may communicate an elative, intensifying meaning, but usually, it simply expresses the speaker's firm opinion of a certain circumstance. It's commonly used, also in written language.
It may also be used to create a elative/superlative meaning for characteristics you can't form a comparative for. This is true in your ...
14
The difference is in the level of formality vs casualness here.
Ich heiße Fritz Müller
would be a formal, almost stiff way of introducing yourself. Someone presenting himself to a conference auditory he is new to could use this.
Ich bin der Fritz
is a very casual (but friendly) way of introducing yourself. Fritz thus suggest to use "Du" for ...
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