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 (...
31
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 ...
27
IMO there are two basic uses for cute: young animals and humans, or adult humans which you feel attracted to / would like to date.
I will try and explain the usage of the more common meanings and also give some idea about subtle differences (this may be a little bit subjective).
niedlich: cute as in a cute kitten. You would feel a little bit protective ...
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.
26
These words mean the same thing ("to sweep", "to clean dryly with a broom"), but are used in different regions. Kehren (or variants thereof, such as zusammenkehren) can mostly be heard in southern Germany and Austria, whereas fegen is commonly used in the North.
Oddly enough, the Swiss say wischen for "to sweep", which a German would (mis-)understand as "...
26
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,...".
22
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 ...
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/...
19
In the end both mean the same.
The usage of "Jägermeister" is obsolete. Nowadays when saying "Jägermeister" you usually refer to the alcoholic drink.
"Weidmann" or "Waidmann" is the technical term used by hunter and is also well known in "Weidmannsheil" and "Weidmannsdank", a greeting.
The informal term is just "Jäger"
19
So here is my try - the following verbs might be used in either way in spoken language, sometimes depending on what you want to say, sometimes it is just random or personal preference or flow of speech:
gehen - ging
Should be used in the sense of "to work" or "to be".
Ich wäre gerne zu deiner Party gekommen, aber es ging nicht.
If you go places, use ...
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
"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 ...
18
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)
...
17
"Entschuldigen" is the verb form.
"Entschuldigung" is the noun form.
EDIT--additional information:
If you are asking about the difference between "das Entschuldigen" and "die Entschuldigung", then this has to do with a grammar rule rather than just a dictionary entry definition.
"Das Entschuldigen" is an example of a gerund (Gerundium), which is simply ...
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/...
16
Easy rule of thumb
To make the distinction between "denn" and "dann" a bit clearer we should learn the most common translations for both:
denn: than, for, because
dann: then, afterwards
Of course - as always - there is an overlap in usage and sometimes a distinction is not clear. See also the various usages of "denn" as a intensifying particle in the ...
16
Ich vermute, dass wir hier einen Fall von "Stille Post" haben.
Von den vier Google-Treffern für "maßloser Sinn" scheint Webster's Online Dictionary am verlässlichsten. Der Link führt aber auf eine Liste, die stark nach einer Sammlung von Stichwörtern aus einem Korpus aussieht - also lauter Phrasen, die willkürlich aus verschiedenen Kontexten herausgenommen ...
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, ...
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
Persons as objects of change:
Ändern is used in the sense of changing someone's defining personality traits (which is often seen as hopeless):
• Er ist ein Dickkopf – ich kann ihn nicht ändern. – He's a pighead, I can't change him.
• Der kleine Junge ist streitsüchtig. Ich hoffe, dass er sich noch
ändert. – The boy is always looking for a fight. I ...
15
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 ...
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
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 ...
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
Standardsprachlich werden die mit da zusammengesetzten Pronominaladverbien nicht durch andere Wörter voneinander getrennt.
Die Trennung kommt allerdings umgangssprachlich, insbesondere in Norddeutschland, vor:
da ist doch nichts bei
da bin ich nicht für
da hab ich was gegen
ach, da kommt das her!
da habe ich nicht mit gerechnet
da richtet er ...
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 ...
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