53
votes
Accepted
Is German a VO language or an OV language?
English is a SVO language.
SVO means: Subject, Verb, Object(s) in exactly this order.
But English is the only Germanic language with this word order. German and all other Germanic languages (Dutch, ...
- 121k
36
votes
Accepted
Verb "geeitet" in an old scientific text
This is simply a typo. It should be geleitet instead of geeitet. The infinitive is leiten, and in the given context, it means guide or direct.
Der Gedanke hat mich geleitet. → The thought has ...
- 22.5k
34
votes
Feminine noun with suffix -ung that is not the result of a "Verb to Noun process"
I wrote a little Python script (see below) to find candidate words. It takes a dictionary and yields all uppercase words that end on ung unless:
there exists a corresponding lowercase word ending on ...
- 21.7k
31
votes
Accepted
geschafft or geschaffen? which one is past participle of schaffen?
"schaffen" has three meanings:
to get something managed,
to create, to produce something
to work (in some regions colloquial or dialect)
"geschafft" is the past participle ("...
- 513
30
votes
Accepted
Feminine noun with suffix -ung that is not the result of a "Verb to Noun process"
I think that die Zeitung fulfills the criteria.
- 22.5k
27
votes
Can I use ‘fahren’ when the mode of transport is not decided?
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 ...
- 459
27
votes
Accepted
What is the etymology of "Es gibt" in the sense of "There is"?
There is a gradual development from the Germanic and Old High Germangeban in the meaning of to give to the peculiar abstract usage es gibt which only occured in New High German.
There is quite an ...
- 70.2k
23
votes
Accepted
“To tell” in German
Well, tell has a few differing meanings and depending on what you're going to express, you need to translate differently.
Erzählen is to tell a story or to tell a joke, verraten is to tell a secret, ...
- 38.5k
23
votes
Is beeilen always a reflexive verb?
Yes, beeilen is always reflexive in modern usage. You cannot say *er beeilte or *sie beeilte ihn.
The counterexample you gave is a different word: herbeieilen. This consists of the intransitive verb ...
- 5,204
22
votes
Accepted
Are there any other German verbs besides »sein« that take the nominative case?
This construction is usually called "predicative nominative" ("prädikativer Nominativ", "Gleichsetzungsnominativ"), rather than "nominative object". There are a couple of verbs that have it, in ...
- 10.4k
22
votes
Accepted
Apart from "berlinern", do any other German dialects have a corresponding verb?
Das gibt es auch bei anderen Dialekten:
Der Schwabe schwäbelt.
Der Sachse sächselt.
- 11.5k
21
votes
Accepted
Is leaving out prefixes like "rauf", "rüber", "rein" when describing movement considered a big mistake in spoken German?
No, it is not necessary
It does not sound bad or unusual if you use the short version. The longer version just puts more emphasis.
- 18.3k
19
votes
Accepted
When to use 'angeboten' and when to use 'bot'?
The verb is, in its infinitive form (the form you need to look it up in a dictionary):
to offer = anbieten
Like in
I want to offer you a drink.
Ich möchte dir ein Getränk anbieten.
The form for ...
- 121k
19
votes
Accepted
dürfen vs "sich dürfen"?
There is a misunderstanding!
The reflexive pronoun sich does not belong to the modal verb dürfen, but to the reflexive verb treffen. Without the modal verb it is something like this:
Ich treffe ...
- 22.5k
19
votes
<schwitz>, <zwinker> etc. Does German always use 2nd Person Singular Imperative verbs for emoticons? If so, why?
Not imperative:
Knutsch mich ab!
*abknutsch*
The form looks like an infinitive with the ending -en removed and has been given the jocular name Erikativ after the woman who translated Disney ...
- 25.5k
19
votes
Accepted
When do we not need 'are' in german sentences?
English:
You are crazy.
you
a subject pronoun (second person, singular)
are
a copulative verb,
a form of to be (second person, singular, indicative, present tense, active voice)
crazy
an adjective ...
- 121k
18
votes
Accepted
Why does the German dictionary show only 2nd and 3rd person conjugation?
There are around 200 irregular verbs in German (unregelmäßige Verben or starke Verben) and they usually have changes within their roots only for personal pronouns du and er/sie/es. That's probably the ...
- 513
18
votes
Accepted
How to ask for a bank account "upgrade"?
I checked some german banks which offer an upgrade for their accounts. Clicking these links, you get a webpage with a more legal phrasing, where the bank itself uses the word "wechseln", so you could ...
- 11.5k
17
votes
“To tell” in German
Verraten is in the sense of a secret.
Tell me your secret.
Verrate mir dein Geheimnis.
Erzählen is mostly in the sense of a story. Also, it could be used for a request to be told what happened.
...
- 375
17
votes
What does "auf" mean in "aufsperren"?
As pointed out in Kilian's answer, the "auf" prefix here refers to opening something.
It does, however, not negate the pre-ixed word in general (e.g. as opposed to how "to lock"/"to unlock" work in ...
- 8,596
17
votes
Appropriate pronoun for “you” and “someone else who’s not here right now.”
Gehen du und Bob zur Party?
Is the right answer here. If they were both standing right in front of you you say
Geht ihr zur Party?
But one of the people is not there, so you are talking about a ...
- 1,210
16
votes
Accepted
Weihnachtsfest begehen
Man kann ein Fest durchaus begehen. Der Ausdruck ist aber sehr "vornehm" und wird immer seltener verwendet. Für so etwas "normales" wie Weihnachten, das jedes Jahr stattfindet, würde ich ihn eher ...
- 62.5k
16
votes
Accepted
Non-modal verbs as helping verbs (“I hear you coughing”)
The most direct equivalent to such constructions is an accusative-and-infinitive construction (AcI).
It can be used with verbs of perception and similar and the subject of the action that is perceived ...
- 21.7k
16
votes
What does "die Augen aufschlugen" mean?
I'm wondering if this might be a colloquial/ugs. in German
No, on the contrary it is rather a bit elevated and poetic style, particularly when the intended meaning is "to wake up" and not a more ...
- 19k
16
votes
Is German a VO language or an OV language?
In main clauses, German uses V2 (the verb is on second position), and that means VO most of the time.
German (V2 -> VO): Julia ruft den Hund.
English (VO): Julia calls the dog.
Latin (OV): Iulia ...
- 25.4k
15
votes
Accepted
Why "setzen, 6" and not "setz, 6"?
Because the infinitive can act as imperative in very short, oral instructions and commands. (Not for full sentences or polite requests!) On a train station:
Zurückbleiben!
Likewise for ...
- 24k
15
votes
German verb for 'binge-watch'
I think the expression that's closest in meaning would be
eine Serie/einen Film (am Stück) verschlingen
It is used in recent news reports about binge-watching as you can tell from this Google ...
- 2,482
15
votes
Is beeilen always a reflexive verb?
In contemporary German beeilen is always reflexive in usage.
This was not always the case. When reading literature from the 19. Century you may come across rare sentences like this:
Es wird Gewitter, ...
- 70.2k
15
votes
Accepted
Seemingly incorrectly used -e endings for verbs in a DW article
Those are Konjunktiv I forms. See the conjugations of
haben
gehen
gelten
Those Konjunktiv I forms are used mainly in press to mark reported speech. DW does not claim those things stated are facts ...
- 57.2k
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