New answers tagged word-choice
2
umhergehen/herumgehen ist sehr unspezifisch und daher oft anwendbar
bummeln wird oft benutzt, wenn man sich Geschäfte anschaut, ohne feste Einkaufsabsicht
flanieren, umherstreifen taugen auch für ungezielteres spazieren, auch für Parks geeignet
die Stadt anschauen/erkunden passt, wenn es etwas touristischer ist, mit Sehenswürdigkeiten
1
Some more suggestions:
um die Ecken ziehen
Example : "... durfte auch nicht mehr alleine mit Freunden um die Ecken ziehen."
herumtreiben (often shortened to rumtreiben)
herumziehen, umherziehen
(die Gegend) unsicher machen
1
unterwegs sein
is the only expression (out of all your examples) that sounds good in my native german ears.
umgehn, belaufen
are just wrong.
walzen
may be a regional thing. I never heard of it in the sense that you are talking about.
streunen, stromern
is what dogs do.
2
Using "Fräulein" to address a young girl (I'd say up to around 10 years old) does not carry the same generally offensive connotations to me that it would it used for women or older girls. However, it is not common usage. If your interest is for personal use in interpersonal communication, I would recommend against it.
There are two contemporary ...
2
Answers to this can only be largely opinion-based, so this is only my perspective, I think "Fräulein" or, better, "junges Fräulein" is still fine as a half-funny old-fashioned sounding address for a child. However, the term is a bit loaded, and some more feminist parents might not like it. Children might not even know the word.
An easy ...
3
"Wittern" has a concrete meaning and a figurative one.
The concrete meaning is overlapping with "Riechen" but the process of perceiving a smell is more active and more subtle/sensitive. And usually it's related to sense the smell of someone or something that poses a (potential) threat or that is a potential prey. The context is usually ...
2
"Wittern" also has a meaning apart from "riechen". But it is taken out of the hunting context.
It can also mean something similar to "to have a feeling something is up/wrong". If I am remembering correctly it can also be translated to "smell" in this sense.
"Ich wittere Verrat" -> "I smell treason&...
1
I woud say that normally you use “riechen” for humans while “wittern” is mostly used for animals like dogs.
"Hunde nehmen Witterung (eines Tieres) auf"
"Das riecht aber streng sagt Hans"
But it depends a little on the usage/meaning.
Like said by @henning-kockerbeck "eine Chance wittern" is a "human usage" for wittern.
...
23
If used verbatim, "wittern" refers more to detecting a smell over a distance. A similar English expression would be "to get wind of something", which also includes the idea of the wind or the air transporting the smell to the nose. "Riechen" is more general. If you for example take a bar of soap in your hand and smell at it, you'...
6
Your impression is partly correct. The meaning of passively "riechen" and "wittern" have a lot of overlap, with "riechen" more in everyday use.
"riechen" can occur actively, that something smells, and passively through olfactory receptors.
https://www.duden.de/rechtschreibung/riechen
"wittern" is indeed a bit ...
0
Torsten is right, but the following could be added:
Using „das“ instead of „es“ (in many instances) is very common in colloquial speech in Northern Germany.
It could be that some translation services know about this and some don’t.
Google Translate:
Das gab ein großes Feuerwerk. = That gave a great fireworks display.
Deepl.com:
Das gab ein großes ...
0
Others have already said that "das gibt" means a specific condition leads to something and "es gibt" refers to a general situation leading to something. The balloons and a bunch of Kirks are more of a general situation, a picture of confusion and fear of imaginary intruders with bad intentions leading to military starting a preemptive ...
0
Welcome to German SE. For context, this is from the song by Nena, 1983:
Jeder war ein großer Krieger
Hielten sich für Captain Kirk
Das gab ein großes Feuerwerk
Keep in mind, that these are song lyrics and you should allow for a certain amount of poetic license and deliberate vagueness.
The das used here is a demonstrative pronoun. There is a collection of ...
4
The "das" in the mentioned sentence stands for a result of something.
The firework was the result of the events coming before it and that is why "das" is used instead of "es".
The sentence
Es gab ein großes Feuerwerk
is absolutely correct as well and simply states:
There was a big firework.
The sentence
Das gab ein großes ...
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