New answers tagged word-choice
1
I'm pretty sure someone can give a language-lawyer-answer, but most Germans use them interchangeably in this context and that's perfectly fine.
1
I consider the example above not quite correct. I think it should rather be
„Ein Kreuz auf / in einer Karte einzeichnen.
I would use „einzeichnen“ for graphically adding something to a given structure, map or sketch.
0
The difference is not so much in the actual meaning of the verb. It is mostly in the situation where you use it:
Good (well-formed) sentences are
Zeichnen
Ich zeichne eine Skizze mit Kreidestiften.
Er zeichnet einen Akt.
Zeichne mir mal ein Kuh und ein Pferd!
These are chiefly artistic activities.
Einzeichnen
Der Architekt zeichnet ...
1
As the prefix "ein" means into einzeichnen means to draw into/onto something already existing.
Ex:
Ein Kreuz auf einer Karte einzeichnen.
You can usually replace "einzeichnen" with "zeichnen" but not the other way around.
2
"Beschreiben" ist meines Wissens mehr nüchtern, sachlich, objektiv, während "Schildern" mehr bewegt, bilderreich, subjektiv ist. Letzteres leitet sich dann ursprünglich auch ab
von mittelhochdeutsch "schiltære", ein Wappen bemalen.
4
"Stellen" actually means "to put". You can combine it with "eine Frage".
"eine Frage stellen" = "to ask a question", or literally "to put a question"
"fragen" = "to ask"
Ich frage. - I ask. / I am asking.
Ich stelle eine Frage. - I ask a question. / I am asking a question.
Ich frage meine Mutter. - I ask my mum. / I am asking my mum.
Ich stelle meiner ...
4
Eine Frage stellen is the same as fragen. You use the former when you want to stress the fact that you're asking or to avoid a sentence without object: Er stellte eine Frage. instead of Er fragte. (which likely prompts Was fragte er denn?).
Stellen by itself means to put.
-1
Am I wrong in thinking that Bis Später or Bis Bald might do the job?
3
No, there is no general framework.
Most phrases are just used because they are common in this combination. So "Garten" is mostly used with "anlegen". "Zone" is mostly used with "einrichten" and "Straßenlampen" is mostly used with "aufstellen". "Leiter" is mostly used with "anlegen".
It is correct German to say "Garten einrichten", "Straßenlampen anlegen", "...
2
a_donda is certainly right: MAD is a satirical magazine and the scene is mocking the German habit of concatenating words.
However, the situation is an illustration of the saying "Ein Unglück kommt selten allein" ("It never rains but it pours"). In that sense there exists an adequate German phrase although it is not a single word.
And one thing is clear if ...
7
I suspect that this person either was not a German speaker or was poking fun at people who think that German compound nouns are funny (or both). While this is the subject of the cartoon, it is only funny because it suggests something impossible.
Clownschadenmitbananeundsafeleiderkaputt is a pseudo-sentence without whitespace and is not a word by any stretch....
4
It is a:
Clown-rutscht-auf-banane-aus-und-wird-nur-dehalb-vom-safe-getroffen-Situation
Like Win-win-Situation or Stop-and-go-Verkehr. Duden also has "Stop-and-Go-Verkehr", with CamelCase.
1
You can use hyphens to put together the nouns clown(Clown), banana(Banane), safe(Tresor) and accident(Unfall): "Clown-Bananen-Tresor-Unfall". Pretty much describes the whole situation imo.
0
Witnessing this situation, I would think:
Das ist ja mal ein echtes Klischee! - Which literally translates to cliché. ("wow, that is an actual cliché!")
One often adds "lebend" to Klischee (a living cliché), but in this situation it is obviously not appropriate. Although it might add another level of irony ...
To back my usage up, here is an article in ...
32
Most commonly this is referred to as
Tresorsturzopferclownausrutschbananenvorfall
Which translate to incident related to a banana on which the clown, that is victim of a falling safe, is slipping
18
Then one German speaker told the following word
clownenschadenmitbananaundsafeleiderkaputt.
Apart from the fact that this is not a German word, it is nonsense. It still would be nonsense if the typos were corrected. Just forget it.
The cartoon is nothing more than a satiric side-blow on the German language and the German characteristic of creating new ...
62
German compound nouns are often made fun of because of their length. To nonspeakers, they look monstrous and incomprehensible. But in reality, they are quite simple.
There's always at least two parts, with the first part determining the second and the second part being a noun.
Verkehrsunfall: accident in traffic
Nasenspray: spray for nose
...
1
As you already said there is the word Pechvogel, an expression for a person who is always unlucky.
So ... why not call him a
Pechclown - a clown who is always unlucky
It is not a common word, but it follows the rules.
Despite from that I think the word
Schadenfreude
fits very well.
7
"Pechsträhne" is ok, but usually used in connection with an extended period of bad luck, "dumm gelaufen" (~shit happens) could be used for the situation, given the satirical context, which, by the way, is rather banal.
"Clownenschadenmitbananaundsafeleiderkaputt" you mention is not even remotely a German expression, even the components are wrong. "Schaden" ...
2
But you can (?) easily add "it" to your English original. And then there is the "still":
Ich spreche immer noch nicht so gut Deutsch wie ich es
verstehe.
or just as well I guess: ... noch immer ...
Langauge names are special, but both work here the same. You leave out the article. Nobody speaks the English. But it is a language.
Deutsche Sprache......
1
Close one!
The correct sentence would be:
Ich spreche immer noch nicht so gut Deutsch wie ich es verstehe.
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