Author Archives: kwhirsh

04/06/2015
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Sagt ein Fehler mehr als 1000 Wahrheiten?!

Heute habe ich das Buch »Grammatik in Bildern Deutsch als Fremdsprache – Jeder kann Grammatik lernen« bei der Bücherhalle Barmbek gefunden. Es ist total neu, in 2015 veröffentlich. Ich liebe den Begriff: man kann mit Bilder schneller lernen und Ideen länger im Kopf behalten. Aber ein guter Begriff allein sind gar nicht genug. Der schriftliche Inhalt muss auch wertvoll sein. Da liegt der Hase im Pfeffer. Als ich das Buch las, fand ich auf Seite 12 zwei Fehler. Die Beispiele für die Laute [b] und [ʒ] sind falsch. Es steht, dass in dem Wort »Ball« der »a« mit [b] verbindet ist. Und auch das, dass in dem Wort »Garage« der »G« mit [ʒ] verbindet ist.

Laut    Bespiel
[b]       Ball
[ʒ]       Garage

Wenn man frisch alphabetisiert ist, könnte man an das glauben und danach sehr verwirrt sein.

Mit meinen Verdacht erregte, fuhr ich fort. Und ich war aus allen Wolken fallen! Auf Seite 18 steht es, dass »das« der Bestimmte Artikel im Genitiv von »der« und »das« steht. Ist Ihr Name Hase?! In diesem Moment hörte ich mit diesem Buch auf. Hätte ich nicht demnächst einen Termin, würde ich direkt zurück nach der Bücherhalle gefahren bin. Ein großer Verlag wie PONS sollte nicht Mumpitz schrieben! Dieser Fall hat mein Vertrauen erschüttert.

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03/06/2015
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The few, the proud, the many

I picked up a new word today, etliche – “quite a lot” OR “quite a few.” I’d never noticed that in English when we mean “many” we sometimes say “a lot” and other times, paradoxically, say “a few,” if we qualify the latter of these with “quite.” The qualifier is very (or should I say “quite?”) important: compare “I had just a few” with “I had quite a few.” According to this page http://dictionary.cambridge.org/grammar/british-grammar/quite, the word “quite” can impact the word it modifies in two ways: “Quite is a degree adverb. It has two meanings depending on the word that follows it: ‘a little, moderately but not very’ and ‘very, totally or completely’.”

When “quite” precedes “a few” or “a bit” it is this second meaning of quite – “very, totally or completely” – that is in play. According to Duden online, the third meaning of etliche is a colloquial usage that amplifies or strengthens meaning: »beträchtlich« – “considerable(ly), substantial(ly) or sizeable(ly)” or »ziemlich viel« – “a good deal/a great deal/quite a lot/quite a bit.” They go on to say that it comes from Old High German word with a meaning equivalent to irgendein – “some, any” and in some contexts “any old” as in these two examples from Pons:

  • Welchen Wagen hätten Sie denn gern? —Ach, geben Sie mir irgendeinen,Hauptsache er fährt! – “Which car would you like, then? Just give me any old one, as long as it goes.”
  • Ich werde doch nicht irgendeinen einstellen. – “I not going to appoint just anyone.”

All this has me thinking is that you can learn quite a bit from any old word, if you just take the time to look at it! And no, you don’t need to send in the Marines.

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02/06/2015
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Until we meet (us) again

I’m working my way through »250 Grammatik-Übungen: Deutsch als Fremdsprache« which covers A1-B2 in the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (http://www.coe.int/t/dg4/linguistic/cadre1_en.asp). With the exercises I’ve completed so far, I’ve discovered a few gaps, Wissenslücke, in my grasp of German. One of these, Konjunktiv I, or the special subjunctive, is not something over which I will be losing any sleep. The most common use appears to be to indicate that someone else has said something – indirect speech. With the exception of sein, all of the verbs in Konjunktiv I are regular, so if/when I decide to get to grips with this mood, knowing when to use it will be the only challenging piece.

The second gap involves (I was going to say “includes” but can a gap include something?!) the reflexive verbs. It is not that my vocabulary is devoid of reflexives, however, as many of them have to do with activities of daily living – taking a bath/shower, combing/brushing your hair, getting dressed – and I am a childless adult who can take care of these unassisted, they haven’t seemed vital or wissenwert. It is also true that the majority of the ones I have learned either take the dative case (Ich muss mir das überlegen – “I have to think it over”) or have to do with mental events or social actions (Ich will mich nur umsehen – “i just want to look around/I’m just looking” – in response to Kommen Sie zurecht? – “Are you doing okay?/Can I help you?” in a shop). In one case, sich vorstellen, the reflexive verb combines these two factors in that one must learn the difference between the accusative and the dative forms: ich stelle mich vor and ich stelle mir vor – “I introduce myself” vs. “I imagine.” My use of a reciprocal reflexives is also somewhat spotty. I know now to say Wir treffen uns for “We’ll meet” but I can easily forget to add the reflexive pronoun with unterhalten – “discuss” or “talk.”

Luckily, there are good online resources to help me become better acquainted with both the special subjunctive mood and the reflexive verbs. It will be interesting to see what new gaps emerge as I leave the verbs and move onto nouns, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions, particles, sentence forms, etc.

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17/04/2015
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Wegen des Wetters

Wer hat »der Regen« in »aufregend« versteckt? Ja, stürmisches Wetter mit Blitzen und Donner kann aufregend sein. Aber wenn ich an regnerisches Wetter denke, höre ich immer in meinem Kopf, »Bleib Zuhause mit einer Kanne Tee und lies mal etwas.« Das ist bestimmt gemütlich und angenehm, aber eigentlich nicht »aufregend.«

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27/03/2015
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Single-d out

As I was reading another book in the Nellie Rapp Monsteragentin series, I cam across the word der Einwegrasierer – “the disposable (or more literally single use) razor.” However, I somehow added an extra “g” and didn’t make it to the end of the word as I was puzzled as to what der Einweggras… or single use / disposable GRASS might be! Since the context was a campground, it seemed possible for a moment that there was such a thing.

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17/03/2015
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Compounded, nay confounded

While compound words are a very familiar part of the German language learner’s life, I only heard the word die Bandwurmwörter – literally “tape worm words” – for the first time last Tuesday in Dialog in Deutsch. I was surprised that I’d not come across it on dict.cc, but when I did a search, I discovered that it does not come up when you enter the singular form “compound word.”

The words that we were discussing all had to do with kinds of insurance, for example:

die Krankenhaustagegeldversicherung – a benefit paid out for every day one is in the hospital

die Berufsunfähigkeitsversicherung – a benefit paid out when one is unable, due to disability or illness, to work in a specific occupation or do a part of a job

The segments making up the first “worm” are die Versicherung, das Geld, die Tage and das Krankenhaus or “the money-days-hospital-insurance.” (Compound nouns are typically considered modifications of the final item in the compound, here die Versicherung, and take their gender from this final segment.) In this case, the relationship between the parts and the meaning of the entire compound is reasonably transparent. Let’s consider another more common compound word, das Frühstück – literally “early-piece (bit/chunk/slice)” but actually “breakfast.” This is quite a bit more opaque, especially when compared to the names for the other meals das Mittagessen and das Abendessen – “lunch” and “dinner” and literally “mid-day-food” and “evening-food.” Finally, consider the word die Klobrille – “toilet seat” – which I discussed in a previous post. It falls somewhere in between as the Klo part is transparent but the Brille part is not (or rather is it, but not in the linguistic sense!).

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13/03/2015
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All’s well that ends well?!

I was working on the vocabulary for the next section of my new favorite exercise book Wörter und Sätze and I came across the word einschenken. Since the main meaning of schenken for me is “to give a gift,” I completely misinterpreted the example sentence Der Gastgeber schenkte uns Rotwein ein. This means “The host poured [some] red wine for us.” That little ein changes everything! This reminded of a prefixed word that one would much prefer to hear relative to its unprefixed base form, ankündigen – “to announce.” Without the little an at the front, kündigen, you’d be “be giving your notice to quit” or “getting notice that a something (e.g., a contract) has been terminated.” At least, unlike with einschenken, the surprise of the an appearing at the end is a good one!

I also learned a new idiomatic expression, perhaps useful in the situation where someone needs to terminate something with someone else: Ich möchte Ihnen reinen Wein einschenken – “I want to come clean with you” or “I want to be straight with you” or literally “I would like to pour [some] pure/unadulterated wine for you.” After this you can begin again by “making a pure table” – reinen Tisch machen – or “wiping the slate clean.”

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10/03/2015
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Say a little prayer for the language learner

I recently noticed the similarity between the German words beten – “to pray” –  and bitten – “to ask or beg someone [for something]” – a similarity that was highlighted when one looks at their past participle forms, the regular gebetet and the irregular gebeten. As I have learned however, these resemblances, however helpful they may feel to me as a learner, may not always signal a relationship between the two words. On checking the etymology via Duden online, I discovered that the two verbs do not appear to share an origin. Beten is said to arise from betōn in Old High German, while bitten appears to have been a Old High German word in its own right. Duden goes on to suggest that bitten originally had connections to “the promise” and “the contract.” Interestingly, the noun die Bitte –”the request” or “the plea” – is listed along with beten rather than with bitten. This brought to mind the English expressions “pray, continue” and “pray tell!” which are not entreaties to a higher power, but rather a friendly or ironic request for the speaker to say more.

 

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09/02/2015
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Verknüpfen gern miteinander?

Purzelbäume – “somersault”

Pferdeapfel – “horse dung”

Knoblauchzehe – “clove of garlic”

Kein Baum, Apfel oder Zeh in Sicht. Man muss zugeben, dass diese Wörter ziemlich seltsam sind.

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23/01/2015
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Something wickedly clever this way slinks

Shouldn’t Schlauch and schlau be related? And indeed it turns out that, as unlikely as it first seems, according to Duden online, both der Schlauch – “the hose” – and schlau – “smart” or “shrewd” – are related to schlüpfen – “to slip” or “to hatch” or “to emerge.” The specific forms appear have different origins, however. Der Schlauch comes from Middle High German and is related to die Hülle – which seems to make the most sense translated as “the hull” or “the shell” – and schlau comes from Low German and is related to schleichend –  the past participle of “to prowl” or “to slink” or “to crawl” and also, as an adjective, “insidious.” Who knows, this latter relationship might have a role to play in the phrase auf leisen Sohlen schleichend – “sure-footed?!”

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