yes, like teacheress and scientess and lady doctor and admin assistantrix
people don't really say comedienne irl and actress is on the way out
― caek, Thursday, 8 March 2012 18:45 (twelve years ago) link
die Merkelerin.
― Mayan Calendar Deren (doo dah), Thursday, 8 March 2012 18:45 (twelve years ago) link
OK, simple past is the single-word past tense (aka preterite?) and perfect is the one with haben/sein, right? I get confused abt the German past tenses because every grammar book I read calls them something different and we haven't done the former in class yet so the latter is just "the past tense" to us.
Which is why I am posting, because it's frustrating that at the end of my 3rd year of German evening classes we still haven't done the former except for haben, sein and "es gab", and we did the perfect in the first year.
So I'm surprised people use the simple past less in speech, because I feel so longwinded forming sentence after sentence with the other one, plus it means I can't read any books! I mean I can read books if I want to guess every time I see a verb, which mostly works, but it's just an extra layer of irritation.
It's kind of frustrating having done something for three years (ok, two hours a week for 3x6 months) and still feel so bad at it, but that is my fault for not putting the effort in, or having any motivation to, since I won't be going anywhere German-speaking in the foreseeable future.
― instant coffee happening between us (a passing spacecadet), Thursday, 8 March 2012 19:47 (twelve years ago) link
PS I can't really read books anyway as my vocab and my patience for winding through Germanic grammatical constructions are not up to most written German, but I have a v slim "young adult" novel which looks vaguely approachable, except every time I open it I end up getting annoyed, partly at all the verbs
― instant coffee happening between us (a passing spacecadet), Thursday, 8 March 2012 19:50 (twelve years ago) link
These days I can basically intuit how to say what I want to, but the time when I could reel off grammatical rules or explain my intuitions is long past :(
― NEEDS MORE BOIIING (seandalai), Thursday, 8 March 2012 19:56 (twelve years ago) link
Austrians use the simple past in conversation more than Germans.
There is no present perfect tense in German -- you have to through in other little nearly meaningless words ("schon" "mal") to hint at it -- and German writings on English grammar are absolutely HOPELESS at explaining what "I've been to Spain" actually means.
― Three Word Username, Thursday, 8 March 2012 20:17 (twelve years ago) link
I believe the official name in English for those lovely little words is "flavoring particles."
― Challoperator's Manual (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 8 March 2012 21:40 (twelve years ago) link
http://coerll.utexas.edu/gg/gr/mis_04.html
A lot of people learning German seem to get v excited by the exclamation "Doch!" ime.
― NEEDS MORE BOIIING (seandalai), Thursday, 8 March 2012 22:45 (twelve years ago) link
That page looks useful, thanks!
― instant coffee happening between us (a passing spacecadet), Thursday, 8 March 2012 22:56 (twelve years ago) link
otm
― caek, Thursday, 8 March 2012 23:33 (twelve years ago) link
Yeah, that page has the best discussion of those that I've seen. Very helpful!
― Pataphysician, Friday, 9 March 2012 08:25 (twelve years ago) link
That page is awesome!!!
My cousin uses "Doch!" all the time.
― wolf kabob (ENBB), Monday, 12 March 2012 19:31 (twelve years ago) link
doch!
― caek, Monday, 12 March 2012 19:50 (twelve years ago) link
I often feel this strange temptation to start all my sentences "naja", regardless of meaning
― instant coffee happening between us (a passing spacecadet), Monday, 12 March 2012 21:20 (twelve years ago) link
Entirely too many actual German people do the same thing. A cheesy tic. Worst German verbal tic I ever heard was a dude who began EVERY sentence with "im Grunde genommen" (which is basically "basically".)
― Three Word Username, Monday, 12 March 2012 21:33 (twelve years ago) link
Haha, I also had that same temptation. And the one to start any sentence I felt like with "aber."
― Everything You POLL Is RONG (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 12 March 2012 21:56 (twelve years ago) link
"doch" is an awesome word.
― kurwa mać (Polish for "long life") (Eisbaer), Tuesday, 13 March 2012 00:03 (twelve years ago) link
"naja" lol yeah my family uses that one A LOT.
― wolf kabob (ENBB), Tuesday, 13 March 2012 00:06 (twelve years ago) link
"also" = another "falscher Freund" for english speakers.
― kurwa mać (Polish for "long life") (Eisbaer), Tuesday, 13 March 2012 00:10 (twelve years ago) link
or, my German teacher's favorite corny joke: beware Germans bearing Gift.
In Norwegian, "gift" means both "poison" and "married," since both of these have to do with something being given.
― Everything You POLL Is RONG (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 13 March 2012 01:19 (twelve years ago) link
ha I read james redd's post and was about to say "Doesn't "Gift" mean poison in German too? but then finally got Eisbaer's teacher's joke which went over my head yesterday.
― wolf kabob (ENBB), Wednesday, 14 March 2012 03:15 (twelve years ago) link
The German for dowry is "Mitgift". The words for poison and for giving have a common root in Germanic languages. Dunno exactly how that is.
― Three Word Username, Wednesday, 14 March 2012 05:03 (twelve years ago) link
"lake" is der See(m), and "sea" is die See(f).why??
― Mayan Calendar Deren (doo dah), Wednesday, 14 March 2012 11:07 (twelve years ago) link
http://ia600807.us.archive.org/zipview.php?zip=/32/items/olcovers662/olcovers662-L.zip&file=6623696-L.jpg
― Everything You POLL Is RONG (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 14 March 2012 11:11 (twelve years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9v2XBNVRtw
Sort of german-related Q:
My wife recently taught me two hebrew onomotopaeic words that I think are hilarious. The word for fart is "fletz" and the word for burp is "grebtz." We both guessed that they were probably of germanic origin, but google translate offers completely different german words for burp and fart. Does anyone recognize these words as German-derived?
― the prurient pinterest (Hurting 2), Wednesday, 14 March 2012 18:53 (twelve years ago) link
fletz looks German/Yiddish, but it might come from Latin - isn't the Latin for fart "flattus"? Or maybe FLT is the indo-european root for flatulence that somehow made its way into Hebrew.
― The New Dirty Vicar, Wednesday, 14 March 2012 19:00 (twelve years ago) link
Oh yeah it could have been a yiddishized version of a romance language word. Yiddish got cross-polinated with all kinds of other languages.
― the prurient pinterest (Hurting 2), Wednesday, 14 March 2012 19:03 (twelve years ago) link
I.e. a romance language word germanicized via yiddish.
it could also have just been a made-up yiddish word, since it's onomotopaeic
― the prurient pinterest (Hurting 2), Wednesday, 14 March 2012 19:04 (twelve years ago) link
Think those words originated in a Don Martin cartoon
― Everything You POLL Is RONG (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 14 March 2012 19:38 (twelve years ago) link
whoa i have the hangover gang over
― caek, Thursday, 22 March 2012 15:04 (twelve years ago) link
The Katzenjammer Kids?
― Radio Boradman (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 22 March 2012 15:29 (twelve years ago) link
stimmt
― caek, Thursday, 22 March 2012 15:32 (twelve years ago) link
2-week-delayed Starkbierreaktion?
― Doch! (seandalai), Thursday, 22 March 2012 16:41 (twelve years ago) link
no i went last night for some research
the trip with 14 people is on sunday
― caek, Thursday, 22 March 2012 16:42 (twelve years ago) link
http://i.minus.com/iwuilMSTZBfvA.JPG
there are lolzier photos but my housemate has an amazing ability to look like she's having a stroke in every photo of her drinking, so it wouldn't be fair to post them
― caek, Thursday, 22 March 2012 16:48 (twelve years ago) link
lol
what the heck are you all talking about anyway?
― wolf kabob (ENBB), Thursday, 22 March 2012 16:49 (twelve years ago) link
on this thread or in the photo?
― caek, Thursday, 22 March 2012 16:51 (twelve years ago) link
Wait maybe I need to read back more. Was there a festival or something?
― wolf kabob (ENBB), Thursday, 22 March 2012 16:52 (twelve years ago) link
ja http://www.nockherberg.com/starkbierfest.html
― caek, Thursday, 22 March 2012 16:53 (twelve years ago) link
that's the spillover room
the main room looked like the fall of rome
― caek, Thursday, 22 March 2012 16:58 (twelve years ago) link
Can't believe I missed a chance to rave about the awesomeness of Hildegard Knef a week ago. I love you, Hildegard!
― emil.y, Thursday, 22 March 2012 17:15 (twelve years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tz9zFdB5_QQ
― Three Word Username, Thursday, 22 March 2012 18:15 (twelve years ago) link
One of my favorite beginner German sentences is "Unser fisch ist immer frisch!"
― i don't believe in zimmerman (Hurting 2), Tuesday, 27 March 2012 05:08 (twelve years ago) link
zauberlehrling
― The term “hipster racism” from Carmen Van Kerckhove at Racialicious (nakhchivan), Sunday, 22 April 2012 17:07 (twelve years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3MYdNMA8wM4
― a big fat fucking fat guy in a barrel what could be better? (Eisbaer), Sunday, 29 April 2012 02:24 (twelve years ago) link
die Tausendfüßler
― Nu Metal is the best music there is, the rest is pussy shit. (Eisbaer), Tuesday, 1 May 2012 12:26 (twelve years ago) link