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1500 questions
13
votes
3 answers
Meaning of "vor sich hin"
In Harry Potter, the sentence
Mr. Dursley hummed as he picked out his most boring tie for work, ...
is translated as
Mr. Dursley summte vor sich hin und suchte sich für die Arbeit seine langweiligste Krawatte aus, ...
My question is: What does…
Mika H.
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13
votes
6 answers
When one says "A ist schlechter als B", does it imply that both are "bad"?
Consider the phrase
Auf Schach bezogen bin ich schlechter als dieser Kumpel.
Does saying this imply that we both are schlechte Spieler, but that that guy is even worse? That is, if I use the comparative of an adjective, do the objects posses the…
c.p.
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13
votes
3 answers
How come there are two ways to conjugate the same verb? (e.g. erschrecken)
Take, for sake of concreteness, the verb erschrecken:
Du erschrickst vor Kakerlaken (du gerätst in Panik, wenn du Kakerlaken siehst)
to be compared with
Du erschreckst sie, wenn du trinkst.
Firstly, I don't understand why it has two…
c.p.
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13
votes
6 answers
Level of grammatical correctness of native German speakers
I have been studying and struggling with German for quite some time now. I am quite frankly amazed of how difficult it is to learn the declinations.
What struck me the other day is that all these different declinations, fall into a very restricted…
Materia Dura
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13
votes
2 answers
How much are colloquial reductions of spoken German taught?
Sometimes I ask myself how clear a Non-German can understand spoken German when it comes to reductions like
hammer / simmer / gehmer - haben wir / sind wir / gehen wir
haste / biste / weißte - hast du / bist du / weißt du
eimannfrei -…
äüö
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13
votes
2 answers
Why is this "weder" and not "entweder"?
I was endeavoring to translate the following sentence from Asimov's, I, Robot:
He cast one glance over his shoulder at the blackness of the cliff’s shadow and realized that he had come too far to return — either by himself or by the help of his…
user44591
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13
votes
4 answers
How to pronounce "Gröbner"?
I'm a math PhD student and a very important concept for my work is that of a Gröbner basis, named after Austrian mathematician Wolfgang Gröbner.
My colleagues all disagree on the correct pronunciation of this name. Some say "Grobner" where the "o"…
morrowmh
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13
votes
7 answers
Is there a difference in meaning between 'wütend sein' and 'wüten'?
For example, do
Der Chef ist wütend.
and
Der Chef wütet.
mean the same thing?
I'm asking because the German for English Speakers site says
The present participle is a way of using a verb as an adjective, and in German it's only used right…
RDBury
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13
votes
6 answers
»Late«, »too late«, »spät«, and »zu spät«. What equivalences are there?
In English, there is a distinct difference (at least where I live) in the meaning of the following two ideas:
to be late
to be too late.
»Too late« carries an implication (albeit perhaps a tacit one) that one will be too late for something to…
CrimsonDark
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13
votes
3 answers
"Mindestens" vs "zumindest". Gibt es einen Unterschied?
Im Internet gibt es keinen klaren Unterschied dazwischen, aber meine Lehrerin hat mich mehrmals dafür verbessert (und danach habe ich den Unterschied wieder vergessen).
Könnt ihr bitte auch ein paar Beispiele geben?
vlad-ardelean
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13
votes
1 answer
How to pronounce "=" in mathematics or in related disciplines?
In English mathematical sign = is typically pronounced as equals
For example A = B is pronounced: A is equal to B or in programming A != B is pronounced A is not equal to B
How do you pronounce it in German?
iasonotk
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13
votes
2 answers
Hyperpluralfolgen
On page 77 in Topologische Differentialalgebra by U. Gebhardt et al. which I found on MathOverflow, there is this exercise that asks the reader to find sequences of consecutive singular/plural pairs:
Aufgabe 4 (Hyperpluralfolgen)
Eine Folge von…
Bixxli
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13
votes
2 answers
Why is the size written in accusative?
In the following sentence
Es ist nur einen Zentimeter groß.
why is it written with Accusative and not Nominative?
Frau Ferry
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13
votes
1 answer
Word composition in German
When we have a German word composed of two or more terms, is there always an 's' between the two words? Someone who lived in Germany for a long time told me that there is always an 's', but as far as I remember there are words that don't need 's' in…
Mansuro
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13
votes
2 answers
What is the difference between "Künstler" and "Artist"?
So, I'm a noob at German, but I'm trying to read a book on Nietzsche and in some part the author characterizes Nietzsche as "ein ... Sprachkünstler und Sprachartist". What is the difference between a Künstler and an Artist? How could I interpret…
Gabriel B.
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