Hello everyone,
and welcome to our G__man Word of the Day, this time with a look at
die Lü cke
And I think you already know now what it is –
a Lü cke is a ga p :).
Here it is in a sentence.
- Der Bär ist durch eine kleine Lücke im Fluss geflogen.
- The bear flew through a little gap in the river.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
Yes!
This example just happened. So what. Don’t look at me like that.
I have normal examples, too, though so let’s take a look.
Just mind the gap between intro and article :)
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We have a famous small town in Texas, called Luekenbach. There are pehaps 4 or 5 residents. It has an outdoor venue where local country western musicians play weekends. Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard often played there. They even have their own post office. It’s a big attraction for Harley Davidson owners. It’s in the Hill Country in central Texas. Heaven on Earth!
Ha, yeah, that sounds 100% like it could be a place in Southern Germany.
But here, it would have 50.000k residents, probably some medium size machine engineering business no one knows and it would be so clean, it’s almost sterile.
There are two english words that compare with Gaffen.
There’s just ‘gape,’ which means to stare at something (with your mouth open) at something in wonder.
There’s also ‘gawk,’ which describes pretty much the same thing, but implies stupidity or confusion.
Cool, thanks :). Is one of the two used in the context of being an “audience” to an accident?
‘Gape’ doesn’t mean stare at all, it means to be open, usually dramatically. You’re not alone, others (Janis Ian among them) have made this mistake, probably because to ‘gaze’ is to stare at something. Your mouth can gape with your eyes closed and you can gaze at something with your mouth closed.
So regarding “Mut zur Lücke”: you mention it’s more like a battle cry ironically used to talk about a gap in knowledge/preparation? There’s an expression from Shakespeare that came to mind: “Once more unto the breach!” from Henry V. (“Breach” would be a gap in enemy lines or a wall.) It definitely wouldn’t work in the context of “I’m just going to hope not studying this material doesn’t come back to bite me.”
Trust my luck. (oder Lücke?)
You could actually just say that Thomas was gaping at Maria’s sister. That means to stare at with an open mouth.
Oh wow, easy then :)!
We say gawping which you can direct at Maria’s sister or an accident. Gawping at the latter happens in England and does cause further accidents sometimes.
Would this also be the word in more official contexts? Like, in a police reports? Danke :)
Oh, and what’s the noun… gawper?
Thanks for you quick reply. Neither gape nor gawk really works but gawk is closer, though rarely used. Gawping is in common usage but not employed in any official context. There is not I think currently a noun associated with it. (Haven’t look it up in OED as I’ve been away.) Another possible phrase would be I’m chancing it’ or ‘taking a chance’ – implying volition and risk. All best .
This is a mistake commonly made because of the similarity to ‘gaze’, which means to stare.
Could this be a BE vs AE thing?
“Mut zur Lücke” – I can’t come up with any modern AE idiom that’s close to that. I ran across a line in German that translated to something like “You should have courage that the gap in your knowledge will not hinder you terribly though out your life.” As if we might say to someone, ” ‘nobody knows everything’, so be confident.” . .. With that in mind, “courage for the gap” makes sense to me.
It has nothing in regard to courage, but, at least in America, we might say I will “just let well enough do”. Along the line of what Bill wrote, “I’m so weary of studying, so que será, será.”
Oh, your example was probably using the word “Wissenslücke” in German, right?
That’s literally a gap in knowledge.
Mut zur Lücke is more like a battle cry before a test than a factual description of reality :)
You could say – take a leap into the dark.
This sounds both chancey and bold.
The thing with “Mut zur Lücke” is that you are fully aware that if the Lücke ends up being a topic, you’ll be screwed. So it’s a bit like leaping into the dark, hoping that it’s not dark there :)
“The old fragile bridge spans over the gaping abyss.” In english we’d normally leave out ‘over’, and just ‘span the gaping abyss’
Is it wrong to have it there or just odd?
Since no-one else has answered that question – to me it’s wrong. Understandable (both in the sense that the meaning is clear and that it’s easy to see how the mistake arises), but wrong. Span says all that’s needed. Stretches over (or across), arches over (or across), reaches over (…), but just spans.
Danke :)
I was asking because in German it’s different.
– Die Brücke spannt sich über den Fluss.
– Die Brücke überspannt den Fluss.
Both are NOT very idiomatic phrasings but “spannen” alone means “to insert tension”.
– Die Brücke spannt den Fluss.
That sounds like the bridge is stretching the river somehow… pipe dream material.
It seemseems as if German likes to make absolutely sure we’ve got the point. If I were wanting to express this, I’d say The fragile old bridge spanned the abyss. (Assuming abysses gape is okay.) We don’t have rules for word order like Germans do but English English native speakers wouldn’t say old, fragile.
Oh, that :). English actually has a very clear cut rule for the order of adjectives. I talked about the differences between German and English in last year’s Advent Calendar
https://yourdailygerman.com/2016/12/05/advent-calendar-order-of-adjectives/
But I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to get that part of English right :)
To say span over would be redundant.
Oh and die Lösung, the solution, because it fills a hole of knowledge? Maybe I’m not sleeping enough but it could be connected with some super special mind yoga?
Your mind yoga is strong, my friend! Books and sources will try to lure you away from what makes sense. Don’t listen to them.
(Lösung comes from “los” and is about freeing).
But seriously… having this kind of creativity is GREAT. Sometimes you find a connection, other times you’re off (happens to me all the time, I’m guessing around a lot), but you can use any connection to remember words.
What about löschen ergo to delete something. Does that not count as part of the family, by removing or deleting it leaves a gap. Surely it’s connected
Your reasoning makes much more sense than the actual relation of “löschen” which is most likely “to lie/liegen”. I think the common idea is “going to rest”.
But hey… just as Stephen Colbert said “Who’s an etymological dictionary to tell us what löschen is related to? ” :).
Löschen – Lücke… it really does make sense.
By the way, I would have reckoned “löschen” was related to “to lose”… but no :)
I would think it’d mean “ein kleines Los.” :D
The best translation I can give you for “Mut zur Lücke” is “to wing something” or to “hope for the best” or maybe even combining them. I’ll give you an some examples in context:
“I’m not going to study adjective endings. I’m just going to wing it.”
“I’m not going to study adjective endings. I’m just going to hope for the best.”
“I’m not going to study adjective endings. I’m just going to wing it and hope for the best.”
Some other possible translations:
“Let the cards fall where they may.”
“Leave it up to chance.”
I think “leave it up to chance” and “hope for the best” are the best fits because they have this notion of a gamble. You know that they can’t cover everything in the exam and you gamble that you leave out the right topic in preparation. Winging it is more wholesome, I feel like, and you’re planning to actually pull it off without preparation, whereas when you study using the “Mut zur Lücke”-approach, you know you’re screwed if adjective endings ends up a topic.
Es sieht so aus, als ob Deutsch wohl eine Redewendung für jeden Umstand hat. Leider ist “Mut zur Lücke” nicht übersetzbar, aber man könnte was wie “Hoping it doesn’t come up” sagen. “Gaze” besagt, dass jemand ganz abgelenkt bei etwas ist, aber “gawk” ist gut um einen neugierigen zu beschreiben. Wir sagen auch in Großbritannien “gawp”. Ein beliebtes Wort in so einem Umstand wird auch “rubberneck/ rubbernecking/ rubbernecker” sein.
Danke dir. “rubberneck” weil man den Kopf dreht, oder :)?
Und WOW… dein Deutsch ist echt gut!!! Zwei kleine Korrekturen:
– Wir sagen auch in GB…
Besser wäre: “wir sagen in GB auch..”
Wenn das “auch” vor GB kommt, dann klingt das so, als ob GB zu einem anderen Land dazugestellt werden soll, wo man das auch sagt.
– … in so einem Umstand…
Besser ist “in so einer Situation/in so einem Kontext”. Umstand ist zu abstrakt. Und es klingt immer ein bisschen nach “umständlich” :)
Danke für die hilfreichen Korrekturen Emanuel und auch für die freundlichen Komplimente. Du hast recht. Normalerweise “Rubbernecking” würde den Kopf benötigen zu drehen, aber trotzdem wird es häufig unrichtig verwendet.
Ist das in Großbritanien auch illegal? In Deutschland wurde vor kurzem ein Gesetz gemacht, da die Leute alles mit ihren Handies filmen und im Weg rumstehen. Fotos machen und Filmen kann richtig teuer werden… oder bis zu 2 Jahre Haft.
Ich glaube nicht so, mindestens habe ich davon noch nie gehört. Vielleicht gibt es keine Not, seitdem die Britische so schüchtern sind!
Oh, hier gibt es ein paar interessante Fehler :)
– Ich glaube nicht so… ohne “so”
– …, mindestens habe ich… hier ist “zumindest” die richtige Wahl
– …, seitdem Britische…
“seitdem” funktioniert nur für zeitliches “since”, nicht für Gründe. Da brauchst du “weil”. Und nicht Britische sondern “Briten” oder “Britische Leute”
Danke nochmals!