Archive By Wordtype

Here, you can find the articles about words and word families sorted by word type (and in alphabetical order).
This archive does not include grammar posts and also not specials like reviews, Advent Calendar posts or other hidden gems ;).

Last Updated: July 2024

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Anonymous

I was reading your page on the ver- prefix and it’s made this vocab make so much more sense. is there a similar common meaning of the an- prefix in nouns?

Admin

Emanuel

Reply to Anonymous

No, I don’t have anything for “an” yet.

But I do have for “auf” and “aus” and er, zer, ent and be.

“an” with nouns… it’ll almost always be a derivative of “an” + a verb.

I do have an overview over all an-verbs of my dictionary here:

https://yourdailygerman.com/word-type/an_verb/

monsonjon

Usage question… the verb nehmen seems quite complex and I’m sorry I don’t see that it has a discussion of its own. I am trying to make sense of… Als ob das Fieber, die Krankheit, mit ihr den Anfang genommen hätte. (Ewald Arenz,).
As if the fever, the sickness, had taken its beginning with her. ???
Arenz is a terrific writer. Even with my basic German I can tell some of his lines are poetry.

Author

Emanuel

Reply to monsonjon

I indeed don’t have a specific article on “nehmen”, because there’s no real narrative or connections to explore. It’s just a very long list of prefix verbs and then some collocations like the one you mentioned. “seinen/ihren Anfang nehmen” is just a fixed phrase for example, a fancy way for “to start”, usually used for a process.

If you give me a bit more of that quote I can tell you what exactly he means here. I assume that someone is sick and started getting sick, right after “she” was interacting with the person in some way. But I might be wrong.

monsonjon

Reply to Emanuel

Sie haben Recht. His fever began with her.
Vielen Dank.

DamunaTaliffato

I would love to also have the English-> German dictionary! For example, the entry “to steal” would give you the most common ways to say steal, stehlen, klauen and entwenden maybe, explaining the differences between them.

Author

Emanuel

Reply to DamunaTaliffato

I do kind of have that… in my dictionary:

https://yourdailygerman.com/dictionary/?dictionary=1&s=to+steal

DamunaTaliffato

Reply to Emanuel

Of course, but what I mean is to have the entry to steal, with the german translations grouped together. It is easy to put everything together with an easy verb like to steal, but it would become overwhelming with something like ‘to put’, to reconstruct the main usages.

Author

Emanuel

Reply to DamunaTaliffato

Oh, now I understand. I do have some articles like “How to say X in German”. Are there many words where you wonder about that and would like such a type of article? “to put” is a bit too crazy maybe, at least if I were to include all the phrasal versions like “to put up with, to put out etc”.

DamunaTaliffato

Reply to Emanuel

Nothing specific, I just think it would be handy to make Anki cards

Tom

My Home Screen suddenly changed a few days ago and I can’t see which articles I’ve read (checked off) and which ones I haven’t. Help!

Author

Emanuel

Reply to Tom

Sounds like you might be logged out. Could you check that and send me an email if that’s not the problem?

namron

Can you explain if there is any connection between the word “herd” meaning “stove” and “herde” meaning” a “herd of cows”?
What is the entomology? Thank you.

Author

Emanuel

Reply to namron

German “Herd” is related to “hearth” which ties in with the family of “carbon” and “cremate”. No connection to the “herd”.

DamunaTaliffato

I would love to be able to order by value!

Author

Emanuel

Reply to DamunaTaliffato

You mean for the dictionary entries or for the articles?

Mike

I’d love to see „schließen“ appear as a word of the day sometime. Keeping its prefix forms straight is making me insane. And what’s up with abschließen apparently being both lock and unlock, at least for bikes? Inquiring minds want to know! Danke sehr!

Author

Emanuel

Reply to Mike

Good idea!! That’d make for a good overview style post.

“Inquiring minds want to know!”

I think for a door, the logic is similar to saying “blocking off”. The “ab” emphasizes the “separation” that a locked door creates.
For a bike, the logic is that you “attach” it to a lamp pole (anschließen) and detach it (abschließen).
Hope that helps :)

Rosekidsmom

So you have a section here on bathroom/toilet talk? It’s maybe a little strange, but I cannot figure it out well and trying to help my youngest potty train in German at his daycare is frustrating! I just don’t know which words are polite, impolite, and somewhere in between. Words/phrases only for children? Between friends, but not at the office or in public? Any chance there’s a good resource if you don’t have this here?

mikehinton

I would enjoy reading your explanation, in your distinctive style, of the many ways that the German language uses the ge- prefix, and how it and its use in different word formations came to be. Using ge- to form the Partizip Perfekt of verbs is obvious, and it scratches the surface, but there are many other uses as well.

Author

Emanuel

Reply to mikehinton

Absolutely coming soon!
It’s half finished, actually.

Rosekidsmom

Sorry if you’ve dealt with this somewhere else, but no matter what I do, including allowing cookies, my Samsung internet phone browser won’t let me stay logged on. As soon as I leave the internet app for more than a couple of minutes, or close my internet app (though not my tabs), I am logged out of this site. I select “remember me” every time, but it never does. I can move between pages here on YDG, no problem. I just can never leave without having to log back in. Especially frustrating when I click on one of your email links, start the article, and then have to log in two paragraphs into the article. Any suggestions?

Last edited 1 year ago by Rosekidsmom

Author

Emanuel

Reply to Rosekidsmom

I have similar issues on my phone and desktop with a variety of websites, including big sites like Wix, so I’m not sure I can do anything about that on my end. I know it’s hugely annoying :/. Have you tried a different browser on your phone, by any chance?

Rosekidsmom

Reply to Emanuel

Sorry, I didn’t get the notification of your reply! I haven’t tried a different browser. I’ll check it out. Danke schön!

Steve68

Hi Emanuel, I am trying to understand the difference between when you do something with a body part and this requires the reflexive and when it instead needs a possessive. So for example “Ich habe mir den Fuss verdreht” or “Ich habe mir den Zeh gestossen”, but “Ich habe meinen Kopf gehoben”. Thankyou.

Author

Emanuel

Reply to Steve68

Nice question!!

I think the key here is some sense of “external modification”. Or a sense of being the recipient of something.

– twisting your foot – you receive pain and injury
– bumping the toe – you receive pain
– washing the hands – you receive clean hands (from yourself)
– brushing my teeth – you get clean teeth
– scatching my head – you get an itch taken care off (by yourself)

In all these, something is done TO YOU (maybe by yourself).

When you raise your head, there is no such thing. You move your head directly, without some “tool” acting on you.

– Ich hebe mir den Kopf.

That sounds like you put your head in some kind of contraption to then lift it.

Das that help?

Steve68

Reply to Emanuel

It absolutely does Emanuel, so thankyou so much! I was thinking it might be something to that effect, but it’s great to get confirmation from an expert :-)

Great website btw, I love how you go into the history and origins of words…..

Steve68

Reply to Emanuel

Oh, and I also meant to ask – I see the message you have put at the top of the landing page regarding those who crowdfunded the prefix/separable verb game last winter. Do you have any thoughts about when the game might become more widely available? Thankyou.

Author

Emanuel

Reply to Steve68

It shouldn’t be too long actually, I’ll look into that as soon as I have shipped the crowdfunding cards.

Steve68

Reply to Emanuel

Great, thanks :-)

Cucciadati

Auf englisch sagt man drive a car and ride a mmotorcycle. What is idiomatic for ride a motorcycle?

Author

Emanuel

Reply to Cucciadati

German uses “fahren” for both.

Author

Emanuel

Wow, you did a deep dive. I learned quite a bit from this, too!!

As for “der Krug geht so lange…” – I honestly don’t even know what this expression is supposed to mean in German, so I cannot translate it. I do know it, but I do not know what the “wisdom” is.

namron

The English word “skirt” translates to “der Rock”
The German “der Rock” translates to “skirt”
The English word “rock” is “der Felson”
The word “der Stein” in English is “stone”, because of the traditional stone/clay that drinking vessels were made from.
The etymology of the word is either from “Steinkrug” (meaning stone jug/mug) or from “Steingut” (meaning stone goods).
Octoberfest tankards are also referred to as “Masskrug” (Beer mug). Steins were mugs often used for drinking beer. What we do know is that drinking vessels during the Renaissance were commonly made of earthenware or wood, with only the wealthy using pewter mugs. Unfortunately both wood and earthenware are porous and impossible to clean properly and would slowly grow rancid with use.

The stein came along after experiments in firing earthenware resulted in the discovery of stoneware. Stoneware is essentially earthenware fired at high temperture for such a prolonged period that it results in a strong stone-like material. This material is resistant to breakage and it is non-porous and easier to keep clean. Thus there was a presence of stoneware drinking vessels for the next 300 years with the word “der Stein” coming to mean “a stone vessel or mug” and then just “stone”.
The lid goes back to the plague epidemics in the 14th century, when millions of people died of black plague. After the plague, Central Europe was swarming with deadly shoals of mosquitoes. That is why in the 16th century there was a German decree that all food and drink containers should be covered to protect them from dangerous insects. This is how the beer mug lid was created.
With the arrival of pewter (tin), the upper class used the steins and lids as a kind of status symbol with elaborate decorations. In combination with the stoneware stein, these lids also preserved the cold and freshness of the drink for much much longer.

Translation of “Krug” – (German–English dictionary)
a milk jug. pitcher [noun] a large jug. a pitcher of water. tankard [noun] a largedrinking-mug of metal, glass, etc.

Any corrections? This was gathered from many sources.

What would you say is the meaning of the idiom –
der krug geht so long zum Brunnen bis er bricht.
(The jug goes to the well until it breaks)

By the way, I have learned more German from your Word of the Day than any on-line garmmer. Danke schon!

Author

Emanuel

Reply to namron

Wow, you did a deep dive. I learned quite a bit from this, too!!

namron

I don’t know why I am so bothered by the word “rock”. I just guess that everyone is confused about some word. “Rock” is definitely a False Friend. But I think I have gotten to the bottom(ha/ha) of this.
The English word “skirt” translates to “der Rock”
The German “der Rock” translates to “skirt”
The German word for the English word “rock” is “der Felson”
“der Stein” in English is “stone”, because of the traditional stone/clay that they were made from.
The etymology of the word is either from “Steinkrug” (meaning stone jug/mug) or from “Steingut” (meaning stone goods).
Octoberfest tankards are also referred to as “Masskrug” (Beer mug). Steins were mugs often used for drinking beer. What we do know is that drinking vessels during the Renaissance were commonly made of earthenware or wood, with only the wealthy using pewter mugs. Unfortunately both wood and earthenware are porous and impossible to clean properly and would slowly grow rancid with use.
The stein came along after experiments in firing earthenware resulted in the discovery of stoneware. Stoneware is essentially earthenware fired at high temperture for such a prolonged period that it results in a strong stone-like material. This material is resistant to breakage and it is non-porous and easier to keep clean. Thus there was a presence of stoneware drinking vessels for the next 300 years with the word “der Stein” coming to mean “a stone vessel or mug” and then just “stone”.
The lid goes back to the plague epidemics in the 14th century, when millions of people died of black plague. After the plague, Central Europe was swarming with deadly shoals of mosquitoes. That is why in the 16th century there was a German decree that all food and drink containers should be covered to protect them from dangerous insects. This is how the beer mug lid was created.
With the arrival of pewter (tin), the upper class used the steins and lids as a kind of status symbol with elaborate designs. In combination with the stone stein, these lids also preserved the cold and freshness of the drink for much much longer.
Translation of Krug – (German–English dictionary)
a milk jug. pitcher [noun] a large jug. a pitcher of water. tankard [noun] a large drinking-mug of metal, glass etc.
Any corrections?
What would you say is the meaning of the idiom –
der Krug geht so long zum Brunnen bis er bricht
(The jug goes to the well until it breaks)
And by the way,I have leaned more German from your Word of the Day than any on-line grammer. Danke schon!

namron

Thank you for the quick response.
I am surprised to hear you say that you have not heard of Stein and beer. German beer steins are highly collectible.
https://germanclocksandgifts.com/collections/beer-steins

Author

Emanuel

Reply to namron

I think this might actually be an English term.

I put in “Bierstein” on image search and I get mostly actual rocks with some beer related writing on it.
Wikipedia German doesn’t mention the definition either and only mentions some sediment and an ingredient for beer.

So I’m pretty sure Germans actually do not call it Bierstein.
The pick you linked to is a Krug to me.

namron

Can you write a Word of the Day lessen on “der Rock”. It seems to mean “stone” but also occurs as “skirt” and a “man’s coat”. How does that happen? But “rock” in English translates as “Stein”. Is Stein still used in Germany for a beer mug? And when you search for “rock” in German on the web you get “der Felson”???
And what about the verb “schaukeln” — to rock. I am sure you will have some hunorous things to say about all of this. Thanks for such a great site.

Author

Emanuel

Reply to namron

“Rock” does not mean “stone” in German.

“skirt” and an old school word for some male dress is what it is.
And I have never heard “Stein” used in the context of beer.

The article would be more like “How to translate rock to German”, but I think it’s not really a topic that causes a lot of actual confusion :).
So yeah, I don’t think I’ll do that any time soon.

But I do appreciate the suggestion, and if you have questions about Rock, I’m happy to answer them in my dictionary here:

https://yourdailygerman.com/meaning/rock/

Vxx

Hi Emanuel. Have you ever thought about a filter where you could filter for words by grammar – particularly case. Say like so you could filter just to see genetiv Präpositionen or verbs that take dativ etc?

Author

Emanuel

Reply to Vxx

No, because especially for verbs, that’ll often just be one of the meanings/ideas. And I’d have to tag everything by hand, which I don’t have time for right now. Like… I’d rather add more entries in the time that I dedicate to the dictionary per week.
There are good lists out there though, POns has some good ones, for example.

[email protected]

Hi Emanuel,
Just to boost your day, the more I explore your site the more phenomenal I find it. I am currently fiddling with the YDG dictionary section. Is there a way I can find a list of the words I’ve entered and made notes on? Right now I can only find them by tracking them in the search box.

Thanks so much

Author

Emanuel

Reply to [email protected]

Yeah, there is. It’s one of the “under construction” areas of the site and I forgot to actually link to it, but here it is:

https://yourdailygerman.com/my-vocabulary/

I’ll definitely change the layout and design of that over the coming months. You can collapse/expand single ideas just by tapping on them.

Mosab

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