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My American mathematician grandfather’s German was good enough to socialize and discuss physics with Einstein and Schroedinger.
While on sabbaticla in Berlin in 1932 he wrote to his children, “Wir werden uns beim Wiedersehen freuen, und wie!”
“And how!” was colloquial American (a bit archaic now). My question is, is “und wie!” colloquial German, or does it sound weird (or would it have sounded weird in 1932)?
It’s definitely in colloquial use today pretty much in exactly the way of your example. It’s really interesting to hear that this existed in American English as well.!!
I expect we adopted it. He tended to be more formal in speech than most, but who knows? Perhaps he was letting his hair down for the kids. Anyway, intersting, good to know, many thanks
Just saw this:
“ein schöner Wirrwarr, wie ?”
I hadn’t come across ” wie” So this is like kind of like “oder” I guess?
PS you missed a couple of other questions here Emanuel
Thanks for the heads-up!!
In Berlin dialect, we’d say “wa?” so in that sense this “wie” is really familiar, but I would never actually say “wie”.
It’s like “isn’t it?” in English.
yeah I was thinking about the berliner “wa” and also “ge” which I hear a collegue from west germany use quiet a lot. But wa also has a bit more of a broader range of uses right, like, you can also be like: ” schönen Tag noch wa” right ? so I didn’t mention it.
How common is this use of “wie” ? does it strike you as unusual?
Do you mean the actual “wie” or “wa”?
i meant the wie in this context:
“ein schöner Wirrwarr, wie ?”
To me, it’s super weird, but that might be regional or an age thing.
I checked out the articles on WIE but am not finding what I am looking for. I am describing a scene in Gute Nacht Gorilla. I want to say “On this page we see the Gorilla opening the cage of the Lion”. KI wants to replace my dass with wie. Auf diesem Bild sehen wir, WIE der Gorilla den Löwenkäfig öffnet. This feels like ‘how’ to me which is going somewhere else in meaning. I’ve tried my sentence without dass and KI adds wie no matter what. Did I miss where this is discussed here or is this a special kind of ‘that’? Thanks
Great question, and apologies for missing it earlier!
This “wie” is kind of like “as”:
This “wie” is REALLY common in situations where someone observes something (visually or via audio) that happens or is done by someone.
WOW, a blast from the past. Thanks for getting to this. This is really interesting and very useful. Thanks!
Duden online has wie as an adverb meaning in what way, by what means – a questioner which equates nicely to ‘how’.
It also quotes wie as a conjunction meaning like-as – acting as a comparer. is this correct?
Thanks.
Oh true!!
I have added that meaning now. Thanks and sorry for never responding :)