Hello everyone,
and welcome back your favorite German learning resource, this time with a new episode of “EFTAWDLW”.
Which is short for “Exercise for the article we did last week”. of course. I mean… duh.
Most.Obvious.Abbreviation.Ever.
But seriously, last week, we talked about the different ways of translating to turn, and today, we’ll practice that a little bit.
How to turn in German – The Quiz
Now, originally, I wanted to do this really big comprehensive exercise that covers all fringe instances as well. But as I was preparing that, it felt more and more messy and disjointed. So I actually reduced it a little bit again to a managable size.
If there’s too much stuff, too many different contexts and words, then things get confusing.
So instead of bingeing, we’ll do 15 questions that cover the most important aspects of turning in German.
And with each answer, I’ll give you a some commentary as to what’s going on. So you don’t just test yourself, you can actually LEARN.
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Great quiz! Thanks. But please avoid horrible American neologism “DAI-sect” – it’s spelled and pronounced “dis-sect” :)
What do you mean with “DAIsect”? Did I spell it that way? Because I don’t think I did.
Not sure why I didn’t get credit for what I really would say after the wrong turn ;-)
Because the question was how you express the fact of taking a wrong turn, not how to express how you feel about it.
You have to read the questions with care and not be on your phone at the same time.
(I’m kidding, of course)
Happy to have knocked a couple of 15/15s out over the last few days (after a sloppy 11/15 first time around, having not read the accompanying article very closely — yeah, yeah, excuses, excuses…). Thus I’m delighted to be able to claim that several useful aspects of _turning_ in German have been successfully tattooed onto my brain.
Thumbs up for both the format and the accompanying commentary: I really enjoy this sort of task, and it makes (for me, at least) the relevant distinctions much clearer and more memorable.
Making the quizzes this way, with explanations, feels quite “right” to me too, so I’ll do more like that going forward.
Hi! a question about word order. In:
– Thomas denkt, dass sich alles um ihn dreht.
is “sich” necessarily at the beginning of the clause or can it go somewhere else?
You can swap it with “alles” but that’s less “smooth”.
“sich” and all reflexives tend to come VERY early.
What if the subject is a bit more concrete? I think the world spins.
Ich denke, dass die Welt sich dreht.
oder
Ich denke, dass sich die Welt dreht.
Which seems better to you?
The first one feels a bit better, but if you switch “Welt” mit “Erde”, then the second one has an edge. That might just be me, and just this moment. Maybe two months from now I’d feel different. When in doubt, stick with number 2, I’d say.
A big heartfelt thank you to Emanuel for all the hard work he puts into his articles, and to the generous souls behind sponsoring memberships and allowing us to be part of this great community! :)
Another fun and useful quiz, thanks. I managed 14/15.
Would it be possible to have all these recent quizzes grouped together somewhere on the site one day, so they are easier to find and go back to and practice regularly?
Good idea! It’s definitely possible, I just have to do some setting up. I’ll add it to my todo list :)
actually i had this thought too : )
Actually, I only want to be thankful to “yourdailygerman” site for helping me in learning German language via a great registration plan which is really useful for people who are just like me and spreads humanity exactly too. I could get an account for free by sponsorship helps. And special thanks to kind sponsors.
viel spaß
Willkommen :)!
Hi Emanuel,
Why do you say ‘…lasst uns umdrehen’ and not ‘…lass uns umdrehen’?
I’m imagining a plural audience, so more than one person. You could still use “lass” but I was going for the more “correct” option here.
Hope that helps.
Greetings, everyone!
I’m thrilled to be part of this vibrant community, all thanks to the generous souls who sponsored memberships for others. A heartfelt thank you to those wonderful individuals!
Hallo,
Let’s turn to some typos:
“welcome back your favorite your favorite” (welcome back to your favorite)
“binging” (bingeing)
“And then, if you still have open questions or you feel like you need more examples” (I suppose you were going to suggest we write them in the comments)
I missed three, I suppose I need to go over the difference between wenden an umdrehen, I don’t think I understand it yet.
Great quiz, will do it again when I go back home… I’m in Essen to go see DER 80ER tomorrow :)))))
What’s “DER 80ER”??
Auf jeden Fall viel Spaß dir!!
Die perfekte Art zu üben. Die Erklärungen bedeuten, dass die Übung nicht nur eine Prüfung ist. Und danke, dass Sie immer sagen, dass Sie sich keine Sorgen machen müssen, wenn Sie Fehler machen. Ich will immer 100 % erreichen, aber es ist gut, sich daran zu erinnern, dass ich noch viel lernen muss.
Danke für das schöne Feedback. Und ja… wenn man die Übung mit 100% schafft, dann braucht man sie nicht wirklich :).
Hallo lieber Emanuel,
Der Wunderschöner Frühling ist endlich da, die Vögel singen überall in den Wald et unseren Umgebung. Ich wünsche alle Leute und selbstverständlich, dir lieber Emanuel in besonderes einen schönen Jahr in diesen natürlich kosmische Zyklus .
Ich habe nur 9 auf 15 recht gehabt.ich solle darüber nachdenken und dazu zurückkommen um besser verschienden Nuancen diesen Verben zu verstehen.
Herztlichen Dank.
Schönen Tag nach Berlin
Poetisch :)!!
Ich wünsche dir auch ein schönes Jahr, mit viel Natur und Ruhe! Und natürlich viele neue Nuancen für Deutsch!
14/15. The second question got me confused between drehen and umdrehen but i think it’s clear now. Like.. drehen could be any degree (45, 90, 180…) but umdrehen could only be 180 degree. Is that right?
Pretty much, yes.
– Ich drehe mich zu dir.
Could be a 90 degree turn. Or 270
– Ich drehe mich zu dir um.
This sounds like you’re behind me.
Thanks for the clarification! The quiz was really great to test what we’ve learned last week, appreciate the effort!
First attempt last night 12/15, just now 15/15.
Thomas denkt, dass sich immer alles um ihn dreht
Interested in the word order here. I’m wondering if there are different potential word orders – would it be wrong if “alles” was immedietly after “dass”? because thats kinda where I want to put it….
– “…, dass alles sich”
This sounds a bit bumpy.
Generally, the word order in side sentences is MUCH more strict than in main sentences, but in this one, you also switch “immer” und “alles”.
The version I picked just sounds more gooder. To me.
ok, thanks, well then its a timely reminder I really really need to look at the topic of word order again…
you also switch “immer” und “alles”.
i just started wondering if alles immer um sounds better to me than immer alles um because its in alphabetical order. I mean, alphabetical order definitely a thing in english with adjectives e.g. the “big red dog” instead of the “red big dog”. I’m now thinking where else in english this tendency exists.
Unfortunately this might be yet another case of my english language way of thinking not being very helpful when it comes to german *sighs*
To me, the chunking is “sich immer alles um” which is a nice gradual shift down from a “bright” vowel to a “dark” one: i – a – u.
I think ordering words alphabetically is too brainy to be influencing spoken language. Put on the spot, I wouldn’t even know what’s first “i” or “u”. I’d have to THINK for a second.
As for the order of adjectives in English… as far as I know there is a very elaborate fixed template which has “size” come before “color”. I don’t think that has anything to do with the vowels.
Here’s a bit more about that:
https://yourdailygerman.com/order-of-adjectives-german/
ah thats true, cus “a blue large dog” sounds wrong… thanks for the link!
btw, what do you mean by “chunking”
What I perceive as “one chunk” in a given context. You could also say “cluster”. And for me the “sich” kind of groups up with the rest, if our perspective is “sound”.
Such constructions require a reflexive, no way around it (forgive the pun!). “Die Welt dreht SICH ums Geld!” WIthout the “sich”, the sentence makes no sense in German.
English requires no reflexive whatsoever and therefore makes pertect sense: “The world revolves around money!”, plus, it loses as it doesn’t rhyme either:-)
did you mean to reply to someone else? i ask as my question had nothing to do with whether reflexive was necessary : )
Apologies! My post was intended for someone else on the Blog.