Hello everyone,
and welcome your German Word of the Day. And this time, we’ll do the second part of our look at schneiden. In the first part, we talked about schneiden itself and explored some related nouns like Schneide, schnitzen and of course der Schnitt.
And today, we shall get drunk on the well of usefulness, for today, we’ll talk about
The prefix versions of “schneiden”
And that of course includes all the prefix nouns like Aufschnitt, Abschnitt, Ausschnitt and so on.
I mean… the words from part one were okay, but these prefix versions… bro.. they’re like really next level. No cap.
You don’t really need to know part one to read this one today, but if you want to check it, you can find it here:
And now let’s jump right in.
***
We left off in part one with der Schnitt in the sense of average. Here’s the groundbreaking example again:
- Eine Stunde Arbeit dauert im Schnitt eine Stunde.
- One hour of works takes on average an hour.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
And the reason Schnitt has this meaning is our first prefix verb for today – durchschneiden.
“durchschneiden” and “Durchschnitt”
Taken literally, durchschneiden means “to cut through” and in essence, it’s used for the idea of cutting some sort of cord in half. Like a cable or some ribbon on a construction site.
- Ich habe aus Versehen dein Ladekabel durchgeschnitten.
- I accidentally cut your charger cable in two.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
So it’s not very useful as a verb, but the noun der Durchschnitt is an absolute must-have, because der Durchschnitt means the average. And the “logic” behind the meaning probably comes from the actual symbol: Ø.
A line “cutting through” a circle. The “through-cut”.
- Einhörner essen im Durchschnitt 5 Feen pro Tag.
- Unicorns eat on average five pixies per day.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
And this is why (im) Schnitt can mean on average. It’s just a shortened version of im Durchschnitt.
I’d recommend sticking with Durchschnitt though, because Schnitt by itself doesn’t always work and you have to know when it’s idiomatic.
Anyway, here’s a couple of examples for Durchschnitt as part of compounds:
- Was ist der Durchschnittsverdienst in Berlin?
- What’s the average income in Berlin?
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Der Durchschnittsdeutsche trinkt 108 Liter Bier im Jahr.
- The average German drinks 108 liters of beer per year.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
And let’s not forget the adjective durchschnittlich, which can mean average in a sense of … well… actual average, but also in the sense of “quality”.
- Die Gäste bleiben durchschnittlich 2 Stunden in dem Restaurant.
- On average, the guests stay for two hours at the restaurant.
(“im Durchschnitt” would mean the same here.)
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Die Suppe war ziemlich durchschnittlich.
- The soup was rather average.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Das Einhorn findet sich überdurchschnittlich intelligent.
- The unicorn thinks it has above average intelligence.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
All in all, a really useful word and definitely one to take home with you. Just remember the symbol:
Ø
der Durchschnitt (“the through cut”).
All right.
Moving on.
“abschneiden” and “der Abschnitt”
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“beschneiden” of course can also mean “to circumcise”.I tried to delete message just now, but was unsuccessful. Realized the example was already posted, apologies!
No worries :)
I must applaud you on your correct use of “No cap” I’m kinda amazed at some of the slang that travels, though, I gotta say as someone who works with a lot of Gen Z’ers (I’m one generation older), I’ve NEVER heard any of them use it. It feels like one of the slang terms that was almost immediately exclusively used ironically/jokingly and I really only hear it used by non Gen Z’ers mimicking Gen Z’ers
You’re right on the money :)!
I pick up this stuff on Youtube through osmosis, and then I sometimes like to use it ironically, not to mock Gen Z or anything, but to half mock myself and also to give a moment of confusion to the reader. Like… using out of place slang like that definitely begets attention, if subconsciouly.
“no cap” is especially funny to me, as I’m like one of the last people who should use it. I’m not American, I am not Gen Z (I’m Gen X) and I am not from the hood.
Interesting what you mentioned about it not actually really being use for real anymore. I also got it from a Youtube short comedy skit.
Poor Gen Z, the internet savy millenials and boomers coopted not only their future, but also coopt their slang (kidding of course).
Finally heard ‘No cap’ used irl (in a text) from one of my Gen Z coworkers, an update ich bin sicher dass du sehr nötig findet
Ha, so the millenials and gen X people basically front ran gen Z and used it ironically before it was even spread unironically. The internet makes it much harder for these youngins to have their own words :D
Read once. Blur out all the German. Read again. It’s as good as a quiz!
This makes me wonder if it would be worth thinking about adding some sort of quiz format that just goes through the examples again. Like, one by one. That way, you wouldn’t have to scroll the entire article.
Your email with German greetings & this article was a buffet on its own. Regarding the German “as the way it should be”, I think every learner would prefer that. On Duolingo I repeatedly translate “Popcorn” as “Puffmais” knowing I will get penalized. Of course that would be an extreme example. I also hear about how in Germany use of the Genitive is declining. I personally would like to enjoy all features.
So I had a cyst removed some years back in Berlin, and I very distinctly remember both the Hausarzt and the surgeon using “ausschneiden” for the procedure. Maybe that’s just a more technical preference? I think even at the time, I noticed it because I was expecting rausschneiden. Unless they meant to keep the cyst? … ……….
For what it’s worth re: Aufschnitt, you definitely see Käse-Aufschnitt on the label of mixed packs of sliced cheese at the supermarket (the ones with like 4 slices of Gouda, 2 of Edam, 1 each of Tilsiter and Emmentaler or whatever).
Sounds very jargon-y to me. I would definitely call it “rausschneiden”, and I cannot find a single instance for “Zyste ausschneiden” on Google. That’s a clear indication that it’s very rare.
Perfectly!
“Ich habe den Artikel aus der Zeitung ‘rausgeschnitten.”
“Hast du den Ausschnitt (snipet) aus der Zeitung gelesen?”
do you think abschneiden has something to with cut off? Like here when we apply for universities a cut off marks list is released and only those with higher than that marks get in. This time in my university the cut off was really high, it was 270, total marks were 300.
“abschneiden” and “cut off” are brothers in spirit for sure, but in this particular context “abschneiden” would not fit. I’m not sure actually how that would be phrased in German. Maybe something with “Grenze”.
Hate to be graphic here, but one can also speak of “abgeschnittene
Koerperteile” aka “dismembered body parts.
I agree. Although frankly “Grenze” as a verb, e.g. “abgrenzen” means more “to demarcate”, “to limit” than “cut off” in the literal sense.
Great! Context wins the day. When we cross borders “Grenze,” we don’t cut countries off from each other.
Hallo! Liebe Sponsoren und Emanuel, vielen Dank, dass Sie mir zu einem Abonnement verhelfen haben. It’s a privilege I wouldn’t have otherwise enjoyed if not for you guys.
Hallo! Thank you to those who pay extra to sponsor those of us who can’t pay for a subscription ourselves. I wouldn’t be able to use this website without your help. I’m generally pretty quiet, so I don’t expect to comment often, but I’m excited to learn German as part of this cool community :)
I’ve been wondering about “einschneidend.”
Which seem like “cutting deep” in a figurative way. Like, that really hit me hard, it affected me a lot. Dict.cc suggests “drastic” or “incisive”….
I guess it can be literal too. I found this example in a discussion about vasectomies:
Couldn’t resist sharing that :)
Badumm tishhhhh :)
Hallo,
Let’s rausschneiden some typos:
“cutting some sort of chord in half” (cutting some sort of cord in half)
“the guest stay for two hours” (the guests stay for two hours)
“Well yes, but that starting to get so specific” (Well yes, but that‘s starting to get so specific)
One question:
When Maria cuts the cake for the first time, “sie schneidet die Torte an”. What verb would be used for the person who cuts the cake again to get another slice, I think it’s abschneiden, but can you say “Thomas schneidet die Torte ab?”
Bis bald!
You’re spot on that the verb would be “abschneiden”, but the object of “abschneiden” is the piece, not the “whole”.
So it would be:
– Thomas schneidet ein Stück von der Torte ab.
Ausgezeichnete Arbeit!
Danke!!
Emanuel, this is the first article after the one where you introduced the super-cool feature of blurring the sentences. May I suggest something that at least for me would be an improvement? Link the choice to all the examples. So, if I blur out the first German sentence, then in the whole article, all the German sentences should be blurred. Or at least in the next example, it should also be blurred.
The way I use this excellent feature is to blur out the German and try to guess it from the English. I unblur it to see how close I got to your example. Then I would blur it again, BEFORE going to the next example. This way there’s no opportunity to cheat when I scroll down–you know, a quick glance at the unblurred German, THEN click to blur it, but I’ve already seen the important parts, and then trying to guess it as if I had not seen it…
I don’t know how hard this feature was to put in place but I imagine it was easier than the pronunciation evaluator by far. Yet it is sooooo useful! Thanks for doing it!!
Oh, that’s DEFINITELY coming :).
In fact, I already have it, I’m just working out where to actually put the selector. For desktop, I can just put it next to the article, but for mobile, I kind of need to add a “settings” menu or something.
But yeah, the feature only makes sense if you can (un)blur all examples at once.
Some scattered thoughts on a super-useful article… loads of “keepers” in here!
I think a good rendering of “Maria ist so fleißig, da kann man sich eine Scheibe abschneiden” might be something like “Maria is so diligent, you (can/)could take a leaf out of her book”. That’s a pretty common expression in English.
doing in a compeition => doing in a *competition*
taylor made => tailor-made (You haven’t been camping out/camping-it-up in the Church of the Holy Spirit in Heidelberg of late, I presume?)
“The athlete is giving the weather responsibility” sounds a little weird: maybe a simple “is blaming the weather” works better here (or “making the weather responsible”, but even then it sounds a bit odd, and feels like it needs undercutting with “trying/attempting to”).
Looks like “beschneiden” is also pretty commonly used for *pruning*, so maybe that’s a third (not uncommon) context? Snippedy, snip, snip…
Hmmm, not sure “pruning” is worth adding as a meaning. It’s kind of a literal take on it anyway, but more importantly, German has LOADS of other option on offer (and by loads I mean 3)
– die Hecke schneiden
– die Hecke stutzen
– den Apfelbaum zurechtstutzen
As for the comp sci pruning… in German we call that “‘Lnists’iisi”, which is Navajo for “I am short”.
…
…
…
Of course, we call it …. pruning.
In English, for example, you have “pruning shears”, whereas in
German we say “Gartenschere”. At least where we grew up, this was the word I learned for the same implement.
Interesting that the English emphasizes the action, whereas the German stresses where the action takes place! After all, where else
does one prune but in a garden:-)
Interesting, isn’t it?
I also know “Heckenschere”, but that might be something different than a “Gartenschere”. I mean, there’s like 20 types of knifes so the has to be more than one type of scissors for gardening :)
I think so too. Although they might be used interchangeably,
I’m not even a gardener in my spare time:-)