Hello everyone,
and welcome to our German Word of the Day. Spring is in the air, and this is the perfect time to have a look at the meaning of
das Blatt
And Blätter (the plural) are pure awesome. They give us shade, they make the city green, in fall they get all colorful, they make soothing rustling sounds but most important of – they produce freaking oxygen.
You might have guessed it – Blätter are leaves and one Blatt is a leaf.
- Meine Pflanze hat viele welke Blätter. Soll ich die abmachen, oder warten bis die abfallen?
- My plants have lots of dry/sere leaves. Should I remove them or wait till they fall off?
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Maria freut sich, weil sie ein vierblättriges Kleeblatt gefunden hat.
- Maria is happy because she has found a four leaf clover.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
But there’s a bit more to the German Blatt than that because it can make for some pretty cool colloquial additions to our vocab. Oh, and then there’s of course the big question:
why the hell is there blood in the little cartoon.
So let’s take a look :)
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Regarding your question about “long paper for rolling recreational cigarettes”
There are dozens of slang terms, but the most universal term I can think of is “rollies” (pronounced: role-ees).
The “non-slang” term is “rolling papers”.
Cool, danke.
Would that be understood specifically as long papers or is that the general term that includes short ones?
für länge Blättchen auf Englisch als ‘Slangy-Term’, könnte man ‘kingskins/kings/longskins/long rizlas’ sagen, klingt mehr umgängssprachlich
und auch eine kleine Frage über das Wort “abblättern”, kann man abblättern auch mit Leuten benutzen? zum Beispiel auf Englisch würde ich sagen: i invited some friends over but they all flaked out
auf Deutsch darf ich sagen: ich habe ein paar Freunde mir eingeladen aber sie alle haben abgeblättert
?
Hi du, nee in dem Kontext funktioniert “abblättern” nicht. Das würde man nicht verstehen :). Ich glaube, man würde einfach sagen “sind nicht gekommen”… ziemlich langweilig :)
[…] translation becomes a quest full of surprises: how many translations are there for Blatt? See this post from Your Daily German! And how many for Anhänger? Check Wiktionary, and find out that it can mean […]
My German host mother used to say, “Ich bin so satt, ich mag kein Blatt.”
That’s from a Brothers Grimm fairytale. German title: “Tischlein deck dich” (“The Wishing-Table”).
It begins with a talking goat that tricks the father of three sons into exiling them by first telling each son while in the meadow that it had more than enough food (“Ich bin so satt, ich mag kein Blatt. Mäh, mäh! “) and later telling the father the opposite (“Wovon soll ich satt sein? Ich sprang nur über Gräbelein, fand kein einz’ges Blättelein. Mäh, mäh!”)
It is a very well known quote, so it is not unusual to hear after a long and rich meal.
That’s good to know! Thank you!
Ah, cool, that’s where it’s from. I knew the line, but I absolutely couldn’t figure out from where :)
That’s a nice one, I remember that from childhood :)
I would like to thank all those who have made it possible for people like me, with little or no money, or no way to get a subscription, to register here and benefit from this website through their donations. I am going to make the most out of this opportunity that has been given to me and will pay it forward by giving the same to others in the near future. in sentences
How could we forget our favourite *bleh word, blehbleh, or das Blütenblatt (petal) ;)
Oh yeah, that’s good ring to it :)
Who doesn’t like puff pastry??? :)
Blattsalat is an interesting term for that phenomenon. I used to call it tapeghetti (tape spaghetti). I haven’t thought about that for a long time.
Tapeghetti … that’s great :).
However, I know the term as “Bandsalat”.
The TAPE gushes out of the TAPE RECORDER and you have to carefully REWIND it…
Happy Easter Emanuel and thanks for this fascinating article. One small correction regarding your “abblättern” examples. I realise of course that Farbe means the stuff you buy in tins to put on walls, woodwork and canvas but in English we call it paint, not colour.
Ah, cool, danke dir. Dir auch frohe Ostern!!
Today for me nothing feels better than being part of this caring and progressive community. I would like to thank all those who have made it possible for people like me, with little or no money, or no way to get a subscription, to register here and benefit from this website through their donations. I am going to make the most out of this opportunity that has been given to me and will pay it forward by giving the same to others in the near future.
Cheers
Da bin ich aber “Blatt”!
Traditional Easter food in Germany: “Blätterteig”, well that’s just a ingredient and you can basically use it the whole year over but well, it fitted the context so… Here’s a link to some pictures: https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=Bl%c3%a4tterteig&FORM=HDRSC2
My translation engine translates it as “puff paste” or “puff pastry”. (Not to be confused with pastry from the “Puff”, although I guess some ladies there would also bake something if you ask them nicely and spend enough money. Each man to his own.)
And “Blattsalat”! Okay, that is also a very tasty salad but I mean the other meaning of the word, the one everybody who was born after the age of the tape will never learn or understand. It’s when the stupid player accidentaly runs too fast and all the magnetic band gushes out of the tape (like blood, funny how that fits with your ethymology lesson) and you have to carefully recoil it. Oh man, the 90’s.
You grazed it with your example of “Extrablatt” – “Blatt” is also a synonym for newspaper, not as common as “Zeitung” but you can use it more colloquial and in some compound words: “das Revolverblatt” = “gutter paper” (because how fast they are produced and discarded); “Käseblatt” the same; but also “das Amtsblatt” = “official newspaper” (normally in more rural areas where there are not as many free newspapers [i.e. none] that discuss local matters).
So happy Easter.
At least in American English, the Greek term for puff pastry is also used – “phyllo,” sometimes anglicized as “fillo.” Again with the Blätter. :)
WOW, REALLY?!?! So many connections :)
Great additions as usual :). One thing though… I know the tape deck disaster as “Bandsalat”. Is that a regional thing, then?
True, “Bandsalat” sounds like the more sensible word here. I only found one article in the internet, where “Blattsalat” is used in that meaning. It is probably not even regional but more a spontaneous local variation. But I did not do any studies in the field, I just write what comes to my mind here. And one is clear, when my Tabaluga tape tapeghettied, I remember clearly what I cursed. So at least my parents understood the word.
For everyone who just put the word “Blattsalat” in their vocabulary list, I am sorry for my uneducated remarks that gave you a comepletely useless word, cross it out and put “Bandsalat” there. Then throw the paper in the bin together with all your old tapes that you won’t use anymore and can’t sell as nobody is using them anymore. And curse the newer electronical gadgets because they have the better sound quality and are more handy to use.
I love the etymology – it makes the words easier to remember and expands the associations. What a great way to fill one’s memory house! Many thanks for this!
“It’s getting spring” – “It’s becoming spring” is a little better, but the idea is more often expressed as “Spring is arriving/blossoming” or “Spring is in the air.” I often like to say “spring is springing”, but I don’t know if that’s just my own quirk.
Special edition – 200 pages with all about the Queen’s visit. Better -> “Special edition – 200 pages all about the Queen’s visit”. or “.. with everything about the Queen’s visit.”
I have never heard “sear” as anything but a verb, and even the adjective form “seared” seems to be mostly confined to yummy meats. You might have searing heat just about anywhere, but your plants would have just dry leaves, not usually seared. Grins! Might want to fix “My plants has…”
What are long sheets (of paper, I presume) referring to? We have paper called ‘legal size’.
That toilet paper ad is quite amusing….
Berlin wird immer teurer – heute muss man bis zu 50% mehr für Miete hinblättern als vor 5 Jahren. Viele Städte werden immer teurer – heute muss man bis zu 200% mehr für Miete hinblättern als vor 5 Jahren!! Ich weiss nicht, wie die Baristas, Verkäufer und Fensterreiniger dort leben konnen. Mein Sohn hinblättet fast $2000 pro Monat, um mit 8 oder 10 leute in einem kleinen Haus zu leben, in der Nähe von San Francisco. Es ist das Gleiche in Seattle, und ganz sicher in New York, Vancouver, London und Toronto.
Leute
“Spring has sprung” is something you hear, so your “spring is springing” wouldn’t be that idiosyncratic. One might say “it’s getting to be spring,” though something about that feels a little odd. “Spring is in the air” is probably the go-to cliche.
I think “sear” was supposed to be “sere.” :) Even so, that’s definitely not an everyday word – “withered” would be a good alternative for “welk.”
I wasn’t sure about “long papers” (lange Blättchen) either – my guess was rolling papers for cigarettes?
Ich liebe die Gespräche, dass wir hier haben. :-D
Rolling papers for joints. The common slang term here is “long papes”. I guess that’s just about as English as the cellphone-Handy :)
Re the query about any slang terms, in Australia (& maybe the UK?), they are called ‘rollie papers’.
Could I just say “rollies”?
in Canada, we say: rollies, rolling papers, or papers (usually shortened to ‘paps’). Also used for cigarettes too :)
Oh my god, $2000 rent??? Das ist einfach nur verrückt. Na klar, er verdient bestimmt auch mehr als hier, aber trotzdem… einfach Wahnsinn.
Nice, especially the expressions!
Just for the record, a leaf of grass is called a “blade” in English. Of course, it looks like one anyway, but the connection is still there on some level. Also, “durchblättern” (you left out a “t” in the vocab list) can definitely be translated “to leaf through.”