Hello everyone,
and welcome to our German Word of the Day. This time we will have a look at the meaning of
allerdings
Allerdings has two translations. Or wait, let’s say, it stands for two idea. Two ideas, that shouldn’t be too big of a problem… unless… they seem to be opposites. Imagine there were a word that means white AND black. What a whacky idea…. (get it? Whack as in white plus b.. not funny? … never mind then) .
Allerdings has the ideas of confirmation and contradiction, so let’s take a loot at it and see if we can get a hold of it, shall we? Great.
Allerdings is a combination of aller and dings. Aller is the genitive form of alle (I’ll add a link to the WODT “alle” at the bottom)
- Das wichtigste aller Dinge ist…
- The most important thing of all is…
And there we almost had it. The sense of lif… oh… I mean, the words allerdings. All that’s missing is an s, which is an old way to mark something as adverb, and writing the whole thing as one word; but German does that in its sleep. Allerdings started with a meaning like “entirely” , “with/from all its parts”. Here’s an example of how they would use the word 8 centuries ago.
- Dein Land und Gut gehört allerdings dem König.
- Thy land and manor all/completely belongs to the king.
- Man kann Lord Bolton nicht allerdings trauen.
- You cannot trust lord Bolton with everything. (lit.)
That’s how it started and then began a long, loooong journey of allerdings. First, there people started using it for emphasis.
- Ich bin allerdings sehr zufrieden.
- I am content “of all things” (lit.)
- I am completely/utterly content.
Now, when you emphasize something you are usually kind of convinced of your statement. You think it’s true. So the next meaning of allerdings is not a big surprise…
“Allerdings” being all like… “Yes, indeed”
And while the other ones we had are forgotten, this allerdings is still used… a one word answer to mean indeed.
- “30 Euro für diese kleine Portion ist aber ganz schön teuer.”
“Allerdings.” - “40 Dollars for this small a portion is pretty damn expensive.”
“Indeed.” - Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
Now, while indeed is a good fit in this example, we need to look at the usage a little more closely.
First of all – and this might be my very personal impression – but I feel like allerdings doesn’t really work all that great if you want to agree with a statement about how really really good something was.
- “This movie was truly amazing.”
“Indeed.“ - “Dieser Film war ok.”
“Allerdings.”
I have asked in a discussion board and others seem to have no problem with that, but I would never use allerdings in this situation. I don’t what I’d say… probably “Meeeh”, because most new films suck. Things were better in the golden age of cinema… the 80s. But anyway, I just feel like allerdings is missing genuine, positive excitement. It does agree, but it is very conscious and reflected about it … at least that’s how I feel. (native speakers, how is it with “indeed”, by the way? Can that sound all enthusiastic?)
Now, a second kind of statements that doesn’t work all that great are statements that contain a negative… not or no.
- “Das war kein guter Film.”
“Allerdings.“… meeeeeeehhhhhhh - “That wasn’t a good movie.”
“Indeed.“
In English, you’d just “it wasn’t” I guess and technically, in German, you could say “Allerdings nicht.” but I find it … not wrong but odd. Like… cutting your fingernails really really short and then run them across velvet… uuuuggghhhh. The thought alone makes me shiver. Okay… I guess saying “Allerings nicht” isn’t THAT vexing; but it’s not idiomatic.
So… when does allerdings sound good? Well, it works great with negative judgments, or skeptical ones, or astonished ones, or impatient ones….
- “Das ist ein Problem.”
“So ein Kackwetter.”
“Also, das kling aber sehr weit hergeholt.”
“Puh… das war knapp.”
“Ich hätte wahrscheinlich fragen sollen, bevor ich dein Bier nehme.”
- “That is a problem.”
“What crappy weather.”
“Well, that sounds far fetched.”
“Phew… that was close.”
“I guess I should have asked, before taking your beer.”
For all those, “Allerdings” is a great way to agree. Those are allerdings-moments. Not purely negative but always with a negative touch of sorts. And that brings us to another interesting thing about the word, which also leads us to the difference between allerdings and genau.
You see, allerdings is often not only agreeing to the statement… like saying “True”. It also conveys something between the lines. For example, allerdings also agrees to the evaluation or assessment of reality which is inside of the statement. Yeah… that made no sense, I know. But let me give you an example. You are at the reception of Bürgeramt (citizens registration office) because you want to register… the receptionists informs about the expected waiting time upon which you say
- Ich muss also 6 Stunden warten?!
- So, I have to wait 6 hours?!
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
On the surface, this is a question. But it only takes an additional ! or some melody to add in the additional message that 5 hours is freaking long.
Now, for example the receptionist is likely to focus on the question-part and say
- Genau.
- Exactly.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
or this ( to sympathize and voice some regret for your having to wait):
- Ja, leider./Leider ja.
- Unfortunately yes.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
Now, suppose it wasn’t the receptionist but a fellow waiter you are having this conversation with, there is a good chance to get a
- Allerdings.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
as an answer to your question. The person not only affirms that you got the time right, no, the person ALSO thinks that the wait is freaking long. And the allerdings gets that across without much help needed from tone.
The receptionist on the other hand SHOULDN’T use allerdings because it might come across as triumphant…. like… “Damn straight stupid citizen. 6 hours because THIS is how we do it around here.”… okay maybe that’s a little extreme but I hope you get the gist. You complain and depending on who you’re complaining to allerdings can either be “Yeah, I feel you.” or “Yeah, I hear your whining. In your face!”
Let’s take another, a completely different example… mom helps her first grader with the math homework. Kid asks:
- Zwei plus zwei ist… äh… Moment… äh 4??
- Two plus zwei is… uh…. one second… uhm… 4??
Here, the mom would likely say “Genau“(exactly). Saying allerdings would make the issue bigger than it is. Allerdings would be appropriate had the kid sounded REALLY surprised about that.
- “So… two plus two is … 4?!?!?! Four as in fantastic four? THE four?”
“Indeed. The very same.”
The kid conveys surprise and the allerdings of the mom acknowledges that… like “Yeah, that was a surprise was it.?”
So… in general, genau is more neutral. Of course it can sound very friendly or grumpy or whatever, but it just confirms the statement. Allerdings, at least if there is a negative or surprised touch in the statement, totally picks up on that touch. It says “You’re right, and what you said between the lines was also right.”Sure, those are nuances and you don’t have to worry all that much. Just use it and if it sounds strange… well, whatever. Strange can be cute. I just thought I’d mention it.
Now, there is another difference between genau and allerdings, and this one is more straight-forward and you should try to remember it. Genau only works if someone figures something out. It doesn’t really work if you make a statement about the weather.
- “Der Regen nervt.”
“Genau.“… nope…allerdings is MUCH better here. - “The rain sucks.”
“Exactly.“
I guess it is the same in English. Saying exactly makes you sound like you knew it all along and you were just waiting for the other one to find that out.
Anyway… so… if you want to use this allerdings, just to be safe, use it to agree to negative, skeptical or astounded statements.
Now, so far we’ve only used it as a stand alone word. But indeed can also be used in a sentence.
- This is indeed a good idea.
So… can we do that with allerdings, as well? The answer is yes… with a giant
BUT in pursuit.
First of all, it doesn’t always work. I have no idea though there is a pattern or “rule”. That’s nothing new though. That’s just language in use. What makes the but so big this time is that you have to be really – really, really, really – have to get the pronunciation right. Raise your voice over the course of the word and put a super strong emphasis on DINGS. Think of it like a fountain that is turned on in mid sentence… blluuuuuuuuuuaaaaSHHHHHhhhhhhhh….
Okay… maybe a picture is better :)
For the standalone version it is not that strict but also there it is a good idea to put a strong stress on the dings… because if you don’t… it’ll be a different allerdings.
Allerdings being all like… “Yeah… but”
Let’s just start with an example:
- “Wir gehen nach der Arbeit was trinken. Willst du mitkommen?”
“Ja, ich muss allerdings vorher noch mal kurz nach Hause.” - “We’re going for a drink after work. Wanna join?”
“Yes, but I’ll have to go home real quick first.” - Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
Allerdings is used to mark up something as a sort-of-contradiction to whatever has been said before. Here, it marks the going home part as a “sort of”-obstacle to my coming with… just like but does.
- “Ja, ich muss nur noch mal kurz nach Hause.”
- “Yes, I just have to go home real quick.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
Now we replaced it with a word that implies “no problem”. I am still telling my co-workers that I have to go home first. But the feel is different. Going home doesn’t sound like a complication or obstschale at all now. So… this is what allerdings does and it is by far the more common use of the word.
Unfortunately, I don’t exactly know how this allerdings evolved from the approving one, we just had. I mean… sometimes they are really close actually.
- “Ich will Sonnenblumen pflanzen.”
“Das Land gehört allerdings dem König.” - “I want to grow sunflowers.”
“[But] the land is entirely the king’s.”
If it is known that the king hates sunflowers the second statement clearly is a complication, an obstacle. But we could also just think of the meanings as two separate ones. Or how about the other example we had earlier…
- Man kann Lord Bolton nicht allerdings trauen. (old use)
- One cannot trust Lord Bolton with everything.
- Man kann Lord Bolton allerdings nicht trauen. (actual use)
- You cannot trust Lord Bolton though.
Both versions are very different but very similar at the same time. They limit the trust on Lord Bolton. But as I said, I don’t know how it happened and it doesn’t really matter that much. Let’s get back to the current usage.
In the first example, we translated it to but. But that is not the only possibility. The exact word doesn’t matter. Sometimes it’s but, sometimes it is though, sometimes it is however and sometimes it is just well in THAT case… I always find a reason not to go running.
- Ich wollte eigentlich laufen gehen, [allerdings] (es) ist [[allerdings]] es heute [allerdings] zu kalt.
- I wanted to go running, [however / but] it is too cold today [though].
It’s the idea that matters… the idea of contrast or obstacle.
I’d say, let’s keep those in mind and just look at some examples:
- “Wir waren gestern Abend schick essen.”
“Und, wie war’s?”
“Nicht so toll, die Portionen waren super klein und vom Geschmack her war’s jetzt auch nicht so die Offenbarung… der Wein war allerdings sehr gut.” - “We were out for a fancy dinner last night.”
“Ad, how was it?”
“Not so great. The portions were super small and as far as taste goes it wasn’t exactly a revelation… the wine was really good though.” - Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
Here, we’re clearly dealing with a contrast. The food was mediocre, the wine was outstanding. This contrast-allerdings is also a very nice “Redemittel”, that you can use to discuss a certain topic in a test.
- Arbeiten während des Studiums kann eine gute Sache sein. Man verdient Geld, kann Netzwerke aufbauen und lernt die Realitäten der Arbeitswelt kennen.
Allerdings kann es auch zum Problem werden, wenn man seine Energien überschätzt. - It can be a good thing to work during your studies. You can earn money, build up a network and you get to know the realities of the working world.
However, it can also become a problem if you overestimate your energy. - Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
Now,maybe for some examples where it is more about an obstacle….
- “Ich versuche Deutsch zu sprechen, ich lerne allerdings noch nicht so lange.”
- “I’ll try to speak German, but I’ve kind of just started learning, though.”
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- “Ich hätte gerne zwei Karten für La Traviata… und bitte gute Plätze. Ist für meine Freundin zum Geburtstag.”
“Kein Problem. Wie wär’s mit diesen Plätzen hier… da hat man echt gute Sicht.”
“Hmmm… ich dachte mehr so an so einen Balkon.”
“Das wird dann allerdings sehr teuer.” - “I’d like two tickets for La Traviata… and good seats please; it’s for my girlfriend’s birthday.”
“No problem. How about these ones here… you have a really good view there.
“Hmmm…. I was thinking more like one of those balconies.”
“Well THAT is going to be rather expensive.” - Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
The second example is interesting because it shows that the word IMPLIES that something is an obstacle… it doesn’t really need to be one. I mean… the person probably wouldn’t use allerdings if I was Marc Zuckerberg, because money wouldn’t be an issue.
Here are two more examples where allerdings just marks something as a possible obstacle.
- “Kannst du mal vorbeikommen und meinen Computer neu aufsetzen?”
“Ja, allerdings erst nächste Woche.” - “Could you come by and re-set and install my computer?”
“Yes, not before next week though.” - Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- “Ein Bier und einmal die Tagessuppe bitte.”
“Gerne. Dauert allerdings einen Moment.”
“Kein Problem.” - “One beer and the soup du jour please.”
“With pleasure. It might take a moment though.”
“That’s fine.” - Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
So… I hope those examples gave you an idea how the word is used. Keep in mind the ideas of obstacle and contrast and while neither a contrast nor an obstacle or purely negative, their “dialectic qualities” may be the reason for the lack of enthusiasm the other allerdings, the affirming one, has.
Now, speaking of the first allerdings – we’ve learned that we need to be very exact with the pronunciation or emphasis or it will sound like the second one. So how does the second one sound exactly? For one thing, the contrast-one doesn’t need a specific melody. It can be just flat. The main difference, however, is that the contrast-one lacks a strong emphasis. The stressed syllables are all and dings but in comparison to the rest of the sentence, they almost disappear.
- “Das ist allerdings TEUer.”
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
Here, the strong main emphasis is on TEU. Allerdings just blends in with the rest. And everyone would understand that to mean something like
- “Oh, well THAT is expensive.”
with a doubtful or surprised tone. Like… you wanted to buy it but then you find out the price and that is an obstacle to your plan.
Now, the same sentence with the other allerdings:
- Das ist allerDINNNGS teuer.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
That would be something like
- Well, that IS really expensive.
This would be appropriate if someone had remarked already that it is expensive.
- Es gibt allerdings ein PROBLEM.
- But there is a PROblem.(which is in contrast to the good news I just had)
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Es gibt allerDINGS ein Problem.
- (But), there IS in fact a problem.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
The first sentence would work if the conversation so far had been about how everything is hunky-dory, while the second one could work if the had been a denial of a problem going on, or, if something that has already been mentioned turns out a problem.
- “So… this looks like a walk in a park. No problems at all.”
“About that… uhm… the park is actually the Glacier Bay national park in Alaska…. and we have winter.”
“Oh… well THAT IS a problem.
And here, we could use both allerdings-s here and it would be loosely the same statement. Allerdings – A full circle. Yin and yang. Difference in unity. Two aspects of the same side. Not together, not separate – separether. Like in those groovy modern relationships…. oh my, why did I have to get married? Wait, am I?
I think that’s it. That was our German Word of the Day allerdings. I think it is no problem to understand the word, but it is not that easy to use it idiomatically because of all those fine nuances it has. The second one is definitely the one to remember and use… and don’t think in translations.Think in ideas… contrast or obstschale…. here’s a nice picture that might help you reme… oh wait, never mind, that was just a typo.
If you have any questions or suggestions or if you want to give it a shot and make your own example with allerdings... just leave me a comment :).
I hope you liked it and see you next time.
Further reading:
Allerdings seems to imply a sense of sympathy. “Wir mussen sechs Stunden warten???” “Allerdings” as in”we’re in this together.” This vs genau, which is neutral/factual. Apologies if this was mentioned and I missed it.
No, that’s contextual. In your example, “allerdings” could also come from a person who doesn’t care and just relays information.
Got it. Thanks.
Personally I have never heard indeed used enthusiastically. It’s probably the most monotone neutral response you can give and it sounds quite sophisticated. Although in American english we really only use indeed ironically, so maybe a Brit would feel differently. Where I live you’d probably hear “true” “for sure” or “yeah” in a casual tone instead.
There’s another translation for indeed which seems to be more direct. *in der Tat*
My observation is that it’s used in the place of the first allerdings, when you can’t depend on intonation to do the job.
These are excerpts from two separate stories. Do you think indeed and in der tat can be exchanged here? Or we should use allerdings in some form
“While these were qualities that were perfectly acceptable, perhaps even desirable, in Touchables, Vellya Paapen thought that in a Paravan they could (and would, and indeed, should) be construed as insolence.”
“Es sei ein Kind, ein kleines Mädchen vermutlich. So genau könne man das allerdings nicht sagen, weil es ein bißchen merkwürdig angezogen sei. Es hieße Momo oder so ähnlich. Momos äußere Erscheinung war in der Tat ein wenig seltsam und konnte auf Menschen, die großen Wert auf Sauberkeit und Ordnung legen, möglicherweise etwas erschreckend wirken”
The thing with “in der Tat” is that it sounds a bit “theatrical” in daily life. I never ever use it and I don’t hear it either, except when people say it ironically… like… they want to sound like they’re pontificating.
That doesn’t mean that no one uses it but I would stay away from it as a learner as it probably makes you LESS natural.
In the examples you gave, I would not use it in the first one.
This “indeed” feels more like an “actually” to me.
“in der Tat” has a pretty clear vibe of “confirming something” and here that would only fit is “should” has been established before.
You can see that “confirming vibe” in the second example. The author mentions that Momo is weirdly dressed and then says “in der Tat” in context of her appearance being weird – a clear callback.
I wouldn’t use “allerdings” in either of the examples because they’re written prose and words that rely on HOW you say them are a suboptimal choice there :)
Such a complete and perfect explanation….Thank you so much for this useful article. :)
Danke, freut mich, dass er dir gefällt :).
Hi Emmanuel. I’m making some connections between how to use “aber” and “allerdings”. My mom (borderline native speaker) just corrected a sentence in an email I’m sending to a German bureaucratic institution:
“Diese Unterlage ist aufgrund unerwarteter Verzögerungen nicht einbezogen, wird Ihnen aber demnächst zugesandt.”
^This is the corrected version. I’m thrown off because I’m so used to putting “aber” in position zero and also including a demonstrative pronoun. Below is what i had before she corrected it:
Diese Unterlage ist aufgrund unerwarteter Verzögerungen nicht einbezogen, aber sie wird Ihnen demnächst zugesandt.
Apparently what my mom just told me today is the smooth native sounding way. If I think about using “aber” the same way “allerdings” is used, it makes more sense. I just didn’t realize that was an option. Do you have any insights about the above sentence? And also, when can I get away with not including a demonstrative pronoun as shown in my example above?
Yes, grammatically “aber” can be used like a conjunction but also like an adverb.
Your version of the sentence isn’t wrong by any means. It’s just not as slick as hers.
The reason you can skip the demonstrative here is that it has the same function as in the first half of the phrase (it’s the subject).
– Diese Unterlage [does something], aber [does something else].
If the Unterlage would switch roles and be the object in the second half, then you CAN’T skip.
That’s something that German actually likes to do… if two elements refer to the same thing and have the same function in two parts of the sentence, the second one gets skipped.
here’s an extreme example:
– Maria hat mit Thomas geredet und [sie hat mit ihm] gespielt.
You wouldn’t really think of it as “skipping” but it’s essentially the logic as above.
This stuff works perfectly in German because the final verbs binds things together.
In English, it’s more like two separate phrasings.
– Maria talked and played with Thomas.
– Maria talked with Thomas and played with him.
Hope that helps :)
Yes, it helps a lot to think about omitting pronouns that have the same function in both parts of a sentence.
I feel like it will take a lot of practice to create these types of no-fluff, smooth sentences. I still feel highly uncomfortable not using a conjunction in a sentence like the one we’ve been analyzing (because it feels like I’m putting the verb in position 1), but I guess it’s just a matter of observing when natives construct sentences like that and trying to emulate their sentences.
Thanks a lot for clearing this up.
By the way I just listened to your guest appearance on the Easy German podcast and I was cracking up at your squabble with Manuel on U-bahn WLAN :)
Hahahaha, yeah, we could squabble way more but they’re trying to keep it low :D. For some reason I enjoy challenging Manuel’s views, even if he’s right :)
Ja, deine Lust darauf, Manuels Ansichten zu widersprechen, ist mir definitiv aufgefallen. Freundliche Debatten machen die Unterhaltungen unterhaltsamer, von daher schätze ich dass sie gutes Feedback über die Episode bekommen habe.
I think the correct answer to the statement “The rain sucks” is not really “Exactly” but rather “I know” or “I know, right?”. “Exactly” just doesn’t sound right unless there is a whole previous context that would make it fit it properly.
How about “I agree” then? I feel like “I know” is a bit too weak in comparison with “allerdings”
I had a little time to spare so decided to read some flashcards I had made. One was “allerdings” The translations I have for it are “certainly, absolutely and indeed”
I wanted examples of where this word fits into a German sentence. And that is where I found your Word of the day.
So….one hour later, I have read the whole thing about “allerdings” and I have read all the comments and replies.
Yourdailygerman.com has a way of grabbing my attention and keeping it. I love how deeply you explore the possibilities of a single word. I save all of your Words of the day. I really enjoy reading them.
Thank you so much for all your hard work and for your humour.
Vielen dank und ich wünsche dir ein frohes neues Jahr.
Danke dir für das tolle Feedback :).
Dir auch ein schönes neues Jahr, und viel Spaß hier!!
Your posts are the best. It makes me want to learn a language that I have started to hate just because is so damn hard to learn
Thanks :). And keep hating it. Use the hate as a driving force toward fluency. Who’s boss? You or this pretentious stuck up German :D?
Ich habe denke das ich kenne Deutsch zu lernen, aber es ist allerdings schwerig.
Mach weiter, du schaffst es :)!
Ich weib nicht
Was weißt du nicht? Vielleicht kann ich dir helfen.
you asked i the blog “native speakers, how is it with “indeed”, by the way? Can that sound all enthusiastic?)”..
Although your question was likely rhetorical, I’m answering just in case it wasn’t. LOL.
Indeed, to me, sounds like a “reserved and/or conditional agreement”.
Sort of like saying ” Yes, I agree to some of what you just said, but not all of it, so I will leave it at that so as to not get into a controversial conversation with you”
or
“… I’m justing going to say yes to make you go away, but I totally disagree with you… “. Indeed in this case is more of a verbal utterance you are both saying to this person you are disagreeing with politely, and to your own thought in your mind that just told you ” this guy’s an idiot”… indeed..
and of course it could just be an overly academic way of saying I totally agree with you MIND and Soul ! (but not heart).
It all depends on “how” it is said and with what facial expressions come with it.
It wasn’t rhetorical at all. Thanks for clearing that up :)
My last name is Allerdings. There are people that live in the Ukraine, Spain, Canada, Russia, Germany, and the United States that I know of who also have Allerdings as a last name. Everyone in my line of Allerdings gets referred to as the “Dingers” quite a bit.
Weird, I never heard about this as a family name in Germany :)
This is so cool to hear! My last name is Allarding and I live in the United States. I think my grandfather somehow changed it from Allerding to Allarding but I have not been able to confirm that. Do you have any connections with any other Allerdings? Do you know any more family history? I always wish I knew more about my family history.
Wow, it’s really cool that this is a name :). I’ll have to check if there are “Allerdings” in Germany
Hello Emanuel,
I was just checking the context of ‘Positive or more nice way of using word Indeed’
and searched for context usage on internet:
here are two examples:
Indeed I take this opportunity first of all to commend the company for striving to maintain the service despite very considerable
Tatsächlich ergreife ich diese Gelegenheit vor allem, um die Gesellschaft dafür zu loben, daß sie sich bemüht, den Dienst
Indeed = Tatsächlich
Although, as pointed out , the labour rules imposed on OTE are indeed an exception to the ordinary labour law applied to date
Auch wenn, wie in Punkt 93 angeführt, der der OTE auferlegte arbeitsrechtliche Status wirklich eine Ausnahme vom allgemein geltenden arbeitsrechtlichen
indeed = wirklich (kind of affirmation)
Could you please explain the above context?
In the first example, I wouldn’t translate “indeed” at all. “tatsächlich” is WAY too strong and factual for that situation, in my opinion.
In the second example, I would use either “tatsächlich” or “in der Tat” . The latter is a bit weaker in the contrast that it implies.
So yeah… I don’t like the translations very much. Where’d you find these?
My last name is Allarding! I wonder if it is in anyway related… very interesting. This was a really fun read! Thank you! Also if anyone knows anymore history about the word allerding or allarding I’d love to hear about it.
I don’t have specific background about the name and I’ve never heard it before but I checked and there are people with that name in Germany too. And in Belgium. I’m pretty sure that it DOES have connections to “allerdings” though. “Ding” is just so common in the Germanic languages.
Hi Emanuel, could you please help translate this instance in which I heard allerdings used. It comes from an economics lecture at my uni (recorded online so I could pause and rewind it). The professor is talking about a concept which he first introduced with some graphs, then went on to talk about it in general, now he’s going on to another graph to explain it:
“… aber jetzt schauen wir’s nochmal graphisch an. (shows graphic) Was Sie hier sehen ist auch eine Transformationskurve, allerdings die gemeinsame Transformationskurve, die gemeinsame Produktionsmöglichkeitenkurve von Robinson und Freitag. Vorher hatten wir die individuellen Transformationskurven betrachtet, jetzt betrachten wir die gemeinsame.”
The graph he is showing is basically the first 2 graphs we looked at put on top of each other, so they are already introduced to us. I felt like he slightly accentuated the *dings* part, but he talks quite fast so it wasnt a big emphasis. What he really accentuated was the first “gemeinsame”, like “allerdings die geMEEEINsame Transformationskurve, …”. It only seems to make sense with the “indeed” translation, like “here is indeed the curve we looked at before”. There is no way I can think of that there is some obstacle to what he is doing, like that the graphs weren’t very good or something. Could you also explain a bit how this indeed version works inside a sentence? Does it have some kind of negative/postive connotation, or is it kind of like an unstressed “ja”, like “you already know this information”?
Cheers
You’re right that the idea of obstacle isn’t of much help here. Still, the job of “allerdings” is to mark a contradiction. Before, you looked at individual transformation curves, now you’re looking the combined one. You can use “aber” instead of “allerdings” and have the EXACT same sentence with the same feel.
– This is also a transformation curve but this one is the COMBINED (GEMEINSAME) transformation curve.
Maybe using “allerdings” makes it sounds a little tiny bit more like a reveal. This and the fact that he rephrases the information in the second sentence gives me the feeling that he really really wants to make sure that the students can follow him. Like… he puts an unusual amount of effort into telling the audience that the new curve is the combined curve.
If you really want to fit in the idea of obstacle there, you could think of there being some obstacle to understanding the new curve because it is different in one regard… but that’s playing around. Just think of this “allerdings” as “aber”.
By the way… in theory it could be the indeed-allerdings but not in this case, because the curves before and after are NOT the same. He establishes this contradiction further in the second sentence, that’s why there’s no doubt.
Hope that helps
Cheers mate
Emanuel, how about this one,
“…Dann folgt der sportliche Abschnitt unseres heutigen Tages: Sie haben die Gelegenheit, mit einem Bergführer auf die Neureuther Hütte zu wandern. Gute Wanderschuhe und etwas Kondition brauchen Sie allerdings schon, um die knapp 500 Höhenmeter zu überwinden…”
With the allerdings, does it sound like, that mountain is a piece of cake, but you still need your Wanderschuhe, and that’s a little bit hassle?
And what’s with the schon here?
Vielen Dank! :)
This one is pretty much the same as “aber”… maybe a little less “but-y”. I think the whole text is trying to market to people who are NOT experienced hikers. The “allerdings” sets up that the hike will be a “hike-y” hike that’ll make you feel your legs the day after. If I had to translate that I’d use:
– You do need some stamina and good shoes though to hike up those 500 “meters of height” (no idea what the idiomatic word is for “Höhenmeter”)
So the “allerdings” is like “aber”, the “schon” is the affirmation-schon. It reaffirms that you need those shoes and stamina even though it’s vacation for untrained hikers (all that is between the lines). YOu could leave it out and move the “allerdings” a bit to the rear. That would convey the same meaning, the “schon” just makes it smoother (and more colloquial, which might be a desired effect)
– Gute Schuhe und etwas Kondition brauchen Sie allerdings, um die 500…
Hope that helps.
Danke schön! :)
This might be specifically American, but for the affirmative meaning of “allerdings,” I would often say “Seriously!” as a one-word response. I think it’s actually a pretty darn good fit.
Just to make sure…
“It’s too hot today”
“Seriously.”
With the voice lowered, right?
That’s the one. :)
Ich habe gerade gemerkt, dass du nochmals vergessen hast, einen Artikel auf der Word of the Day Seite zu stecken :). Die Seite fehlt diesen Artikel :). Wenn du einen solchen wunderschönen Artikel gemacht hast, trotzdem aber keine Verbindung dazu setzt, muss man danach durch die Home Seite suchen!
I think this entire website is just brilliant! I am grateful you exist.
Aw, thanks so much… I’ll tell my mom :)
She conceived you with a blend of rich humour and sharp wit, so to say. Chapeau!
While I have nothing against websites like this, the best way to learn a foreign language as it is spoken today is to use contemporary newspapers, magazines, and other popular culture outlets. Watching movies with subtitles provided by professional translators is a big help too. Also, looking up unfamiliar words in, let’s say, a German-German dictionary will enable you to learn a few additional words and phrases in the process as the unfamiliar word is explained and as sentence examples are given. Most people want to communicate or understand a written text, not to become pedantic philologists obsessing about nuances of single words. Such nuances will be picked up from the context anyway, depending on the curiosity and ambition of the student.
Cool article dude.
For “indeed”, I do think the meaning may lean more toward a neutral meaning, or may come across as more intelligent/sophisticated. Overall, I think it can be used however you want it to. However, for a more positive meaning, it would sound better to add a couple extra words.
+That movie was the shit!
-It was indeed/Indeed it was
If you just said “indeed” in this example, it was sound a little too brief and wouldn’t convey as positively, but overall would still sound fine. Here are a couple more examples using “indeed” for fun:
+So the square root of 256 is 16?
-Indeed.
+Learning German is fun.
-Indeed it is/it is indeed.
+That exam last week sucked.
-Indeed.
At least this is how I talk with my friends here in the United States.
I’m curious about phrases to agree with someone about something.
+The rain sucks.
-Indeed (it does)/Agreed/It does/Yeah.
(“yeah” alone sounds like more like just an acknowledgement in this case, but is still used to agree with something stated)
+Nein Mann is an awesome song.
-Indeed (it is)/Agreed/It is/Yeah
.In these examples “yeah” alone sounds like more like just an acknowledgement in this case, but is still used to agree with something stated.
I feel like these short responses work for agreeing positive statements if you use the right tone of voice.
For responses like these, are there anything other words or phrases to consider besides genau and allerdings?
Also, for “So ein Kackwetter” the better translation would be “What crappy weather”
The current one sounds foreign. :)
That’s a hard question actually… I mean, what other ways for agreeing there are. There is a sort of “slang” one that is very common among younger people
– Auf jeden.
It is a shortened version of “auf jeden Fall” and it rose to power when Hip Hop was a thing in the 90s :)
It is still very wide spread but might sound a bit out of place at work. I guess for stuff like movies or songs or other opinions you could use
– Find ich auch.
and for statements about the weather just a “Hmmm”. You can make it sound very enthusiastic and quite pissed, just depends on the melody :)
What about “stimmt”?
That works, too, but it’s quite “factual”. So it’s a bit weird to use it for an emotional statement like “The rain sucks.”
A bit like saying “That is correct.” in English.