Hello everyone,
a little faster than usual, but many of us have to spend a lot of time at home, so I hurried a bit with the new post:).
A few days ago, we learned about the different ways to say
anyway in German
And today, it’s time for a little practice.
If you haven’t read the post or if you want to read it again, you can find it here.
But I’ll give you a quick recap here, as well. And actually, I have to make some additions, because I completely forgot to mention a couple of distinct uses of anyway.
So it’s actually five now, not three.
Or like the newspaper headline would be these days:
“Use cases of Anyway skyrocket, up by almost 100%!”
Learners increasingly worried as use cases of the English Anyway virtually double within just a few days,
bringing the total possible meanings up to 5.
But we’ll get through this, and we can come out with much better German, so let’s jump right in.
Last week, we learned about three distinct functions of anyway.
The first one was to express a contradiction. The translation for it is trotzdem and we can spot it by replacing it with despite that without the meaning changing.
- I am sick but I have to go to the office anyway.
- Ich bin krank, aber ich muss trotzdem ins Büro.
The second one, which we called “aligned-anyway”, expresses that something kind of fits or matches with what has been said before. Or at least it doesn’t clash.
- We are under quarantine, but I work from home anyway (so it’s no difference).
- Wir sind in Quarantäne, aber ich arbeite eh/sowieso von zuhause.
I couldn’t think of a good test last time, but some of you actually found one and put it in the comments. It’s to try and replace anyway with already. The meaning is not exactly the same, but if the sentence still has a similar sense, then you’re looking at an aligned-anyway and the translations are eh, sowieso and (if you want to sound fancy) ohnehin.
The last anway we mentioned is the conversational-anyway. That’s the one we use to switch topics or generally just make a cesura. We don’t really need a test for that one, because it’s always kind of detached.
- Anyway... where were we?
- Wie auch immer/naja... wo waren wir?
There are a whole bunch of options for this in German, and which one is idiomatic depends on the context. But the most important thing is that you DON’T use one of the first two translations. So neither trotzdem, nor eh or sowieso. Because that would be really confusing.
Cool.
So far for what we learned last time.
But then one of you brought up another one in the comments, and while I was preparing the exercise, yet another one came to my mind.
Two more use for “anyway”
The first one could be called limiting–anyway, because it kind of limits the “range” or validity of a statement. Here’s a couple of examples.
- German cases are hard. For me anyway.
- Thomas is great in bed. That’s what Maria makes him think, anyway.
In both examples, we have a statement that sounds like a general truth but is then relativized to an extent. Not sure if you know what I mean, but if not, just replace the anyway in the examples with at least. That has the exact same effect. That’s the test you can use. And it’s also a help with translation because one option is zumindest. The other main one is jedenfalls, and I don’t think there’s much of a difference between the two.
All right.
Now, the last use of anyway is not as common as the other ones, but I still wanted to mention it. Here’s an example:
- “I just found out that Maria will be at the Steve’s party, so…. think I’m not gonna go there after all.”
“Good decision man. Why would you even want to go there anyway? Steve’s parties are known to be bore-fests.”
I don’t know how to describe what this does, exactly. But it’s kind of the same as “to begin with”. So that’s our test for it. And the translation in German for that one is … überhaupt.
As I said, it’s not that common, so it’s only going to be in the exercise once or twice but I didn’t want to leave it out.
Cool.
So, here are the five types of anyway again as an overview with their “tests” and translations:
| type: | test: | translation: |
| contradictory | “despite that” | trotzdem |
| aligned | “already” (similar meaning) | eh, sowieso, (ohnehin) |
| limiting | “at least” | zumindest, jedenfalls |
| “to begin with” | “to begin with” | überhaupt |
| conversational glue | stands outside of a sentence | many options (naja, jedenfalls, wie auch immer, …) |
And now it’s time for you to get active :)
The Exercise
I’ll give you 16 sentences in English with anyway in them and you have to pick the proper German translation for it. If you want to make it a translation exercise, you can do that, too. But you’ll need a pen and paper ;). You can see the correct German translation when you click “hint” or once you enter your answer.
But at least some of the sentences are quite the challenge to translate. The main point is that you know which anyway to use.
And important:
Try not to use the tests right away. Try to “feel” the anyway first. What vibe does it have in the context. Is it about contradiction? Or is it limiting? The goal of this exercise is that you get a feeling for the different types of anyway.
I mean… understanding my explanation and using the test is easy, but what really matters is that you need to develop a “feel” for the difference. Because even though it’s one word in English, mixing up the translations in German is really really confusing for a native speaker.
So …if you don’t do that well the first time, come back to it, after a couple of days and try again.
But now enough talk… have fun with the workout :)
And? How did you do? Was it difficult or easy? Could you develop a feeling for the different kind of anyway?
Oh and another question… today, I had the quiz display all questions below each other. Do you prefer that or would you rather have the usual form of one question at a time. Oh and would it be more helpful if you got the correct answer right away or would you rather wait till the end?
I know, lots of question… but I want the quizzes to be as helpful for you as possible. :).
But yeahLet me know all your feedback and questions in the comments and we’ll clear it up together :).
Hope you liked it, and till next time.
Hi
Question 3
I don’t like this song. But Country isn’t my type of music anyway.
If “to begin with” is a reasonable translation of ueberhaupt, then that is a better answer than “eh” ( it just so happens/coincidentally), fuer mich zumindest.
Just one man’s opinion
Bye
And thanks
Jeff
You know what… you’re right actually. “to begin with” does fit “eh” and “ueberhaupt” depending on the context and how the sentence is stressed.
The core idea of “eh” is “doesn’t make a difference” or “isn’t changing anything”.
In this example, “ueberhaupt” nicht would be read as “not at all”, so it’s a different vibe than “eh”.
Essentially the example says “I don’t like this song, but I don’t like country as a genre, so me not liking the song is kind of the default expectation anyway.
Does that help?
Oddly, I even understand this.
Eh refers to coincidence as I think u said
Ueberhaupt is vaguely causal
Will try to give you a break, zumindest glaube ich jetzt.
überhaupt when used this way might not be as common near you, but I definitely see it come up fairly often among the youth and on the internet, or in dubs/translations of english-language media where it seems to be becoming the agreed upon translation of “even” in the “what does that even mean?” “who even does that?” “do you even know what vodka is made out of?” “why do I even bother?” sense.
This is pure speculation, but I suspect this is an uncommon case of English influencing German, because instead of a loan word being inserted to communicate the sentiment, an obscure use of a German word got popularized to help mimic the speaking style of Americans.
A little bit of googling tells me “even” in this sense was originally Biblical or Shakespearean, then mostly dropped out of this usage, (at least in written works) then popped up again in the 90s.
Oh, this is definitely one of the core uses of ueberhaupt, regardless of register or age. I write more about that in my article in ueberhaupt. Did I say something in this one that suggests ueberhaupt is not used that way? If yes, I need to change it :)
Hey Emanuel,
Great post, thank you so much! One quick question, questions two and three have different genders for Musikrichtung. Question three has it as “meine Musikrichtung” but I think it Question 2 might be missing an ‘e’, it currently reads as – “ist nicht mein_ Musikrichtung”.
I admit I thought the answers were turning green because they were being marked only realized at the end that wasn’t the case haha. I think it would have helped my sense develop for the later questions if I was corrected going along. But super content, I’m going to try again in a day or so to see whether the ‘anyways’ feeling has kicked in!
Thanks a lot for the catch! It should indeed be “meine Musikrichting”. I think I had “Musikstil” first and then changed it but didn’t adjust the ending.
Also thanks for the heads-up for the feedback. Most of my newer quizzes show the answer right after each question, which is much better, but some of the older quizzes have the old setting. I have changed it now.
But if you come across this again please let me know and I’ll change it to insta-feedback :)
This a good post and exercise. You have done well to match the several different senses of ‘anyway’ in German and American English, to me zumindest / at least / anyway. My German niece told me she likes the American ‘anyway’ expression that is a bit sarcastic, or even dismissive, but she didn’t feel that the same sense can be felt with a German word. It would fit in your ‘conversational glue’. One example would be as if two women were having a relaxed conversation at a Kneipe and an obnoxious stranger hit on one of them and was rejected. Rather than discuss what just happened, the two would (knowing that it was a bit rude) only look at each other and one would say, “Anyway.” and carry on. I thought ‘naja’ could be used. Opinion?
Yeah, that would work. And something like “wie auch immer”.
Like this setup
I am not so sure if “to begin with” is the best way to understand überhaupt…. I got these two wrong based on translating “to begin with” and chose überhaupt instead of sowieso
I don’t like this song. But Country isn’t my type of music
Could also be rephrased with more or less the same meaning :
I don’t like this song. But Country isn’t my type of music to begin with.
Could also be rephrased with more or less the same meaning :
“Good, there’s none left in the fridge anyway.“
Good, there’s none left in the fridge to begin with”
I’m thinking “even” might be a better way (for me at least) to remember überhaupt
“Good decision man. Why would you even want to go there even? Steve’s parties are known to be bore-fests.”
ok, thinking it that way (and looking at my notes) i got 16 out of 16. Hopefully i can do it without my notes at some point.. : )
Ahh, I think that might be it.
Hah
Two evens in one sentence is an even number but an odd construction. (Really, I crack myself up sometimes.)
Either
Even want to go there
Or
Want to go there anyway
Bye
Even, evener, the evenest.
I’m a bit of a self-up-cracker myself, so I had to.
Oh, crap. Yup, seems like “to begin with” covers two distinct themes.
I don’t have an immediate fix for this though. Do you understand the theme that I was going for with “to begin with”?
For some reason I can’t add articles to my notes
You mean “add notes to the articles”?
sorry, i meant if i click on the notes icon nothing happens, both on work and home laptop
Hey Emanuel,
I got problem with this question:
‘Quarantine is a good opportunity to learn German. That’s what I’ll do, anyway.’
The correct answer is ‘jedenfalls’
But I think eh/sowieso are better for this. Or are they wrong because they don’t fit the grammar structure in the hint?
How does ‘limiting’ of ‘jedenfalls’ have anything to do in this case? This is more like learning German is out of convenient from Quarantine time, and I already planned to learn.
What do you think?
So the comma suggests that it’s not “eh”, but let’s ignore that for a second.
If you use “eh/sowieso” you’re saying that you were going to learn German either way, quarantine or no quarantine. That’s a bit weird to say right after saying that quarantine is a good opportunity, because clearly, you didn’t need an opportunity. But it’s not wrong.
If you use jedenfalls you’re saying “well, learning German is what I myself will do with quarantine, no idea what you will do, maybe something different.”
I tried to communicate that by separating the “anyway” with comma. You could replace it with “at least” here. That’s what I was going for, but the other option is valid as well.
Hope that helps.
dude just read the table u made and got 16/16
Wow, that’s amazing, seeing how the table is really “brief”. Good to hear it’s helpful anyway :)
Hello dear Emanuel
I’m not a native English speaker and I’m not sure if Anyway fits in the following sentence. If yes which one:
(I was trying to write about the last night of autumn)
I thought maybe “trotzdem” works. But I’m not sure. I want to emphasize that this small difference of time doesn’t change the fact that it the longest night of the year ist.
Sorry if i’m totally wrong. It could have nothing to do with anyway.
Thank zou
Maybe ‘immerhin’ might work too (with the same meaning as ‘zumindest’)?
“immerhin” sounds more positive to me. Like, there is a little “Wow” in there, just a small one.
It can fit in some contexts, but I wouldn’t think of it as a general synonym for “zumindest”
Thanks, Emanuel, for the nice quiz. Just want to draw your attention to the fact that this question:
“Wir haben nur entkoffeiniert.”
“Das ist eigentlich super. Ich sollte eh meinen Koffein-Konsum verringern.”
does not have „eh“ as one of the answers. I’m assuming “sowieso” would also work.
Ops, yeah, sowieso and eh really are synonyms. I basically mixed which one I had put in the hint when I did the answers :D. Thanks for pointing this out !
My opinion regarding “Quarantine is a good opportunity to learn German. That’s what I’ll do anyway”
kttps://bit.ly/2VOeIgx
I am learning German here. Its the a good Course. Its cheap , that is a big plus.
Your link leads to a looooong landing page and at the end it quotes a price of 27 Euro.
When I click, I get to another landing page, branded differently with a different face and the price went up to 30 Euro.
The link called “try it out” leads to the same “buy”-site as the link that says “buy”.
Are you REALLY learning German there or did you just want to plant the link?
a small typo: Quarantine is written with an i rather than an e
Danke dir :)!
Oh my “god” there’s a unicorn… (typo)
Thanks for membership.
Under “Two more use for “anyway” ” you wrote:
“Here’s a couple of examples.”
Quit following this American rubbish. It should be :
“Here are a couple of examples.”
I decided long ago that when I have to decide between British and American English, I’ll go for American. I know many Brits don’t like it, but it’s more familiar to me than British English, so I’ll stay consistent with that.
I hope it’s not too annoying ;)
I did well! 15/16. I think I am getting a feel for it. Thanks for this lesson as I was always pretty confused by sowieso, eh, and überhaupt. Trotzdem and zumindest were always a little easier for me to wrap my head around. I’m sure I’ll keep making mistakes but I think this has put me on the right path.
I didn’t mind the format of the questions displaying down below each other, but I like the usual one after another form. I think waiting until the end for the answers is kind of fun. But I could understand if people would want to see if they got it wrong so that they could correct the mistake in the following questions.
Thanks a lot for the feedback :).
Hi, I love these because I also learn English and logic. But your last use seems to me ‘pretty much the same’ ‘anyway’ as the first, what’s the difference? Wouldn’t you not go to a boing party anyway?
Wait, what do you mean by first and last use and “party”? Are you talking abot the exercise or about examples? I’m a little confused as to what two sentences you’re referring to.
It’s nice to see all of the questions at once. For the answers, I would probably vote to see them after each question. On one hand, it’s convenient to scroll through them all at once. On the other hand, I usually like to skip around and do the easiest questions first, see if I got them right (so I can either cement the rule in my head or correct it), and come back to the rest later. I did this quiz in one go so I wouldn’t accidentally see any answers I didn’t earn. I ended up getting everything except for one where I second guessed myself.
Okay, how about if they’re not on one page, but you can skip around freely using numbers. And you can check the answers if you want, but you can also complete the whole thing.
I think the settings of the software actually allow for that :)
Bummer, this one went in my spam folder and I just happened across it. _Anyway_, apologies for being late to the discussion.
I think that mixing the format up from quiz to quiz is the way to go. Otherwise we get in a rut. I say this as a Duolingo expert (I think I hold the record for the longest daily streak with the least amount learned), where it’s the mix of question types that would be helping me learn … if I were learning anything!
“(I think I hold the record for the longest daily streak with the least amount learned),”… that made me laugh #legendforever
Generally, the software does offer me several question types, but I am hesitant to use any typing questions because I myself HATE them when I do them. On Memrise for example. “Fill in the gap” on the phone is just AWFUL for me. And then let’s not forget about umlaut.
That’s why I am so heavy on multiple choice. It’s quick and easy. But I try to make the questions more engaging and challenging than Duolingo does :D
Oh, really? That sounds great!