Hello everyone,
and welcome to a new episode of False Friends Explained. As usual, we’ll take a pair of false friends, see what went wrong with their friendship and then, in an epic, tear-ridden finale we’ll reconcile them.
Meh… okay, I guess we can’t make them friends again. But it’s definitely gonna be super epic because today, we’ll look art, old and contemporary, English and German. Ladies and gentlemen, get ready for
art vs (die) Art
A famous man once said
A poem, a fart,
everything is art.
In English, this statement is controversial. In German not so much.
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Thats interesting. We do use Art in the German way. Art of the Deal. The Art of War. But before this I’ve thought of it as carrying across the idea of painting art. The German meaing makes more sense in this context-interesting that they possibly have different origins.
Ha, I actually thought of these titles as having the “artsy” art in it. They’re also translated with “Kunst” and not “Art” in German. Are you sure that they’re not in fact the artsy art?
Like… making deals is an art and so on?
Well that’s what I thought. Artsy Art. Sort of like creating a portrait of a deal but it could also fit in with the German Art as well. The way of the deal or how something is done. (to make a deal).
I’ve re-read your post and I think you are right about the “Art of the deal” being Arty Art but it’s a brain f(Art) er.
this article’s level is A estimated but I love how you explain the most out of everything that offers everyone something new to learn! you’re just excellent emanuel.
Thank you!!
The word of the Day articles really are hard to grade. I graded the ones that have useful vocabulary and don’t contain too much nuance stuff as A. But it’s really more like “An A-Level student can read this and have a good time and some learnings” rather than “this is A-level textbook material.”
that’s very smart of you! you teach german the best way possible. the way you track the root of everything and explain it, it’s just pure gold. (like what I read last night about aufhoeren’s relation to hoeren and how it contains the meaning in it) it was also in A-level. hope beginners know how deep they’re learning things and take advantage.
keep it up pls :X
Hey Emanuel, ich sehe dieser Beitrag ist schon etwas alt, weiß nicht, ob du die Kommentare noch liest..also, mir wurde einmal gesagt: ich mag deine Schuhe, sie sind so artig. Ich habe es damals nicht verstanden und immer noch nicht ganz..ich habe diesen Ausdruck in keinem Wörterbuch gefunden..die Person, die das benutzt hat, hat gesagt es ist ungefähr wie cool..er kommt aus Nordrhein Westfalen, vielleicht ist dieses Wort regional? Verwendet man dieses Wort im Alltag? Und was bedeutet es genau? Vielen Dank!
Ich lese alle Kommentare :). Ich habe einen praktischen Comment-Feed.
“artig” für Schuhe ist tatsächlich komisch.
Ich würde es als “well-behaved, modest, good girl” interpretieren.
Ein Kind kann “artig” sein zum Beispiel… dann hört es auf alles, was Mama und Papa sagen.
Aber vielleicht sagt man in der Region auch “artig” für “artsy”. Könnte sein, wenn es nah an den Niederlanden ist.
I have a question about abartig. I always thought this meant abnormal. I tried looking it up but nowhere could I find a definition of disgusting. Is this use slang?
No, that’s actually the “default” meaning nowadays. Everyone would understand “abartig” as repulsive, disgusting.
Or as an intensifier… like “abartig schön”… a weird twist of a phrase, but people do say that sometimes for “really really beautiful”
I think “abartig schön” as a phrase would be a good example of what we say in English as a Oxymoron.
For eg: deafening silence or disgusting beauty, or along those lines.
The opposite words actually accentuate the meaning of the original Adjective’s strength.
“Aber seine eine arrogante Art geht mir auf die Nerven.” Can you please explain the use and position of “eine”? Danke.
Yes, I can. But it’s embarassing for me because this is simply a typo/editing mistake on my part.
The “eine” needs to be gone.
Sorry for the confusion!!!
These things happen from time to time so whenever you see something REALLY weird, it might be my mistake :)
Quote :- “We already mentioned the Bachelor of Art, right?”
Well OK … maybe somewhere there is a BA degree solely in Art (which would be about the study and creating of Art as in paintings and originally in cave drawings).
However my five years of blood, sweat and tears to obtain a Bachelor of Arts degree (in languages) could have been about a huge range of humanities based subjects from philosophy, psychology, economics and anything not included in a BSc (Bachelor of Science) … in fact almost anything perhaps including, but definitely not restricted to, the art of painting, sculpture and other strictly arty-crafty skills that operate under the title of art (with no “s”).
All of this I am sure is well-known to the distinguished Professor Emanuel, but perhaps there are others like me who are easily confused?
Mit besten Wünsche … Roger from “English is Easy”
This now got me curious about the reason we use the word bachelor to describe both single men and degrees… what are your main sources when you look into etymological roots in German and English?
Danke fur ein andere fantastisch Artikel Emmanuel!
Yeah, I’m wondering the same thing whenever the stupid TV show is on :).
For English etymology I use
https://www.etymonline.com
and for German
dwds.de
(and sometimes Grimm’s Wörterbuchhttps://woerterbuchnetz.de/cgi-bin/WBNetz/wbgui_py?sigle=DWB)
This was so much fun to read :D
A while back I was reading an article about a famous circus and there was a sentence like “Sie können das Leben eines
Artisten kennenlernen” it seemed off for me, why would they call a circus worker “an artist” at this point? but I reasoned performers are kinda artists & let it go. Now I see it actually meant “acrobat” XDDDDD
Great :)! I love it when I have little light bulb moments like this :)
Thanks so much for these incredibly informative and fun posts. They’ve helped me a lot.
Mind if I ask if there is there a reason you opted for “…goes on my nerves” instead of “…gets on my nerves”?
No reason, I just thought it’s idiomatic, but I might be wrong :)
It “goes against my principles”
But
It “gets on my nerves”
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Oh, just thought of another “Art” phrase this morning while staring groggily at my Greek yogurt – or, more accurately, my “Joghurt nach griechischer Art” or “Greek-style yogurt.”
You don’t hear that phrase a lot in conversation or anything, but it’s pretty common to see written on food packaging or restaurant menus. “Nach Art des Hauses” is in the post already, but “nach ______ Art” is probably worth noting as a general way to say “à la _______” or “_______ style.”
Oh true, definitely. It really is common. “Schnitzel Wiener Art” for instance which is NOT the original “Wiener Schnitzel”.
Thank you for these articles; I love them, and your English writing skills are brilliant. If I may make one small correction – we say ‘gets on my nerves’, not ‘goes on my nerves’.
Swedish, oddly enough, DOES say X går någon på nerverna: literally, “X goes [for] someone on the nerves”.
I live in the south and I can attest to bless his heart. Usually it is said as a soothing addendum to something terrible. Zum beispiel, he is dumb as a box of rocks, bless his heart. and to up the Youtube game … https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLep-GmP83M
:)
Your Youtube link is strong son. Impeccable use of OOOOHH Burn!
It’s like calling someone “different” in Minnesota I suppose. You assume there just wasn’t much else good to say.
Or (also in the South) saying, “bless his heart!”
That sounds strong :D
Hi, the pdf link isn’t working.
Fixed. Should work now…
By the way, does “eigenartig” mostly just mean “odd/strange/not quite right,” or can it mean “eccentric”/”idiosyncratic” with reference to a person?
That’s another one of those words that I feel like indicates a difference between German and American mentalities. To me, “eigenartig,” “merkwürdig,” and “wunderlich” all sound like they ought to have positive connotations…
Hmm… can you give me an example sentence? I’m not sure how you’d use these words. Well, actually I’m not sure about “idiosyncratic”. “eccentric” is way stronger than “eigenartig”.
To me, “eccentric” is really pretty mild/polite. It’s often said that rich people can’t be crazy, only eccentric – to me “eccentric” could be a polite way to describe somebody who’s really nuts, but it can also just describe someone who has funny little ways about them.
So I guess I was wondering if you could describe someone as an “eigenartiger Typ” or something, meaning that they’re a little odd, maybe have weird (but not creepy or anything) habits or preferences.
Yeah, you can call someone “eigenartig” or say that he or she is an “eigenartig” person (though that’s not too idiomatic to my ears). To me, this does have a negative tone though.
As for eccentric… I think my first impression was a little off. Calling someone “ein bisschen exzentrisch” is not too negative a statement.
I’m trying to think of a clearly positive way to say that someone has “their habits” but nothing is coming to my mind right now. Maybe “interessant” or “speziell”.
Ha… depending on who’s saying it and in what tone, “interesting” or “special” can come across as pretty mean ways to describe someone. I think it’s a pretty typical Southern US thing to say someone or something is “interesting” as a way to say, “I can’t think of a single nice thing to say about this person/thing.”
Wait… I hope it’s not the same for “That’s interesting”. I say that all the time, and it would be really weird if the actual meaning was “That’s flippin’ boring” :D
A Chinese curse was said by someone to be
“May you live in interesting times !”
It totally depends on tone. If you hear a little pause before the word, that’s a good sign that it’s not meant in a positive sense:
– That’s… interesting.
– Yeah, he’s… interesting.
So don’t pause before you say it and you should come across as sincere. :)
What if I have a cold and I have to cough after “that’s”… should I clarify then what I meant :D? (no need to reply, I’m just being stupid ;)
It should be “artful”, not “artfull”. (Second and third items in the vocab.)
I’ll probably never stop making this “full” “ful” mistake :(. Thanks for the heads up!!
– Das Problem war nicht, was er gesagt hat, sondern die Art und Weise.
– The problem wasn’t what he said but how/the way he said it.
(is there a succinct way to say this?Native speakers please help)
Beides geht. Besser hätte ich’s nicht übersetzen können. :)
Sie bewegt sich gazellenartig.
She moves gazelle-esque.
Zumindest auf Englisch gilt “-esque” nur als Adjektivendung. Wenn du den Satz unbedingt anders formulieren möchtest als “She moves like a gazelle”, dann vielleicht “She moves in a gazelle-like way.” Eigentlich kann “gazelle-like” als Adverb funktionieren, wobei “She moves gazelle-like” für mich ein bisschen komisch klingt. Als Teil eines längeren Satzes könnte es allerdings schön sein: “She moves, gazelle-like, through the tall grass” oder sowas.
Hier einige ganz unterschiedliche Fragen…
Also “Art und Weise” hört man ziemlich oft als fixe Phrase, wie “auf eine _______ Art und Weise” – kommt “Art” häufiger vor, wenn nur eins von dem Paar verwendet wird? Gibt es Fälle, in denen man lieber “die Weise” benutzt?
Weißt du, ob das Adjektiv “arm” (Gegenteil von “reich”) auch etwas mit *ar- zu tun hat?
Mir ist aufgefallen, dass “der Artist” in der Vokabelliste steht, du hast jedoch gar nichts im Post drüber geschrieben. Hat der Begriff auch mit der aus *ar- stammenden “Arm-artikulieren-Artikel”-Bedeutung zu tun oder wie?
Instead of “The problem wasn’t what he said but how/the way he said it.” I would say either “It’s not what he said but how he said it” or “It’s not what he said but the way he said it”.
Tschüss!
Duh… of course. Why didn’t I think of this. Danke dir :)