Hello everyone,
and welcome to our German Word of the Day. This time we’ll have a look at the meaning of
der Fluss
Sounds like a boring topic. Fluss means river; most of you know that, I think. And who wants to read about Fluss? I mean, except a Flussologist (riverologist in English, in my fantasy version of it anyway).
But Fluss is not just a river, it’s a stream. A stream of useful words and in that stream many surprising connections dwell. So let’s go fishing. Or better yet, let’s dive right in.
Splashhhh.
The crazy family of Fluss
The word Fluss is obviously not related to river. River comes from some Latin word that was more about the riverbank but there aren’t any interesting connections to anything. Well, except the word rival, which comes from the idea that someone uses the same stream as you to water their field.
The family of Fluss on the other hand is just crazy. At the heart is the uber ancient Indo European root *pleu. The core inspiration was running water and the root has evolved into many words that are somehow related to that idea. In English, we have flow, float, fleet or flood. These ones are quite obvious but there are more. For example to flee, which ties in with the speed of running water, I guess. And then there’s to fly. Sounds crazy, but just think of an eagle in the air…. that does look a lot like floating.
On the German side, we have essentially the same words, just in German: Die Flotte (fleet), die Flut (flood), das Floß (the raft) and die Flosse (the fin of a fish) and of course also fliegen (fly), fliehen(flee), Flug (flight) and Flucht (flight, escape). Oh, and of course also the Romance languages have their bunch of pleu-words. There’s the branch around flux and fluid (which also exists in English) and there are the words for to rain – pleuvoir in French, piovere in Italian – and you know what.. this actually ALSO made it into English: pluvial. Man, English is such a Latin fanboy. I have never heard pluvial anywhere but apparently it means related to rain or characterized by rain so I guess this is how you would use it.
Gee, this summer better be f-in’ awesome.
Last summer was f-ing pluvial.
Meh… maybe not.
Anyway, so this is the fascinating family of Fluss. Now let’s get to some cool, useful Fluss-words.
Cool, useful Fluss-words
Let’s start with Fluss itself. We know that tt can mean river. But it can also means flow.
- Die fielen Rechtscraibfeler stören den Lesefluß.
- The many thaipos disrubt the reading flow.
(fhere’s the proper German:… Die vielen Rechtschreibfehler stören den Lesefluss)
- Alles ist im Fluss.
- Everything flows.
(lit.: Everything is in flux)
(By the way… here’s a picture of a nice art installation that took the wise saying of this example literally. Like… SUPER literally ;).
Now, I think we should mention, that in recent years, the word flow has started to enter the German language in some areas. In context of music you wouldn’t say “Fluss” , you’d say “flow“. And in the working world people will likely say work flow and instead of Arbeitsfluss and flow chart instead of Flussdiagramm because… you know… it’s just so much cooooooler.
Anyway, back to Fluss-words. There are 5 in particular that are really good to know. The first one is der Abfluss.
Abfluss expresses the general idea of something flowing away from somewhere. The reason why it’s so useful however, is the fact that it’s THE word for … the drain, as in kitchen drain. The “off-flow”.
- Der Abfluss ist schon wieder verstopft.
- The drain ist clogged again.
The second super useful word is der Einfluss. Literally, it would be the “inflow” and that’s just a step away from the actual meaning: influence. I think I don’t need to mention where fluence comes from :).
- Thomas hat in der Firma viel Einfluss.
- Thomas has a lot of clout/influence in the company.
- Die Gewerkschaft ist klein aber sehr einflussreich.
- The workers union is small but very influential/powerful.
Of course, there’s also the verb to influence: beeinflussen. And yes, that’s more complicated than it needs to be and yes, the double-e does look a bit funny.
- Das Buch hat mich sehr beeinflusst.
- That book has influenced me quite a bit.
- Die Art, wie die Frage gestellt ist, kann die Antwort beeinflussen.
- The way the question is phrased can influence the answer.
All right.
The third super cool and super useful Fluss-word is das Überfluss. Literally, it me… what? Oh you want to know why it’s das and not der even though it’s der Fluss? Well, you’re totally right. It’s der Überfluss… I was just testing you ;). So, literally der Überfluss is overflow. It’s not used in the literal sense of stuff actually spilling over an edge but the idea of too much is still totally in there. Überfluss means abundance in sense of more than needed.
- Wir leben in einer Überflussgesellschaft.
- We live in an affluent society.
(uhm… affluent… connection anyone)
- Deutschland hat Wasser im Überfluss. Doch die Verbraucher sparen trotzdem wie verrückt – ein Problem für die Kanalisation.
- Germany has water in abundance. But people save water anyway – a problem for the sewerage.
- Zu allem Überfluss ist auch noch mein Fahrrad kaputtgegangen. (common expression)
- To make matters even worse my bike broke down.
More common than the noun is the adjective überflüssig and this one actually has a literal translation… drumroll please… superfluous. Super like über and fluous is a variation of fluid.
In practice überflüssig is used for quite a range of English words (dispensable, gratuitous, unnecessary,… ) but the idea is always the same.
- Viele Apps sind total überflüssig. Diese App sagt dir, welche.
- Many apps are totally pointless. This app tells you which ones.
- Die besten 10 Tips wie man überflüssige Meetings meiden kann.
- The best 10 tips how to avoid going to gratuitous meetings.
Of course, flüssig also works on its own. And I think by now you can already guess what that means… exactly, it can mean fluent, fluid or liquid. And the noun is die Flüssigkeit and means the liquid or the fluid and I have to say… I really don’t understand why English uses different words here. I mean, it’s one idea and I think having different words for it, is confusing and makes it hard to learn the langu… what? … ohhhhhhhhh… right. Sorry, I forgot I’m teaching German. I really should shut up about two words for one thing.
- Wasser ist flüssig.
- Water is liquid.
- Thomas liest flüssig.
- Thomas reads with a good flow.
- Im Sommer muss man viel trinken, um den Flüssigkeitsverlust auszugleichen.
- In summer you have to drink a lot to compensate for the loss of fluid.
Cool.
Now, all we’ve seen so far was based on the noun der Fluss. But of course we also need to mention the verb…. fließen.
fließen
Fließen is what water and other liquids do… to flow, to run. But of course it’s used in a bunch of more abstract contexts, too. For example for electricity, money or thoughts.
- Der Fluss fließt zum Meer.
- The river flows to the sea.
- Wenn Thomas was getrunken hat, fließen die Ideen regelrecht aus ihm raus.
- When Thomas has had a drink, the ideas are virtually flowing out of him.
- Bisher sind 300 Millionen Euro in das Projekt geflossen.
- So far, 300 million Euro have been invested in the project.
The more abstract fließen is by far not as common as its English brother to flow, though. Like.. you wouldn’t say that a meeting fließt or that a story fließt. That’s just not idiomatic.
Prefix-version-wise, fließen is rather soft on us. Sure, there are some but they’re not that useful and I think you can understand all of them when you see them in context.
- Der Test fließt nicht in die Endnote ein.
- The test is not included into the final grade/will not influence the final grade.
(lit.: doesn’t flow into)
- Die Butter zerfließt auf den heißen Kartoffeln.
- The butter melts all over the hot potatoes.
(lit.: flows apart)
A nice compound is das Fließband which is much more descriptive than its English translation assembly line. A flowing strap.
- Wir arbeiten hier wie am Fließband um das Projekt fertig zu kriegen.
- We’re working like on an assembly line here to get the project finished.
And of course we need to mention fließend which is what all language learners want :)… “flowing” or fluent.
Actually, fließend is more like fluently.
- I am fluent in German.
- Ich bin fließend in Deutsch…. NOPE!!!
This is not idiomatic in German because fließend just isn’t used to describe a person. It’s used to describe the process. So in German you’d say
- Ich spreche fließend Deutsch.
- I’m speaking German fluently (lit.)
Oh, and then we mustn’t forget the word fluency which is quite the buzz word in the language learning community. You know all the ads and titles:
“We’ll take you to fluency in no time”
“Here’s how to reach fluency in 3 days”
“Fluency is only a month (and 350 bucks) away”
So what’s the translation for fluency? The answer is … hold on.. that’s weird… no word? There HAS to be one somwhe…
“There isn’t!”
What??? Hello? Who.. who said that?
“It is I, you idiot. German. And I don’t have a word for fluency.”
But… you have a word for like… everything.
“Not for this?”
But why not?
“Because people cannot reach fluency in me. I’m too difficult.”
No, you’re not. I know plenty of people who have learned you and reached fluency.
“That’s impossible.”
No, it’s not.
“But … what about all my genders and my endings.”
People can master those.
“Oh they do?! Then… then I’ll add more genders… yeah, more genders. From now on there’s also do and dun. Yeah, and I’ll add a new case, as well. The Confusative. And I’ll add exceptions and …”
German! Calm down… why do you always have to pretend to be so tough?
“I don’t know… “
Have you been drinking?
“A little. I… uh… Someone on the Internet said I’m so harsh and clunky. And that made me sad. And angry.”
It’s okay German, many people really like you.
“Oh… sob … really? People really want to learn me? “
Yeah, trust me. Now go home and get some rest and then maybe come up with a word for fluency, okay?
“Okay… I’ll do that. Say hey to the students for me, okay.”
I will.
Wow… that was strange. Maybe it’s time to get out of the sun. But I think we’ve bathed in the river enough for one day anyway, so let’s get out and drink a beer at the riverside and reminisce about all the words we’ve learned :).
This was our German Word of the Day der Fluss. Many know it as river, but the core idea is flow and the translations for many of the cool Fluss-words like Einfluss or überflüssig are actually directly related to Fluss. Check out the vocab section for all the words we had today and some more, and as always, if you have any questions or suggestions just leave me a comment.
I hope you liked it and see you next time.
* vocab*
der Fluss – the river, the stream
das Floß – the raft
die Flut – the flood
die Flotte – the fleet
die Flosse – the fin (fish)
der Abfluss – the drain, plughole of a sink
der Einfluss – the influence
beeinflussen – to influence
der Überfluss – abundance
der Zufluss – the influx
fließen (ist geflossen) – flow (also for electricity)
abfließen – flow away (water in a sink for example, also for funds)
fließend – fluently (language)
flüssig – liquid, with a good flow
überflüssig – superfluous
die Flüssigkeit – the liquid
fliegen – to fly
die Fliege – the fly
der Flug – the flight
fliehen – to flee
die Flucht – the flight, escape
der Flüchtling – the fugitive
float – schwimmen (for stuff that doesn’t sink)
Vage (oder genaue) Demarkation von Begriffen nach Größe des bezeichneten Objekts:
Fluss = river, Bach = brook, Berg = mountain, Hügel = hill ?
Das Wörterbuch macht es sich zu leicht!
Ein river ist ein Fluss oder ein größerer Bach, ein brook ein bestenfalls mittlerer Bach.
Ein Berg hingegen wird meist nur ein hill sein, denn mindestens in England und Wales muss ein mountain eine Höhe von mindestens 2000 Fuß (609,6 Meter) haben.
Also bitte nicht dem Buch oder dem Lehrer glauben und uns Briten für komisch halten, nur weil wir etwas angeblich für einen Fluss halten. Das tun wir nämlich gar nicht; wir halten es nur korrekt für a river.
And the other way round: Don’t believe the book or the teacher. Don’t think that Germans are weird, just because they supposedly regard an obvious hill as a mountain — they don’t; they only regard it as a Berg, which it is.
Hey, something is confusing me… Because of the high german consonant shift, I thought flow and Fluss were related to “pluvia” in Latin, but that words like “fluent” and the Latin “fluere” were rather related to “blow” and “blast”. Just like “flower” and “bloom”… Am I missing something?
No, you’re completely right. I actually didn’t look up fluent because I just assumed it would be related … classic mistake. That said, even though two different Indo-European roots are given for “fluent” on the one hand and “flow” on the other, they do seem to overlap in Ancient Greek … at least to my eyes (I use Etymonline). I’m not an etymologist though.
Thanks for the head up. I guess I have to change that bit if the article
Re: “das Fließband which is much more descriptive than its English translation assembly line. A flowing strap.”
“A flowing strap” makes me think that perhaps “conveyor belt” is a closer translation. Conveyance -> confluence -> flow. ;)
Also, in the context of chemistry, ‘liquid’ is a physical state of a pure substance (eg water or mercury), and you wouldn’t really use it to describe a mixture or solution. You wouldn’t say ‘liquid’ to describe, say, a mixed fuel or orange juice, but you might use ‘fluid’.
I don’t think people would make that distinction in everyday English though.
Some of you guys are saying there isn’t really a distinction between liquid and fluid but they definitely feel different to me and aren’t always interchangeable. And I don’t mean how a fluid is broader cos it includes liquids, gasses, non-newtonian fluids, etc. For example, if someone said bodily liquid instead of bodily fluid, it sounds weird to me. A cup could be filled with liquid, but if it was described as filled with fluid, i would think “fluid from what?”. Idk what it is but i know i would use them in different ways
Also i tried to find the german word for fluid that would fit for gas and liquid so i went to the wikipedia page for “fluid” and “liquid” and changed the language to deutsch. Liquid became flüssigkeit and fluid became fluid.
Interesting, I just checked the Wikipedia entry for fluid and as I understand it, German “Fluid” is basically anything that is not in a solid state. I’ve never heard it used though, I don’t even know if they pronounce it the German way (like: floo-eet)
To follow on from George, fluid also carries the sense of actual movement whereas liquid carries the sense of being static. So if you were to talk say of rock being a fluid it would create a mental image of lava flowIng down the side of a volcano whereas if you said the rock was a liquid the image would be more of it sitting in the magma chamber.
Man, German is always so precise… wait, hold on.. that’s not German :D
Take all these distinctions with a grain of salt (is there a German idiom that means about the same as that?).
As Tim says below, these aren’t necessarily distinctions most people would be able to make without thinking about it a bit (or at all, in the case of the whole mixed vs. pure distinction in chemistry – I didn’t have a clue about that one).
I don’t know that I would really perceive the distinction MacFeagle makes, either, at least when using the terms literally, though I guess it makes sense. To my ear, describing rock as “fluid” would be really striking and unusual regardless of what it’s doing.
But it’s worth keeping the basic rule – that “fluid” is broader in meaning – in mind.
The dictionary suggested “mit Vorsicht genießen” and that is quite common. But for a context like this it sounds too serious. Like, as if I need to be cautious making the distinction :)
Can we say “Sein Deutsch ist fließend”? Can we think that “Er ist fließend im Deutsch” is wrong because what is flowing is his German, not him?
So I looked up both phrasings and the first one it totally idiomatic and used “Mein [x]ist fließend”.
As for the second one… some people use it but “ist fließend in Englisch” only has 500 hits on Google so I’d say it’s not all that common.
Hello, awesome article as always! I have a question: “Ich spreche fließend Deutsch” – can i also say “Ich spreche Deutsch flüssig” ? or this is not correct?
I guess it’s fine but “fließend” is better/more idiomatic; at least to me.
Actually, now that I think of it… “flüssig sprechen” would be used for a native speaker who is giving a speech or something. “Fließend” is specific for the context of language learning.
“Fluid” and “liquid” aren’t quite synonyms. “Fluid” is a bit more technical, and especially in the technical literature, fluids can be either liquids or gasses. That is, air is a fluid, but it isn’t a liquid. Water is both a fluid and a liquid.
Wow, seems like a well known distinction in English seeing how many people comment about it :). I bet it exists in German too, but I’m not aware of a word that would fit for gas and liquids
Das Fluid, what else ;)
Hi! Liquid and fluid are not synonym. A liquid is a fluid but not the other way round. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fluid.
That cartoon cracked me up!
Some damn wise ducks right there :)
Ich liebe dieses Blog. Ich will mehr über die Konfusativ lernen!
Der Konfusativ ist schwer zu erklären. Er ist ein bisschen so wie dieses Bild:
Note on liquid and fluid: water is both. Air is fluid but not liquid. The difference is compressibility.
Interesting tidbit. Thanks!!
Sorry English is so *influenced* by latin. During the early 18th century, English scientist such as Newton wanted more precision in the language, so they used more latin.
I think, in German there was actually a period (I think 17th century, but I’m not sure at all) when they force-translated many Latin terms because they wanted to use Germanic words. So they came up with lots of word for word translations. Not all of them survived but many did.
“Frauke Petry von der AfD sieht von der Frisur her fast noch lustiger aus als Merkel, nur als Junge”.
Frauke Petry from AfD looks even funnier than Merkel hairstyle-wise – if you picture Merkel as a boy.
Grammatisch jetzt alles einwandfrei. Danke. Mal so aus Neugier… macht das für dich Sinn? Ich meine, verstehst du, was der, der den Satz gesagt hat, genau gemeint hat?
I know this is unrelated but what does “von ..her” do in this sentence, and what does the sentence mean?
“Frau Kepetry von AfD sieht von Frisur her fast noch lustiger aus als Merkel nur als Junge”
https://yourdailygerman.com/2014/03/17/von-da-her-meaning/
I would say something like “in terms of her hairstyle”, “from the point of view of her hairstyle” or more snappily, “hairstyle-wise”
I must say I’m struggling to make sense of the whole sentence though. To me it reads “Mrs Kepetry from AfD is, hairstyle-wise, almost funnier than Merkel, only as a boy”. Whether this refers to Mrs Kepetry’s or Mrs Merkel’s imagined boyhood (or both) is unclear to me. Mrs Kepetry does have am undeniably boyish demeanour though, whereas I would regard Mrs Merkel as all woman.
Mrs Petry even… Frauke Petry, not Frau Kepetry.
Yeah, Frauke is one of the oddest first names we have in German. Funny, it never even occurred to me that the whole audio could be parsed as “Frau Kepetry”. The power of a native speaker brain, both a boon and a bane. What you know, you recognize super fast but you’re not open at all to other interpretations
Same here. I don’t really get the joke of the sentence, nor does it make much sense to me. I don’t find Frauke Petrys hair funny at all, and the part with the boy… I don’t know what to make of it. Boys with Fraukes hair aren’t funny.
As for Merkel being a woman… there can be no doubt about it:
And because it’s so funny I have to share this:
What the guy is showing is called “Maurerdecolté” which would translate to mason’s clevage, I guess.
I know it as “plumber’s crack” – not sure if there are any classier English idioms :)
Where did you get the sentence from, btw?
It was a meme U found on FB, it didnt make much sense to me either. But stil its funny to know about Frauke :-D
There’s actually also “Söhnke” as a name for boys. I guess that the “-ke” comes from a dialect version of “-chen” so Frauke once was “Frauchen”
Don’t forget that the ‘Abfluss’ carries away the ‘effluent’.
And that’s not just me writing ‘affluent’ in a Kiwi accent!
Pluvial flooding. Flooding from surface water (rain).
Fluvial flooding. Flooding from river overflowing its banks.
I love the blog, I hope some of it is sinking in.
Language is like water… it can be shallow, it can be deep, it wants to move, it’s flexible, it’s everywhere, you need it every day… and it sinks in :)
Despite having studied oceanography (not very assiduously) at uni I had never considered what the term might be for the study of rivers until I heard the crashing clang of your suggested “riverologist”. Anyway I looked it up. Potamology / Potamologist of course.
But more importantly, thanks for another wonderful tour of another wonderful little avenue of German, coming soon to a synapse near me.
So, I knew that “hippopotamus” apparently literally means “river horse” your comment just made me know it on a whole new level :D. Potamus… river.
I salute your new level of knowing