Hello everyone,
and welcome to our German Word of the Day. And today, we’ll take a look at the meaning of
gegen
Which is short for generation G.
Which is short for generation Genitals, the generation that has genitals.
Or it’s short for generation Gesus, the generation that has Gesus in their heart.
Or it’s short for generation Generation, the generation that has Generations.
Or it’s short for generation Get-on-with-the-article. Which is the generation I am from.
I will get on with the article swiftly. On the double quick. Just had to clear my system.
Gee, this intro is a disaster.
Anyway, let’s jump right in…
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I struggle to feel the differences between Das Ding, die Sache и der Gegenstand. Do you have an article about them?
No, that’s a topic I’ve been kind of avoiding :)
Oh, okay. Is it not interesting, or is there some other reason?
I can’t get a narrative in my head that goes beyond just listing a bunch of use cases so far. I need a better handle. It’s definitely worth a lesson, I just don’t feel ready yet.
You asked for a proper word translation for ‘Gegenwind’ in your example,
– “Manchmal ist Deutschlernen wie bei Gegenwind einen Berg aus Sand hochlaufen.”
– “Sometimes, learning German is like walking up a mountain of sand with head wind/counter wind.”
Counter wind sounds stiff and technical. I would say against the wind (title of a Bob Seger song), or even ‘it’s like pissing against/in/into the wind’, which is a common street phrase, both are for doing something with no chance of success. (Walking) into the wind would work quite well and would mean something being more difficult; nearly the same but it’s missing the visualization of futility. Into a head wind could also work, you’d be understood, as it’s a sailing (or cycling) term for wind coming from the bow, or from the destination of the boat.
Wait, the German sentence is NOT about futility. It’s just about it being REALLY hard and annoying.
So “pissing against the wind” is not a good match, I think.
I think I like “into a head wind” best :)
geht doch!
interestingly gegen or more accurately geeich/gegich/geggich/various spellings in Pa Dutch only has this towards/against (as in an opponent) kinda way, and against as in literally against say a wall, is ‘wedder’ which I believe is cognate to ‘wider’
Entgegen in dialect is ‘engege’ (note the “ege” in gege and engege is like eje) which is always a preposition near as I’ve ever found.
Awesome article! I laughed out loud at least three times; the intro, the “intern notes” were hilarious! Also, thanks as usual for connecting the dots with the root words and how they were used in the past. I learned a lot about English today, too.
Danke, glad you enjoyed it :)!!
Hi –
What a great overview!! Such great info. Are entgegen and im Gegensatz zu synonyms? For instance could you replace Entgegen with im Gegensatz zu in this sentence Entgegen meiner Vorstellung war die Suppe lecker?
Many thanks!
Yes, that works in this case, but it only works for contexts like this (contrasting opinions or rules of some kind). It does NOT for people.
– Im Gegensatz zu mir duscht Thomas echt oft.
– Entgegen mir/meiner duscht Thomas…
The second one does NOT work at all.
So… it doesn’t work for comparing things, it does work as a direct counter statement. Hope that helps :)
Hi the comments for your interns are still visible on this article. They also look a bit harsh, I hope you don’t mind them so. Great content nevertheless!
Those are a joke ;).
Die Einhörner cremen sich gegenseitig ein.
Findest du das sexy? Vielleicht solltest du mal sehen, wenn Muschis so was machen. Ich liebe Katzen!
Der Artikel ist lustig und informativ, (ent)gegen jeden Zweifel, danke. :-)
Great article as always. I have a question that’s a little off topic but that’s what you get for going off on so many tangents! ;)
You say entgegen in “Ich gehe der Sonne entgegen” is actually a prefix verb. This seems to match something I’ve been pondering lately.
I’ve noticed it’s common in German to use standalone phrases like “unten drunter durch” and “drüber rüber” when the context is clear enough to omit all the details. So much so that “drum herum” has become a block that German learners just absorb.
I was taught that durch and rüber in the above examples are prepositions and unten, drunter and drüber adverbs (of location and movement respectively) but that’s not right is it?
unten is indeed an adverb of location but drunter and drüber are da prepositons and durch and rüber are prefixes of verbs. Would you agree? short for…
unten (Sud in diesem Context) unter die Brücke durchgehen/fahren/schwimmen/oder wie auch immer and
oben (Nord in diesem Context) über die Brücke rübergehen/fahren/usw
Thanks
“going off on tangents”?! Me?!?! That is fake news! I NEVER go on tangents ;)
Anyway, about your question:
it’s a bit hard to answer without concrete examples but some of things you said were not correct. (d)r-versions of prepositions are NEVER prepositions but always adverbs (or prefixes). So “unten” is an adverb but so are “drunter” and “runter”. Only “unter” is a preposition.
“drüber” and “rüber” will not combine in a sentence. Only “über… rüber” and “unter … (d)runter”. You so have a combo of a preposition and an adverb.
And in most of those instances the adverb will actually be a prefix.
– Ich fahre über die Brücke rüber.
As for “unten drunter durch”… that’s an especially twisted one. The prefix is “durch” and “unten drunter” is an adverbial phrase made up of two adverbs – one indication the general location, the other expressing the location of “traversal”.
Generally, this kind of doubling up is colloquial and can easily sound like bad style. So don’t make too much of an effort to study it :)
Hope that helps.
It does, thanks!
Themen –
Zorn ,Zank und Zwist
YouTube Hommage to Sausage — Hot dog!!! – Gott Senf ?
Egal ob in den USA -xenophobisch
oder im UK – unversöhnlich
gibt’s nur nun Gegner -alle.
Allgegenwärtig als
”Anti” stim ‘men’ .
zu beschreiben.
Sonst nichts als Unfug
alle betreiben.
Dagegen – hingegen – schräg gegenüber,
Plan A – Abgelehnt ! Plan B – Brüskiert !
Shutdown – genehmigt ! Stillstand ist klüger !
Es toben blindwütig die großen Debatten
ohne ein Entgegenkommens des Gegenstandes
geschafft zu haben!
—————————————————————–
Haben sie sich mit Mani’s genialen Dinger
wund gespielt
Gehirn & Finger?
Auf alle Fälle ist es Zeit
für etwas namens Heiterkeit –
Ihre Weiterausbildung ist mir GEGENseitig wirklich wichtig und besonders heute wirklich Wurst!
So fangen wir gleich an!
Aus der Abgaßß Klau-kopie-kleb-klick Kultürraub Klang- Kiste
Suchbegriff (kein Link) :
—————————————————————————————————————
Stephan Remmler – Alles hat ein Ende nur die Wurst hat zwei
637,985 views
(1987 4.01 min.)
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AgßEZ
Redaktionsschluß
31.1.2019
Priesterhaus Gaße 6
A-5020 Salzburg
Hi Emanuel,
You said, “Note that the spoken past is formed with sein, not with haben. Because… logic (#irony).”
The way I remember it is that when the object is indirect it is “sein”. When it is direct it is “haben”.
Ich bin noch nie einem Einhorn begegnet.
Ich habe noch nie ein Einhorn gesehen.
Maybe that’s the logic behind sein and haben?
Hallo sddiver,
verbs of motion conjugate with sein- gehen, fahren, fliegen, laufen, kommen usw.
and- TAUCHEN – to dive. Now you have an easy way to remember.
There is something with objects, but that’s a bit misleading. The core difference is that “sein” is used for verbs that talk about you changing your location (or state).
If those get a direct object, they turn to haben.
– Ich bin nach München gefahren.
– Ich habe meinen Bruder nach München gefahren.
Usually, they have NO object. That’s why “begegnen” is so weird… it is neither about changing my location, and it does have direct object. So if German were consistent, it should be “haben”. An exception pretty much, without any logic :)
But begegnen has an object in dative case not accusative , so it cannot be used in passive form. And auxiliary verb sein ist logical. But why begegnen has Dative object and not Akkusative?
True, I’m not sure what I was thinking when I wrote “it does have a direct object”. Maybe I was thinking about English “to meet”, but I’m not sure.
Anyway, good question about why it has a Dative object instead of the Accusative object that would be typical for be-verbs. I couldn’t find any relevant historic information, so I think it just “happened” to end up that way. There’s no deeper logic as far as I can tell.
Hi, Emanuel!
What a great article! Many thanks for the thorough explanations, it’s super helpful and enjoyable! :)
One question regarding your use of ‘Supper’ in the German example: you translated it as ‘soup’, whereas in English supper would be the meal served in the evening. So is there a similar difference between Supper/Suppe in German too?
Oh, that was a typo, actually :). I meant to write “Suppe” which is “soup”. German doesn’t have the word “supper”.
Der Supper: one who soups
Oh stimmt :D.
Do you know that “suppen” is actually a verb? It really is!
*looks up on dict.cc*
O_0
Correctly using “begegnen” in the past (so getting the dative AND “sein” right) in conversation is one of those moments when you feel you’ve really arrived as a German speaker.
How do “Gegend” and “Gebiet” compare? Is “Gebiet” just more formal/technical?
I’m guessing “gen” feels fairly poetic/old-timey? Are there just a few idiomatic phrases where you’d actually use it when speaking, or would it be weird to actually say “gen Osten” or whatever? (“Gen Himmel” is the first phrase that comes to mind for me – Lutherbibel again.)
By the way, there’s at least one more English word in the “against/again” family: “gainsay,” a proper Germanic word for “contradict” (widersprechen). “Gain” (noun or verb), though, comes via French from another root.
“those moments when you feel you’ve really arrived as a German speaker.”… nice :).
Yup, “gen” is definitely poetic. It’s fairly common with cardinal directions, so there, it doesn’t sound too high brow but with any other destination, people would “notice” it.
As for “Gegend” vs “Gebiet”: yes, “Gebiet” does sound more technical and formal. It comes from “bieten” so the core is who reigns the territory. It can be used for random bits of landscape too, though.
Gegend sounds a bit casual.
Like for instance… an area was poisoned by radiation. I would use “Gebiet” even though it doesn’t have clear boundaries and doesn’t belong to anyone.
Hope that made sense.
Egal, was es ist, ist – Anti-Man ein dafür, Dagegen-ist!.
Wenn zwei Anti-männer sich begegnen
kommt was oft,- gegen die”Er”wartung gesetztentgegen!
Alles klar???
“Egal, was es ist, ist – Anti-Man ein dafür, Dagegen-ist!” ….
ich verstehe es nicht :)
(it’s funny in German, I promise) (Ich “schwere” mit aller Kraft !)
Es war nur
eine kleine deutsche Poesie
hammerkrass gerammelt voll
mit frecher
Ami Ironie!
——————————————-
In der Gegenwart ist es gegenwärtig kalt
und von Mutti kommt Probates Mittel alt!
Gegen Fingern steiff gefroren,
kommt immer laut zu hören-
GOT MITTENS?
:+)
Das erste klingt wie ein Haiku (für mich, der keine Ahnung von Haikus hat :)
O weh! Wieder ein Rätsel :+) Du kennst sicher Protagonist =supporter · upholder · adherent · backer · advocate
protagonist of an idea
Vorkämpfer einer Idee
Hier wird gemeint: Anti-Man ist ein “Dagegen-ist’ das Gegenteil von einem Protagonist. Er ist immer nur dagegen und nimmer dafür.
Ein oxymoronischer-Schmäh! Ein Zustand, daß es gar nicht gibt.
Der Begriff “Anti-man” ist vielleicht mir nicht völlig klar?? Ist es ein großes Kino das ich gar nicht kenne??
Comix Superheld?
Was soll eigentlich ein Anti-Man in der Dresdener Fassung sein??
Ich tanze oft mit der Sprache mit Absicht ein bißchen erfinderisch aus der Reihe.
Ahhhh… Dagegenist. Ohne Bindestrich ist es klar :). Sehr gut, genau das ist Anti-Man. Der Gründer des Dagegenismus.
“Sometimes, learning German is like walking up a mountain of sand with head wind/counter wind”. The only thing wrong with that sentence is that it should be “a headwind”. We do not have counter wind. Still reading the article. Just wanted to get that out of the way.
Marian is right, the word would be head wind. That said, if I were to make that comment it would almost certainly be walking up a mountain of sand “against the wind” or “into the wind.” Using head wind is not wrong, it just feels less natural to me and I think such a description of difficulty may have less impact on the listener.
Hi Emanuel, thanks for your superb job at teaching us the german language so masterfully. When do tou think your app will be out there? All the best!
Oofff, that’ll take a while, I’m afraid. I have a lot of things to do at once and I have to do some heavy overhaul to the app structure, I realized. I’m working on it, though, I promise!
I’ve come across entgegennehmen/entgegengenommen a few times recently. Are there any differences between using this and annehmen?
Great question!
“entgegennehmen” only works for tangible objects, while “annehmen” can be used for compliments and apologies.
Also, “entgegennehmen” is less personal sounding than “annehmen”. So it’s really just the moment of taking, without any notion of keeping it.
In formal context of mail, a neighbor would entgegennehmen my parcel from the delivery guy, for example.
Hi Emauel, wie immer ein sehr intessanter und nützlicher Artikel. War ‘viscous beasts’ ein Tippfehler, oder hast Du das absichtlich geschrieben?
Und, muss man immer ‘gegen um’ sagen, oder kann man das ‘um’ weglassen, d.h. ‘Ich komme gegen 9’? Konnte man auch die Reihenfolge wechseln, nämlich, ‘Ich komme um gegen 9?
Vielen Dank
John
Hahaha… ups, that was a typo, yes :). Took me a second to realize it. It’s kind of funny actually.
About your question:
You can skip the “um” but you can’t move it before “gegen”.
Oh, sorry, dass ich auf Deutsch geschrieben habe. Ich vergesse manchmal, in welcher Sprache der Kommentar war und schreibe auf Englisch, und dann bin ich zu faul um es nochmal zu schreiben :)
As Elsa has already said “against the wind” is idiomatic as would be “into a headwind”.
“Into” would also be a better translation of “gegen” when talking about walking into a wall. “Walking against a wall” doesn’t sound right, or at least it sounds like something else, like hugging a wall while moving for the purpose of concealment.
Oh wow, that’s interesting. How about a tree? Would I run against it or into it.
And would I drive into a wall or against a wall?
Like… does the preposition depend on the means of movement?
I’d say for collisions with any degree of impact we always use “into”. “Walked into a tree” is exactly what you would say, as is “drive into a wall”. “Against” would be far less common and more for gradual encounters, like “the boat brushed against the ship’s sides”.
Or, more simply, if it hits something and stops as a result, that’s “into”. If it hits something and keeps doing it, that’s “against”.
Yeah, “against” sounds a little more static. You lean against a tree or wall, or you can push against it. Even with the repeated hitting, “against” would tend to fit a situation where you’re staying close to the wall while hitting (“banging your head against the wall”).
the cop pushed me against the wall vs into the wall.. i hit my head against the ceiling.. i leaned against the side of the car..
also we have the rivalry when team/person a competes against team /person zxz .
& some confrontational idioms: against the grain – against the authorities – against my wishes – against pain german and alcohol work wonders.
Wait, German works as a pain killer??!! I smell new marketing opportunities :D
Hi, Emanuel,
Little typo: “is one of the view prepositions you can put… (one of the few :))
As for your question:
Sometimes, learning German is like walking up a mountain of sand against the wind! (see how the “against” really works here? which makes a lot of sense in this context!)
Now a question of my own:
Could I say ” Im Gegensatz zu meiner Vorstellung, war die Suppe lecker” Or doesn’t it work this way?
Bis bald!
You’re always so quick :). You must be at the beginning of the email list (it takes about 15 hours to send to everyone). Good for me because I get to correct a lot before most people see it :D. Danke!
Dem Zeiger entgegen
Hallo G-i-e,
wäre es leicht für Dich nachzuschauen ab wann genau, die e-Post für “gegen” ausgegangen war?
Wenn d-i-e Reihenfolge nach Melde-datum weitergeht, bin ich sicher ganz am Ende. Ich denke es dauert doch länger als 15 Stunden. ?
Ich kr-i-egte die Mail am /um:
Unsubscribe
Wed, Jan 30, 3:42 PM 15:42 (4 days ago) .
Nach der Zeitverschiebung umgerechnet (+10St.) war es dann am Donnertag Jan, 31 um 01:42. MEZ bei mir eingetroffen.
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About your question: that’s not very idiomatic, but my example with “entgegen” isn’t either.
“entgegen” isn’t all that common as a preposition and often sounds out of place.