Word of the Day

I’ll look into it, just gotta wait till I “feel” it :)

Good question… so deshalb and deswegen are definitely the same pretty much… if someone perceives a difference… well than that is correct too but to me they are the same and many web sources about this indicate that they are … as far as daher is concerned it is indeed a little different. Yet it can be/is used synonymously in MANY occasions. Some regions might favor daher and others won’t ever use it. I don’t really use it for example. What makes daher special is its locational undertone… it is built with the pointer da and the word her, that indicates an origin. “Woher kommst du?”, “Wo hast du deine Hose her?”… daher is appropriate whenever you want to say “from there” be it literally or abstract… so daher is maybe a bit more “from that perspective” or coming from there”. Deshalb and deswegen don’t have this undertone of location/origin, although the des is technically the da pointer too, just in a different dress. I think I’ll make daher a WotD but I hope this helps a bit… oh… apparently there is a rule that requires you to use daher in certain constructions but except for linguists I don’t think many people are aware of it and it is a new rule too so no need to know it :)

Hi Shane, yes this is basic in that you need it basically every day… the problem with German prepositions is that they mostly have 2 to 4 possible English counterparts which might contradict one another… the general idea, the main gist of the three is this:

in – inside
auf – on top of, for and unfortunately also open
an – at, on

Note that these are not ALL possible translations… or they are if you will but in German we say “A letter at god.” instead of “to god” … so you can either say that an means to at times or you can say… whatever to means in German… I don’t need it in that situation because Germans say “an” whatever that means :)… either way… in and auf would make less sense than “at” does, so just get the notion of prepositions and when in doubt go for the least weird one… hope that helped a bit. I could add that you gotta get used to it and stuff but I think you know that :)

Ha, that is funny… I have started writing an article about damit, davon daraus etc. a few days ago… I had lots of work but I am positive that I will get to finish within the next few days… I can see that you don’t like them, because they are a new concept (at least in one way they are used) but they save you the trouble of thinking of case and gender and once you are used to it, they can be a nice tool to put emphasis in your sentences :)

Hi Tony, thanks for your feedback… I really appreciate that :).
I have been pondering “eben” for a while now and it is on my to do list. It is a hard one to grasp however. I kind of have issues to find a common denominator. But I’ll go for it soon. Anyway, it is not the counterpart of “doch”… at least not, if by counterpart you mean some sort of opposite… they are kind of on the same side (as far as the modal particle meaning is concerned)… but I don’t want to spoil it yet :)

Hi Geethika,

thank for your nice feedback, which is really motivating to hear.
Werden is a good idea and I will do it soon, I think. As for doch, I have done it already… you can find it under “small but useful”. I am definitely planning to do all particles… they are just some tough words and I… well… let’s say I have some respect for the :)… so I have to think about them thoroughly before I write something… anyway… I’ll do ’em :)

Thanks for the compliment. That is really nice to hear :).
As for bleiben … it is quite straightforward to the English to stay. Does that help? What’s you mothertongue?

Hi Filipe, so I looked at the thread and some of the examples are not so bad I have to say.
You are right that you can use “bleiben” as well… but it doesn’t mean the same:

– Das Buch liegt auf dem Tisch – means that the book IS on the table (answers to the question “where is the book”)
– Das Buch bleibt auf dem Tisch – means that the book will remain on the table so it will not/should not be taken away (answers to the question “What will happen to the book? or Can I take the book and put it on a shelf?”

I think your confusion comes from “ficar” which can mean both “to stay” and to “be located”.
Well stay and bleiben are more narrow in meaning than ficar.
The “opposite” of “bleiben” is “go somewhere else/be taken somewhere else”.
The opposite of “ficar-sein (location)” is “to be somewhere else” or simply “not to be there”.

Das Hotel liegt (ist) am Strand – das Hotel liegt (ist) nicht am Strand sondern in den Bergen.
Das Hotel bleibt (will be at the beach for some time) am Strand – das Hotel ist jetzt noch am Strand, aber wir machen es kaputt und bauen es woanders hin.

Does that help??? :)

Wow… “it”. I don’t know if I could put that into a concise and non-boring article… I mean it quite the same as in English, only it is used in some different expressions and things you call “it” in English will be “er” or “sie” in German. I know this probably doesn’t answer your questions so if you have any specific problem I’d be happy to try to explain those… but it in general … hmmmm :)
As for “to stop” – I have written an article on aufhören which is one possible translation of to stop. In there you can find some info about the other translations and the differences between all of them, but you may want to also check this out:

http://german.stackexchange.com/questions/4226/of-starting-and-stopping

It is a discussion board with a rather high quality I have to say. I have written an answer for that question there which focuses a bit more on the differences between “aufhören”, “anhalten”, “einstellen” and “stoppen” and I think you will find what you want to know there :)

Good word. I kind of tend to forget denns particle power… which is by far not as extensive as schon or eben (oh god, freaking eben), but it is used a lot… so thank you for that :)

wow so many :)… one little mistake:

the verb is heißen or if your keyboard doesn’t have “ß” then type “ss”… so it is

Wie heissen sie?
Ich heisse…

Yep, schon is definitely schon on the list. I just didn’t dare so far. But I think I’ll be ready soon. Thanks for your examples… I will have a look at them to see whether I thought of every meaning :)

Oh that :)… I will do it soon, promise

Hi Tofer,

thanks, that is great to hear, because I honestly think German is not that difficult or at least it is explainable for the most part but what to me is clear might be confusing to others. So… cool you got the da-words straight. As for lassen, it is definitely on my list (which doesn’t exist) but seriously… I have it in mind and I will do it at some point :)