Hello everyone,
and welcome to our German Word of the Day. This time we’ll take a look at the meaning of
handeln
And that of course means we’ll also explore the family of handeln, with behandeln and verhandeln and so on.
Now, we’ll actually need a good amount of mind bending today, so let’s stretch our brains together a little to warm up.
Handeln is of course related to English to handle and they both come from the old Germanic noun*handeigh which was the word for “portable phone”. Back then, it was much harder to see each other in person because there were no cars and no planes and the people were practically dependent on their cellphones to keep in touch. Just as Cesar noted in his diary…
Germanum sine portabile in mano rarum est.
That’s Latin. At least in my dreams.
But yeah, the tribesmen were always with their phone, and so it’s no wonder they eventually came up with the word hand which literally meant “thing that holds the portable phone”.
Everybody thinking “What the hell?” yet?!?! Yes?
Well, perfect. Your brain is all warmed up now, ready for real info. So let’s jump right in…
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This is the article/blog of my dreams
Emanuel, if you still care four years later, I think “it is custom” is actually pretty normal in English if a bit old-fashioned – I think the native speakers saying they never see it are just filling it into their heads as “customary.” But what is NOT usual is “not custom.” That’s my impression, anyway. *shrug emoji*
Actually, I’m currently slowly reworking all the pdf for all articles so this is good timing :).
And thanks for the great feedback!!
While I note there is some difference in emphasis between the two words I’m just wondering how much overlap there is between “handeln” and “behandlen”? Am i right in thinking there is some cases where either could be used fairly interchangably? Could we swap “behandelt” for “handelt” in the following sentences without significantly changing someones’ understanding of what is taking place?
Das Eichhörnchen behandelt die Einhornbisswunde.
Die Praktikanten von Emanuel werden extrem gut behandelt.
In diesem Artikel haben wir das Wort handeln behandelt
Wait, I’m a little confused.
“handeln” means “to act” and “to trade” and “behandeln” means “to treat”. Where do you see an overlap there? You can absolutely not use “handeln” in any of the examples, that’d be incomprehensible.
If there’s something in the article that implies they could be interchangeable, please tell me what it is, so I can remove it :)
Thanks, good to know i need to be careful here.
I guess thought maybe “handeln” could be seen as a general form of action or dealing with something. In english you could either use “to deal with” or “to treat” in reference to the wounds.
“To deal with” is extremely broad in how it can be used (and often is fairly informal) . “To treat” would be more specific. I’d say “to treat” would be a subcategory within a broader category of “different kinds of dealing with situations”.
For example i could say “i’m going to deal with a) the car b) the kid c) the landlord”. In these sentences i could replace ” to deal with” with a more specific verb /phrase e.g. a) to fix the car b) tell off the kid c)to threaten the landlord with legal action.
Kind of the way “machen” is a basic general word that can be used in a lot of situations but there is often a more specific word that conveys more and is more appropriate.
With the last example
“In diesem Artikel haben wir das Wort handeln behandelt”
do the following work as alternative sentence structures?
1) “Dieser Artikel handelt vom Wort handeln”
2) Emanuel hat einen Artikel verfasst. Es handelt sich um das Wort handeln.
Because my understanding is your example and my two examples are essentially saying the same thing ? Which is why i thought there might be some overlap.
btw I noticed however that behandeln doesn’t seem to use prepositions?
Actually, “handeln” only really lines up with “to deal with” in the context of topics and trade. But NOT in the general sense of “dealing with a task/problem”.
As for your alternative phrasings:
1) “Dieser Artikel handelt vom Wort handeln”
Yes, this works perfectly.
2) Emanuel hat einen Artikel verfasst. Es handelt sich um das Wort handeln.
No, this absolutely doesn’t work. The “item” has already been established as “der Artikel”, but “es handelt sich um” specifies generic entities.
You could say this:
But you can NOT use “es” to refer back to the “Artikel”, not least because of the gender.
“behandeln” and preposition – yes, it does take whatever you treat as direct object, but the most likely preposition is “mit”
Thanks. I think i’ll start paying close attention to how “handelt sich um” appears in context so i get a better sense of how its used when.
Does this work btw?
I think it’s best to think of “es handelt sich um” as a fixed phrase.
Your example doesn’t work, people would just say
ok cool thanks. i think i used to assume “handelt sich um” was similar to “es geht um”. I think I was translating es handelt sich um as “its about” rather than “it is”. Like, if i was at the reception at the doctors explaining the problem. Them: “Wie können wir Ihnen helfen” Me: “Es geht um einen gebrochenen Arm” but it would be a bit weird to answer their question “es handelt sich um einen gebrochenen Arm” ?
Good Day….
Interesting words. How does the definition of “behandeln” in the article apply to this sentence?
Die Jungs sind wirklich beeindruckt von ihr, aber sie behandelt einfach alles nonchalant.
….she “treats” everything nonchalant”….in the sense of “handling”? How is this different than umgehen?
thanks
So one difference between “behandeln” and “umgehen” is the grammar.
– Sie geht mit X um.
– Sie behandelt X.
I’d actually need a little more context to judge the example you gave. It sounds a tiny bit weird to me, as I don’t know what “alles” refers to.
Vielen Dank noch mal! Mithilfe von vielen deinen Beiträgen kann ich jetzt die Gründe für viele reflexive Verben verdeutlichen. Aber dieses “es handelt sich um” macht mir echt verwirrt … Warum gibt es denn hier ein “sich”? Es ist eigentlich erklärbar?
Wie würden Sie “negotiation skills” übersetzen? Verhandlungsgeschick?
Vehandlungsgeschick passt ganz gut, klingt aber ein bisschen raffinierter als “negotiation skills”.
Danke sehr :)
Gerne :)
“Es handelt sich um ein Missverständnis.“
Could you explain the difference with “es geht darum, …” Would that work here? I’m thinking not but thought it couldn’t hurt to ask.
Your hunch is correct, “gehen um” doesn’t work here.
“sich handeln um” is about what something actually is, “gehen um” is for “what something is about”.
Just like “handeln von” :)
You really seem to be obsessed with unicorns.
Yup, I have UOCD. They’re in my head. I can’t get them out!!
I’m back! TaDAA! Missed you all! Deutsch an der Universität is Super! Oddly, this first post that I’ve had time to deal with is about “handeln” and it was EXACTLY the word I asked about in class on Tuesday. The question in our book was:
Welche Thema behandelt der Projekttag?
Sounds wrong to me – I asked if it shouldn’t be “handelt” instead. Ok, with a different sentence structure, but “behandelt” in this context gefühlt falsch. Not good enough auf Deutsch yet, but something like, “Um welche Thema handelt sich der Projekttag?” perhaps. Point being, HANDELT seems more correct than “BEHANDELT” in the above example and very eerie indeed that Emanuel would just happen to blog about Just That Word the very same week… (Twilight Zone music in the background)
As for a possible correction to the blog:
The interns Emanuel are being treated extremely well. Reports about a whip do not reflect the reality.
Should probably be changed to “Emanuel’s interns are being…”
So glad to be back with y’all – gotta catch up on the blogs I missed from the beginning of term until now.
And if anyone is wondering – This blog has given me an AMAZING advantage over my classmates at uni. Seriously.
Yeay, great to see you back here. I was wondering actually :).
– Welches Thema behandelt der Projekttag.
This sounds odd to me, too. I think the reason is that I just wouldn’t say a projekttag can “behandeln” anything.
No particular reason, it just sounds odd to me.
But “handeln von” isn’t much better. I would use “an dem Projekttag geht es um” or “das Thema des Projekttags ist…”
That said, the original phrasing is no doubt something many Germans would say. To me, it sounds clumsy, but I might be a minority.
Ich habe auch einen Text gelesen wo handeln als “negotiate” behandelt wurde. Was ist dann der Unterschied mit verhandeln?
Negotiate hat auch andere Beugung auf Englisch: etwas umzugehen. Vielleicht könnte eine von deiner Sprachverschwörungstheorien davon handeln (oder darum sich handeln?) :)
Es kam mir vor als ob Einhorne (oder Einhörner?) auf diesem Artikel wirklich schlecht behandelt wurden. Was ist mit deiner Liebe für diese außergewöhnliche Wesen passiert??
“handeln” kann in einem Business-Context to “negotiate” sein. Im Sinne von “bargain”. Sonst eigentlich nicht. Wo hast du das denn gelesen?
Was die Einhörner angeht… die sind nicht so lieb und harmlos wie uns die MSM-Propaganda erzählt. Wach auf!!
The link to the csv file does not work for me.
nor I
That’s weird, it works for me.
Here’s the link again:
https://yourdailygerman.com/wp-content/uploads/kalins-pdf/singles/handeln-verhandeln-behandeln-meaning.pdf
Does it work with this one?
10/10 on that intro
Danke :)
“Maria handelt mit Einhornfellen.” would be “Maria is trading in unicorn fur.” in the sense of being in that business.
Would “USA is trading with China” be “Die USA handeln mit China”?
Yeah it’s “mit” for the trading partner and for the commodity. The context makes it clear here.
– Der König handelt mit Sklaven.
This one could technically mean that the king is trading with slaves.
Absolutely love these Daily German emails !
Was an exchange student in Germany for 18 months in Koblenz in the 80’s and I still enjoy reading German daily/weekly. Great info !
Freut mich zu hören, danke :)
Emanuel, great work and thanks for all of these tasty foods for mind.
I’m new here and I’m not sure whether the minions are supposed to leave these sort of comments here, but please let me try: in your example “Das Wort abhandeln haben wir mit zwei Sätzen abgehandelt.”, you translated “zwei Sätzen” to “one example”. Shouldn’t that be ‘two examples ‘.
Oh, classic case of “I’m changing the example” without paying attention :).
Thanks for the heads-up!!
In Germany it’s not customARY to bargain. For the British (and not for Americans) “custom” can mean “patronage” as in “we appreciate your custom.” Americans would say “we appreciate your business” (or patronage).
Oh wow, I didn’t know that. So “custom” is completely wrong the way I used it (for the context I had in mind)?
Yes, to the best of my knowledge. I replied in greater detail to PeterB58 (the earlier ID was, if I recall, Berllingrabber
but the post seems to have disappeared.
Nah, it’s there :). Danke!
In Canada we would definitely use it the way you used it. It’s not customary to bargain. It means that it is not something we would usually do. It’s not according to our custom, or are customary way of doing things. :) It’s probably used differently in different places. I know England has words and usages that I never heard of before I started working with Germans who learned British English. :)
I actually just checked online and I found plenty of uses of “it is custom” in a sense of “routine, tradition”. Am I missing something?
One could say “It is a custom”, but in your context “customary” is better. See here:
https://forum.wordreference.com/threads/its-the-custom-or-a-its-a-custom-to-do-something.2226364/
To me, it sounds completely non-native. Glancing at the Google results, I’m guessing the vast majority are either from non-native speakers/writers, or just typos.
Various English speaking countries have individual forms of expressions. Even in the US certain regions have their own ways of saying things. However, to the best of my knowledge, in the US, one says “it is customary to …” and not “it is custom to ”. Even in Britain, I have never heard the latter. If however one would wish to refer to a local custom one could say “It is A custom here to …” or “This (or Doing ) is A custom here.” All that said, language is always changing, and many Americans have been known to violate some of the rules of grammar taught in an earlier age. Lexicographers do not create rules but simply report on common usage.
In standard English, “custom” is mostly a noun, and sometimes an adjective with a fairly specific meaning:
1. made specially for individual customers: custom shoes.
2. dealing in things so made, or doing work to order: a custom tailor.
Usage changes, yeah, but I think a phrase like “it’s a/the/our custom to…”/”it’s customary to…” isn’t a great candidate for that kind of shift anyway, because it’s not very colloquial.
To me, the confusion would arise because of the meaning PeterB58 brings up – it’s short for “customized,” rather than “customary.” That’s what my brain would tend to want to hear if a native speaker said “it’s custom.”
Really enjoying these articles. Small point. “Maria handelt mit Einhornfellen.” Americans would say Maria trades in unicorn fur. We would expect “trades with” to have as its object the trading partner – a person, company, nation, etc.
Ah, prepositions and when to use which are a never ending story :). Danke dir!!
New member here, thank you guys for covering me for one year. It is a really big help.
In the example sentence “Die Verhandlungen sind gut gelaufen,” I think you are saying “Die Verhandlungen sind gut verlaufen.” Am I mishearing?
Yup, you heard that right. “verlaufen” is actually more idiomatic. No idea why I wrote “gelaufen”. Thanks for the heads up!!
So no mention of Handel? Oh, but of course, “The only thing opera is good for is browsing the web” you once wrote…. Otherwise you handled this one quite well. Thanks, once again!
Wait, you mean “Händel” the composer, right?
That was actually one of the first Musicians I consciously listened to. Then came Michael Jackson and then Techno, typical Berlin :)
By the way… I think Goethe has a famous line in one of his poems
– Suchst du Händel?
And as far as I remember it means “Are you looking for trouble?”