Hello everyone
and welcome to our German Word of the Day. This time we will look at the meaning of:
der Abwasch
The Abwasch,or more precisely tackling it, is something few people enjoy. It has caused many many fights in households all around the world and even the introduction of the dishwasher could not settle the ever simmering conflict because, sure, people don’t need to do the dishes with their own hands anymore but the dishwasher won’t unload itself. You probably figured it out by now. Abwasch means something with dishes, dirty ones.
If you want to stop hitting the wall in German – Join as a member!
As a member, you can study as much as you want and find lots of information you won’t find anywhere else. Not in class, not in a textbook and not Duolingo or Youtube.
You’ll also get pdf-download, progress tracking, note taking, comment notifications and all practice tools.
Already a member?
Log in here:
Thats the best explanation I have learnt so far. You have made my German learning so much fun and effective. Thank yo so much!
Happy to hear that, thank you :)!
Gute Erklärung wie immer , danke sehr ;) :*
“Die Mutter wäscht dem Kind das Gesicht.”
Can you please explain for me which case Kind and Gesicht are in? I am confused by the article uses here and this is a great example to clear up my case confusion in general!
Sure :). “dem Kind” is Dative case and it carries the standard idea of “to/for”. “Das Gesicht” is Accusative, so it’s the direct object. That’s what is being washed and the kid is the beneficiary.
Does that help?
I like the way you have an associated vocabulary list at the end of the article. That is really useful. However, I am not sure why you left ‘knives’ off the list (you have forks and spoons). And how about bowls, cups, glasses, etc? Maybe your sink has less of an ‘Abwasch’ than me.
Haha… I wish :).
Nah, my vocab list is a bit sloppy. I did more extensive ones for the newer articles but they could definitely be improved. That’s actually on my to do list for the blog… adding a proper vocab set to each post.
Very very good place to learn German. I’m really enjoying. Thank you!
Glad to hear that. Viel Spaß weiter.
Hey,
You said “According to Pons and leo Der Abwasch translates to the washing-up. Me personally I perceive it more like the pile of dirty dishes than the action of cleaning them.”
Funnily ‘washing-up’ in English is a weird hybrid of the action and the pile of dirty dishes. So I think many English speakers would agree with you that is was the noun. Almost. It would definitely start a discussion in a pub :) Because we say “I will do the washing-up”. So there is kind of a mixture of a verb and noun there.
Yep, i would say “the washing-up” is a noun describing both the dishes themselves and the task of washing them up, e.g.
“The washing up is piled up to the ceiling.” aka “the stack of dishes is piled up…”
Or
“I finished the washing up an hour ago.” Aka “I completed the task an hour ago”
The fact that it starts with “the” implies to me it must be a noun, even when describing the action, e.g.
“I do the washing up every day.”
The verb here is “do”, “the washing up” is the object we are “verb”ing.
Hallo Emanuel! Gutten Tag aus Indien. Just discovered your site yesterday and DU ROCKE! Although German is a favourite I sometimes feel the Sprache is playing hard to get. It shouldn’t be this hard and yet it is. I know cos I’ve studied French and it certainly was’t as rewarding as German. And yet I find myself struggling at times. Thankyou very much for your efforts.
So in this phrase “Die Mutter wäscht dem Kind den Schmutz vom Gesicht ab.” does ‘waescht’ here specifically mean ‘remove’ or can ‘remove’ and ‘wash’ be used interchangebly. As in ‘the mother washes the dirt off the kid’s face’ P.S- I assure you a donation soon although I need a little time to save some given the Euro-Rupee exchange. You should’t be shouldering this burden all by yourself. :)
Thanks for the kind words :). Glad you like it.
So about the example… the verb is definitely about washing here, so it implies at least a wet cloth or something.
As for German… it might sound like an odd comparison, seeing how people find German rough and harsh and inelegant and all but.. it’s a bit like this woman you’re courting while she keeps you in the dark, leading you on some days and then not calling back or even giving you a “Do we know each other” look some other days. So you need patience. The learning curve is very steep for a long time but once you break through the clouds you’re pretty much there. It’s not like English where you get confronted with new side exceptions and phrasings years and years after you reached fluency.
Hi, your blog is amazing for lerning vocabulary. What I like is that the definition of the words are contextual, i. e., you give examples of when use one word (specially the verbs) and not another one.
I would like to ask you if you could explains the forms of waschen with prefixes: reinwaschen (i assume this one is when people clean something and make it “pure” -rein-, for example, when the medic desinfects their instruments), wegwaschen, auswaschen, mitwaschen, durchwaschen, weißwaschen (i guess hier the meaning is cleaning something till is white, like with chlorine) und verwaschen.
PS. Im in the process of doing a memrise.com course with your collection of “word of the day”. The credits, obviously, goes to you. I hope it´s not a problem.
GrüBe von México.
Ok let me try :
reinwaschen:
you’re right in that is is about “pure”. This word is rarely used for stuff like laundry or dishes but rather for people’s souls instead. Like “sich von einer Schuld reinwaschen”…. there’s one ad that also used “rein” in the punch line “Wäscht nicht nur sauber, sondern rein.” But that’s just “waschen” with an adjective, I think.
wegwaschen:
to wash away. Only for actual cleaning. Not really for the ocean washing away something from the beach
auswaschen:
Just a variation of “waschen” with a slight focus on getting something out of something. Usually for clothes but you could also use it for a bowl, I guess.
mitwaschen:
Wash along with other stuff.
durchwaschen:
A variation of “waschen” with a focus on that it is thorough or complete. Like… one run in the dishwasher or something.
weißwaschen:
Wash, so it’s white after. This is mostly used in an abstract sense for people’s conscience or criminal record or something like that.
verwaschen:
This isn’t really used as a verb but rather as an adjective, that describes how things look after you wash them 100 times.
“Verwaschene Farben” are colors that aren’t all to saturated anymore and that blur together a bit.
I hope that helps a bit.
AS for the memrise- course… of course you can do that :). I don’t really know what that is but I think it might be cool to share it here, because you’re probably not the only one using Memrise. Is it like a set of flashcards?
Hi,
Maybe Pedro answered separately… and I am sure you know about Memrise now, but just in case, for other people…
Zum Beispiel…
https://www.memrise.com/courses/english/german-2/
It is great for straight out spaced learning of vocab, but somehow misses your explanations and quirky humour :)
It is always definite? How about sentences like: “Das machen wir in einem Abwasch” (We will do it in one go).
Oh nice one.. I didn’t think of that, actually. But it is a fixed phrase. As far as the stuff in the kitchen is concerned, I don’t think I have ever heard anyone saying “gstern hat er einen Abwasch gemacht” or “Ich habe viele Abwäsche gemacht.”… that would be
– “Er hat gestern den Abwasch gemacht.”
– “Ich mache oft den Abwasch”
Good stuff. I’m trying to learn some German and plan on folling your blog. Thanks,John
Hi John, thanks for your support. I hope you find this page helpful during your studies… I’ll try my best. Good luck to you. Viel Glück!
Emanuel