Hello everyone
and welcome to our German Word of the Day. This time we will have a look at the meaning of
der Grund
Gandalf, the White looked down between the
battlement into the black ocean of iron clad Orcs.
And there, for the first time since Saruman had betrayed him,
a shiver ran down his spine.
But not what he saw made his heart feel weary. It was what he heard.
For as the wooden carriage pulled ever forth by massive beasts slowly
moved toward the gates that had withstood for centuries,
hundreds, then thousands of Orcs voices joined into a guttural choir
rhythmically chanting one word:
Grund, Grund, Grund…
Gandalf turned away. He needed to warn Bella, ASAP.
This is of course a scene from the movie “Return of the Mac”, the third part of Peter Jackson’s stellar movie adaptation of one of the greatest romantic fantasy pro marriage novels ever written: “Twilight – The Last Jedi”.
Nerds – comment section is open for corrections.
Seriously though, der Grund is of course not that huge iron clad wooden ram designed to break the gates of Gondor but it definitely is a very massive sounding word. Imagine you have a heavy rock in your hand and you drop it onto the grass and it makes this dull, deep thud-sound:
“Grund“.
You can feel your feet vibrate. That is how Grund sounds to me, massive, down to earth, stable. Which is a great fit for its original meaning: ground.
Like the beef.
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I love having the speaking practice and reading comprehension mixed in. Thank you again for creating these great tools.
I meant I’d like to see your article about “be” as a prefix
There you go:
https://yourdailygerman.com/german-prefixes-explanation-be/
It’s old and needs a facelift, but the core info is right.
Brilliant.
I’d love to see you are about the prefix “be”
Warum ist „AUS welchem Grund“ Aber dann sagen wir doch „Was ist der Grund DAFÜR ?“ Danke!
Great question!!
“aus” hat eine Idee von “origin”. Wie ein Baum aus der Erde waechst etwas aus einem “Grund” heraus. Du findest diese Formulieren nur fuer Prozesse oder Verben.
– Aus diesem Grund bleibe ich heute zuhause.
– “From this soil arises” that I stay home today.
“fuer” ist mehr wie ein Pfeil. A fuer B, zum Beispiel. Damit kannst dann einfach ausdruecken, dass A der Grund fuer B ist.
Aber wenn du auf Deutsch sagst “fuer diesen Grund”, dann sist der Grund das ZIEL, nicht die Herkunft.
– A is the reason for B
(B is the target of the label you put on A… “reason for B”)
– For this reason
Hier drueckt “for” NICHT ein Ziel aus, sondern einen “cause” …
for this reason = because of this reason
Das “for” aendert quasi seine Bedeutung, auch wenn es gleich aussieht. Das deutsche fuer kann das nicht.
Hilft das ein bisschen oder war das zu verwirrend.
Ich glaube, dass ich den Unterschied (origin- effect) verstanden habe. Aber jedes mal versuche ich, einen Satz mit „aus“ zu schreiben, sagt die KI natürlich „du sollst deshalb oder warum benutzen „. Wie du gesagt hast „keep it simple!“. Also denke ich, „aus“ ist ein bisschen zu viel für mich und ich brauche vielleicht nur:
1) „Aus welchem Grund?“ (aber auch warum hier passt gut)
2) aus irgendeinem Grund (z.b. Aus irgendeinem Grund mag sie mich nicht.)
3) aus gutem Grund ( Diese Regel existiert aus gutem Grund.)
4) aus demselben Grund ( Ich habe aus demselben Grund abgesagt.)
Für den Rest, benutze ich warum und deshalb, weil mein Deutsch-Niveau nicht so gut ist.
Aber dein test ist sehr gut und hilft. Dise Tests Frage- Antwort- Erklerung sind die beste! Danke
1)Aus welchem Grund klingt definitiv ein bisschen formell, aber in einem B2-Test macht das einen guten Eindruck, wenn man es mal benutzt.
2) Das ist definitiv super! Das benutze ich oft im Alltag
3) Auch super!
4) Ja, perfekt!
Du machst das genau richtig, dein Deutsch-Niveau ist gut, so wie es ist.
Hi dear Emanuel
Which one would you choose?
Ich habe Grund zum Feiern.
Ich habe EINEN Grund zum Feiern.
And by the way i noticed two propositions can be used for der Grund * zu and für* is there any difference in usage? I think zu is a kind of Anlass and für is a kind of Ursache, right?
The two sentences sound the same to me, pretty much.
As for “grund zu” and “Grund für”… I feel like the main difference is
– Grund zu = action
– Grund für = thing
– Wir haben keinen Grund zu warten.
– Das Warten ist der Grund für die Verspätung.
But your distinction “Anlass vs Ursache” makes sense as well.
Your jazzing around with the phonetics of “grund” reminds me of the sperm whale in Hitchhiker’s guide to the galaxy, who spends a large portion of his short life arriving at a similar conclusion to yours
https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/198068-another-thing-that-got-forgotten-was-the-fact-that-against
hahaha, I think that “intro” of mine there really jumped the shark. This was a welcome opportunity to trim it and I’ll probably rewrite it completely.
I do like riffing a bit sometimes but that was just way to much :D
Careful man… “.. way TOO much.”
Damn English lol
Definitely an interesting discussion regarding Grund. I’ve always thought it only meant “ground”. Resulting in a lot of my ancestors involved in farming and land-owning.
That’s most likely the origin of the name. Though technically a lawyer called “Grund” would also make sense :)
This is of course a scene from the movie “Return of the Mac”, the third part of Peter Jackson’s stellar movie adaptation of one of the greatest romantic fantasy pro marriage novels ever written: “The rings of the Lord” by Stephanie Meyer… …
You give me Whiplash every time you do something like this
Hey I’ve got a question how do german folks use grundsätzlich cause in my dictionary reverso context it shows me basically and fundamentally do they usually use it when stating the general case before stating an exception or also like im grunde genommen when summarising something:)
Phew what a sentence that was :D. NO offense, but that was hard to parse for me without punctuation.
Anyway, to me “grundsätzlich” and “im Grunde genommen” are not synonymous.
“grundsätzlich” is usually used for two basic ideas. The most common one is to basically set a statement in stone, especially in combo with a negation.
– Ich mache das grundsätzlich nicht.
– I never do that.
This is a pretty hard to shake “no”, while “fundamentally” and “basically” would both kind of soften it.
The opposite “grundsätzlich ja” is more prone to be followed by an “aber”, but not always.
Maybe it helps to think of the noun “der Grundsatz”. That’s something like a motto or creed or life rule.
Not sure, if that answers you question, actually :). Let me know!
Vielen Dank für noch ein hilfreiches Wort des Tages . bin so viel mal in Schwierigkeit gekommen wann ich brauche das englisches Wort” the reason”. Aber ein kurze Frage dazu . du hast nicht uber der Plural gesprochen. Wie kann man sagen zB. “There can be reasons for this, but the most likely for me is..”. I need this sentence a lot for work!
Der Plural ist “Die Gründe…”
Also ist der Satz:
– Es kann Gründe dafür geben, aber der für mich wahrscheinlichste ist…
If this is really idiomatic in the context I can only decide if I know in what situation yuo’d say this (the sentence as it is in German feels a bit hollow)
I googled Der Grund to find the meaning, after encountering it in “Hard Fall” by Ridley Pearson, a crime mystery novel dealing with sabotaging airplanes to fall at a certain moment. In the first chapter, the phrase is introduced in a long sentence, “A year earlier, Backman had pilfered a file from Daggett’s desk, hand-carried it to the Special-Agent-in-Charge, and claimed credit for its authorship — a file that connected Bernard with the little-known West German terrorist group Der Grund.”
I can see why that’s a good name for a group like that… first there’s the epic, strong sound of it, but also the sense of reason (because the group thinks they have a reason) and also the meaning “bottom” as in being the bottom of society trying to rise up. And the whole fundament – fundamentalism thing is in there, too. Would be interesting to know which of these really went through the authors mind… or if it was just the sound.
When you say you were “irritated” about the ground beef do you mean “confused”?
Ich lerne Deutsch seit über 10 Jahren und habe trotzdem unglaublich viel von deinem Blog gelernt! Ich lese mir gerade das Archiv durch.
Hab vielen Dank und mach bitte weiter so!
Ja, du hast recht. Das ist ein sehr falscher Freund. In Deutsch ist “irritiert” ja so etwas zwischen “verwirrt” und “disturbed”. “Confused” passt hier ganz gut, aber manchmal ist es, glaub’ ich, zu stark.
Ich war durch das Telefon kurz irritiert.
Hier musste man sich vielleicht extrem konzentrieren und dann klingelt das Telefon und man ist kurz “raus” aus dem Tunnel, wie man sagt. “Lost concentration” ist wahrscheinlich von der Bedeutung her am nächsten dran.
Danke für’s Bescheid sagen und freut mich sehr, dass es für dich interessant ist obwohl du wahrscheinlich schon ziemlich gut bist :)
“It threw me off for a bit when the phone rang.”
Vielen Dank für die Erklärung von “irritieren” – ich habe irgendwie mitgekriegt, dass es kein genauer Synonym für “verwirren” ist aber weiter konnte ich nichts darüber sagen.
You’re “irritiert” if your train of thought gets derailed, would you say? :)
Yeah, or inspired. Depending on whether you’re open to it :D.
I’ve heard “das ist der Grund, dass …” before. Is this correct or colloquial (or wrong)? Thanks!
Hmmm… to my ears it is wrong. Not awfully wrong but I would definitely notice it even if the conversation is really really riveting. You shouldn’t write it in a test. That would be marked as an error.
But it might very well be that this is changing at the moment and that for other Germans this is totally fine…
Hi there,
first, thanks. Second, questions: you use Grund “von” Bauarbeiten, and “dafür” somewhere else. What would be the most common (failproof? foolproof?) preposition for Grund (the reason “for”). And another: I have been using “gründlich” as “basically” up until I read your post. I realize I was wrong. What would you advice as a good substitute for “basically” (meaning something like “the basis for” or, “when you look at it, it is reduced to” kind of meaning). I realize now that, English not being my mother language, I may not be using “basically” right, either!. But thanks again. I owe you dearly for your posts.
Wow, this is a really hard question… so hard that I thought about it and then forgot about it for a few days :)…
anyway… so it really depends on the exact context. Some versions are related to Grund:
– Im Grunde
– grundsätzlich
other versions are:
– im Prinzip
or one of those:
– eigentlich
– also
– das heißt, dass
It is really hard to say when to use which. But if you have a concrete example, go ahead. I’ll choose and then try to explain why I chose what I chose. Sorry if that isn’t really helping but I just can’t get my mind around it :)…oh and as for your first question…. preposition with Grund.
– Grund für/zu
is pretty straight forward:
– reason for
– Auf Grund von
is used in some idiomatic phrasings… it is like “On the grounds of…”
Then, there is also
– Aus dem Grund… and
– (colloquial) der Grund, wegen dem…
and those 2 are
– for the reason, because of the reason
So… no clear preposition. I hope that helps anyway:)
Thanks a lot. I find a difficult language…well, difficult to explain, obviously. I value your posts immensely and thank you for your time.
Salud
Yeah… all those nuances and option must seem scary… but just give it time, you’ll get a feeling for it :)
In English we also use “ground” and “grounds” for “reason,” as in: On what grounds am I being arrested? or She has grounds for divorce.
Yeah, I just read “on the ground of” the other day in a book and I was like “oh, so it does exist”… but she has grounds for divorce”… this is straightforward word by word how the German phrasing would be… and once again the 2 languages prove to be siblings :)
When do you use aufgrund and when do you use wegen, since they both seem to mean “because of” or “due to”.
I think “auf Grund” only works at the beginning of the sentence while a part with “wegen” can come later… having aufgrund later is not wrong but it is a bit unconventional :)…. also, “aufgrund” is pretty much only used for formal written statements. If you were to use it in spoken you would sound like someone giving a scripted speech. But you’re right… as far as meaning goes they are about the same
ohhhhhhhh, Ja, ganz klar, ich verstehe. Vielen Dank!
Ich bin noch stark verwirt wie man richtig Deshalb benutzt, ist der Folgelnde Dialog korrekt?
F: Warum hast du das bloss gemacht?
A: Ich hab’s nur gemacht, um dich zu belästigen. dass ist ja deshalb.
… und wie immer, einfach tolles Post. Weiter so!:)
hehe… the word really seems to be an issue. So …”deshalb” (and darum and deswegen as ell) quite literally mean “for THAT reason” or “THEREfor” So they all do have a pointer in them. This has a consequence for the following sentence:
– Das ist ja deshalb.
We have 2 pointers here. Das and des. And a German will assume that they point to 2 different things and understand the sentence as follows.
– That (fact A) is because of that (fact b)
– My boredom is because of that movie.
So… deshalb (and the other 2) are a complete set that means “that is why”. The grammar is straight forward the one of therefor… it is just used way more often in German.
Ich hoff’, das hilft ein bisschen :)
“Ich will nicht immer alles bergünden, was ich mache” oder “Ich will nicht immer alles begründen, was ich mache” :-)
HAHAHA…. so I looked at your comment and I was like “Hmmmm what is he trying to tell me…” then I looked some more and I was like “hmmmm.. did I use the same example twice in the post??” So I checked and only then did I finally see the mistake :D… I did not see it in your comment. My brain just read what it assumed was written there.
Bergünden is of course not a word so thanks for seeing that. Now, since we’re at it there is a word begrünen….
– Ich begrüne meinen Garten.
I’m sure you can guess what it means :)..
Brilliant :) Loved this post, and the intro was hilarious.
About these words you mentioned…
‘Warum/weshalb/wieso…
Darum/deshalb/desegen…’
Aside from warum and darum, how do you use those other four words and what do they mean? It seems that there are so many words for ‘because of this’ or ‘that’s why’ that I’m getting a bit confused between the nuances between them.
Cheers :)
Oh I think it is save to say that those are synonyms. If someone feels that there is a difference… well, can’t argue with it but to me they are the same and I use them based on flow and melody. Warum and deshalb are the Default though and are used most. So if you use weswegen all the time that will stick out because it is nt what People are used to… other than that dn’t worry about them, just use the one that Comes to mind :)
Okay, thanks a lot :) I have my German A Level exam next Tuesday, and I’m stocking up on vocab for essays, so this whole post has been surprisingly useful :) Your ‘da-words’ post really helped out my speaking exam last week as well!
oh that is awesome :)…. viel Glück und sag’ Bescheid wie es lief (good luck and let me know how it went)
I’m finding all these posts interesting as my surname is Grund.
Oh, nice. How do you pronounce that? The German way or English?