Knowing relations between words can help understand their meanings and build a more connected vocabulary network. Here, you can explore parents and offspring and discover the whole family.
- shows how many children or parents the word has
- get the translations and a link
Loading word family…
Sources for Etymology:
- Check "umsonst" on DWDS.de
Biggest German Dictionary, great for etymology, usage frequency and collocations) - "umsonst" on Wiktionary (English version)
(For etymological connections across European languages. Not always accurate) - Etymonline.com - Origins of English words
My favorite source for the origin of English words.
Audio Speed
Dark Mode
Hallo, Emanuel! My motto for 2026 is ‘no wasted effort!’ meaning ‘even if you don’t see results right away, no effort is wasted/a waste.’ (As opposed to a command to not waste any effort- my intent is to have a reassuring/positive motto when I spend an hour working on my tennis serve and feel like I’m getting nowhere, haha- the effort will pay off!). Google translate is giving me “Keine Anstrengung ist umsonst!” and I wanted to make sure this is a the best word choice to convey what I mean, and not using ‘verschwendet’ or ‘vergeblich’ to mean ‘wasted.’
Oh, I love this! It’s a really nice way to look at things. When you make an effort, that means you’re doing what you can. You’re doing “your part”. If it doesn’t work out, it’s not really on you, you were honest and respectful to your potential.
“Anstrengung” does work, but I much prefer “Mühe”.
– Keine Mühe ist umsonst.
“Anstrengung” is a bit long an clunky. And Mühe is part of the phrase “sich Mühe geben”, which is the number one translation for “to make an effort” in the sense of doing the best you can.
“umsonst” is the best choice indeed because it’s also what people would say if they want to say that something was “in vain”. Since we want to flip that attitude, sticking with the word makes sense.
Also, “verschwendet” and “vergeblich” are again a bit too long for a catchy mott :).
– Keine Mühe ist umsonst. (No effort is in vain)
Or:
– Mühe ist nie umsonst. (Effort is never in vain)
Vielen Dank, Emanuel! That helps so much! :)