“logical, easy, German”
Hey ho, hey ho,
wie geht’s denn so :)? Day 10 of our Advent Calendar and today we’re gonna10 try out a little language game that I came up with called:
Odd Word Out
The rules are super simple. I’ll give you three words and you have to spot the one that doesn’t fit in.
Example:
kitten – puppy – unicorn
All three are mammals currently living in the earth. The correct answer here is unicorn. Because it’s the word for the adult version of this species, while the other two are animal-kids. That’s the difference.
Now, of course I didn’t really invent this kind of quiz. But I thought it could actually be a fun and interesting way to test and practice all kinds of concepts and features of language so I thought, we just give it a try :).
We’ll do three levels of difficulty – easy, medium and super friggin’ hard. Seriously, some of the hard ones would give native speakers trouble.
It’s a wild mix of features and I’m not gonna tell you what to look for, but it’s alway going to have something to do with grammar, so it’s not gonna be letter count or stuff like that.
Sometimes you probably won’t be able to really tell WHY a word is the odd word out. But if you have a gut feeling, just go with it. Oh and if you want, you can leave your solutions and your theories in the comments and we can talk about it.
Viel Spaß :)
1) der, die, ein
2) lang, ja, nein
3) doch, weil, schön
4) wann, wo, Wurst
5) gestern, morgen, hier
6) länger, besser, Bäcker
7) heiß, warm, kälter
***
m 1) anstehen, aufstehen, verstehen
m 2) weil, darum, deshalb
m 3) bis, seit, hinten
m 4) rein, rauf, aus
m 5) Bier, Fahrrad, Wohnung
m 6) kochen, laden, geben
m 7) können, machen, wollen
***
h 1) im, am, um
h 2) zu, aus, in
h3) Düne, Söhne, Hände
h4) zur, für, vor
h5) rein, unten, rechts
h6) Tee, See, Schnee
h7) auf, drin, unten
And, how did you do? The last ones were pretty hard, right :)?
Let me know in the comments how you did and how you liked the work out? Did you enjoy it? Do you think it’s helpful? If yes, we can do more like that, with more focus on certain issues. I’m really curious for your feedback.
And of course let me know if you have any questions about any of these or if you want to share your theories about why a word is the odd word out.
Hope you had fun with this, have a great day and I’ll see you tomorrow.
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7) I said drin because I figured See und Tee rhymed. I was way off base on that one. I thought I had it figured out.
1. um – braucht eine Nummer – im Juli ; am Donnerstag aber um 15 Uhr
2. in = Akkusativ zu und aus = Dativ
3. Düne ist Singular
4. zur (= zu der)
5. rechts eine Richtung, die Ändere sind Positionen
6. See – kann die oder der sein
7. drin – innen und nicht außen
Diese Übung gibt mir viel Spaß. Ich danke dir sehr für das Adventskalendar, Emanuel.
1) ein: ist der unbestimmte Artikel
2) lang: hat Komparative and Superlativ Arten
3) weil: ist eine unterordende Konjunction
4) Wurst: ist kein Fragewort
5) hier: ist ein Adverb des Ortes nicht der Zeit
6) Bäcker: nur Substantiv
7) kälter: Adjectiv im Komparativ
m 1) verstehen: hat ein untrennbares Präfix
m 2) darum: ist Adverb; weil and deshalb sind Konjunktionen
m 3) hinten: Adverb des Ortes; bis, seit adverben von der Zeit
m 4) aus: ist kein abgekürztes Wort; rein = herein, raus = heraus
m 5) Wohnung: kann nicht wegkommen aber Bier, Fahrrad können vielleicht weg fließen ? Oder: Wohnung is weiblich, Fahrad und Bier sind Neutrum?
m 6) kochen: hat nur eine eigene Bedeutung; laden, to load/to invite; geben, to give, there is
m 7) machen: kein Hilfsverb
h 1) um: nicht eine Verkürzung; im = in dem, am = an dem
h 2) in: Wechselpräposition Akkusativ + Dativ; zu and aus nur Dativ
h3) Düne: ist Singular; Söhne, Hände sind Plural
h4) zur: eine Verkürzung von ‘zu der’. Die andere sind nicht.
h5) unten: Das kann nicht andere Worten präfixen; rein and rechts können.
h6) See: Das Wort hat zwei grammatischen Geschlechten mit anderen Bedeutungen; der See = lake, die See = sea
h7) auf: ist ein Präposition und ein Adverb; drin, unten sind nur Adverben.
Das ist meiner beste Versuch.
Gut gemacht!!! Ein paar Korrekturen:
“macht mir Spaß” nicht “gibt” :)
6) I believe you were thinking “the only noun”. That would be “einziges Nomen” in German, not “nur”, otherwise, correct answer
m2) got that wrong… “deshalb” and “darum” work the same (can fill a why-box alone)
m4) correct, but stop thinking of “rein” and “raus” as just short versions of “herein”. IN practice you cannot just extend every “rein” to “herein” (or raus to heraus). There are verbs where doing that changes the meaning or destroys the meaning. “aus” can be a preposition, “rein” and “raus” are only adverbs.
m5) gender, of course :)
m6) Meaning based solutions are almost always debatable :). “gekocht, geladen, gegeben”… “kochen” is the only one with a regular ge-form.
h5) nope, “rechts” ist auch kein Präfix
h6) ja, richtig. Es gibt noch eine zweite Lösung
h7) perfekt!
5. I messed up 5,6&7 on the hard ones. 5. I chose rein because it could mean clear (though I was pretty sure that wasn’t what you were after) or because the other two seemed more like fixed locations rather than movement to or from someplace.
6. I chose Tee because tea is water with other stuff infused in it (again, not what you were after) and the other two were just water. Or possibly Schnee because it’s a solid rather than a liquid (also not a grammar related solution).
7. I chose drin because….well, because I did! It seemed more movementy somehow.
Good exercise!
Generally, dr-versions are about a fixed location, while r-versions can be either but lean toward movement :)
Still working on this one, but wanted to say thanks for helping me defeat the Schweinhund today and work through all 10 Advent posts. Specially like the intensifier branch.
Wow, ten in one day?!?! That is a LOT :)
H7. Schnee, because it has no plural.
Boom, there you go!!! How’d you find that out :)?
[That should have been H6.]
You said it was all to do with grammar. “See,” with its double identity, had been eliminated. …. (And now I realise that “Tee” is also a double act – the drink being ‘der’ and the golfing thingummy “das”…….So “der Schnee” could be it for having only one gender.) …Anyway, something set the whiskers twitching about plurals and dict.cc gives no plural for “der Schnee,” so….
Despite Hemingway’s “Snows of Kilimanjaro” I don’t think snow really has a plural in English, either. When “snows” is used it’s more an abbreviation of snowfalls.
H7, See because it is either die or der
Not what I had in mind, but great answer. Absolutely correct.
Hmmmm, maybe Schnee is odd because it can be a noun or verb?
Only in English. In German, the verb is “schneien”. Nice thinking though!!
For 7. Tee, See, Schnee, I would say See is odd, because it can be either die See (ocean) or der See (lake)
H4 – vor because it’s about time, the other 2 aren’t.
Nope, I can use “für” for time, too.
“vor 3 Stunden”
“für 3 Stunden”
h1. um
h2. aus
h3. Düne (it is singular, the other 2 are plural. Also, the other two don’t have an umlaut in the singular. Also, the other two are living, a Düne is not a living being or a part of one.
h4. Zur (it’s a contraction of zu+der, the others are preps -perps- in their own self, could also be für which isn’t a prefix like the other two.)
h5. rein (it is not a positon like the other two, but rather an adjective of state)
h6. Schnee (it is the frozen state of water, while the other two are not frozen. Also, it has more letters in it. Technically, it should be See – it’s the only one that is “room tempertature” – Tee is hot and Schnee is cold, but I’ll stick by Schnee.)
h7. Auf (drin and ı give the feeling of positon inside/under something, ı is on top or at, also the drin and unten are positions, while auf is also a direction.)
Emanual: Time to hire a Gastarbeiter to proofread all the replies! This suggestion based on the Swedish joke: How many Germans does it take to change a lightbulb? One, to ask the Gastarbeiter to do it for him.
1. yay
2. nay
3 yay (you do know that a dune is an ecosystem, and as such it contains and promotes life, so I would contest your line of argument that… *nerd out)
4 yay
5 yay for your answer, “rein” is anything but a state though… it’s a direction (and it’s not an adjective, it’s an adverb)
6 nice reasoning. Not what I had in mind though
7 yay, the main reason though, is that “auf” is a preposition, so it cannot indicate a location by itself, while the other two can.
Oj on “rein” – thought it meant clean. Need to reconsult my dictionary. I had eines Bauchgefühl you would going to contest my statement regarding a Düne not being alive! Back to the drawing board on 2.
Oh wow, I absolutely didn’t realize that. Yes, of course then it is a state :).
I’ll give the hard ones a try
1 um not a contraction
2 aus not a direction
3 Düne not a plural
4 für not a contraction
5 rein not a location
6 Schnee because it’s not der
7 drin because of a location?
Those were my quick answers off the top of my head without looking at anyone else’s answers.
Emanuel I really likes the pictures for the difficulty levels. Sehr lustig.
https://www.duden.de/rechtschreibung/Schnee
Schnee, der
1. correct, well done
2. wrong, “in” isn’t a direction either, but nice thinking
3. perfect, how do you guys know this
4. wrong, vor isn’t a contraction either
5. PERFECT!!! Recognizing this stuff is super important. I’m so proud of you!
6. wrong… it is “der Schnee”, this one might be the hardest of all of them actually
7 wrong, but location is the right direction
As for the pics… they’re not by me. I wish I could but all I can do is Google Image search (and add captions if needed)
Schwer:
1. um
im = in + dem
am = an + dem
2. in
zumachen ausmachen
inmachen ist nicht korrekt
3.Dune
Söhne, Hände sind Plural
4. für
zur und vor sind Präfixes.
5. rein
unten und rechts sind Richtungen
6. Tee
See und Schnee bestehen aus Wasser
7. Das ist zu schwer :)
Vielleicht einen Hinweis ?
War irgendwas richtig ?
6.
Woraus machst du Tee, falls nicht Wasser?
6. Auch Schnee hat 6 Buchstaben weil Tee und See nur 3 :)
Oh, stimmt. Aber das ist nicht, was ich im Kopf habe.
Kleine Korrektur:
“Auch Schnee…” … you mean “Also, … ” but that kind of phrasing is not idiomatic in German.
– … weil Tee und See…
I think you just phonetically translated “while” to “weil” ;)
>I think you just phonetically translated “while” to “weil” ;)
Stimmt :)
Passt hier “während” ?
Ja, passt “wie Arsch auf Eimer” (idiomatic for “fitting perfectly”)
Boom, didn’t even notice it :).
1,2,3.. correct, well done!!
4 wrong, “zur” is not a prefix
5 wrong (though your idea with direction is the right direction)
6… nice alternate solution but that’s not what I was going for
7 okay, here’s a hint… box-model
It feels like most people including want only the hard part :)
Kannst du etwas schwieriger im nächsten Post machen ?
I think for an A1 student the hard ones are absolutely impossible ;)