“Let’s poll“
Hello everyone,
and welcome back to the most epic Advent Calendar ever. And in today’s stocking are … drumroll… some polls.
Hooray!
Because we didn’t have enough of those this year :).
Seriously though, I’ve done a poll-episode in the last two calendars already, and I really enjoyed it, so I wanted to do it again this year. #traditionConfirmed
And this year, my focus is actually on etymology and word relations. I regularly use it in the articles, and I think it’s a really underrated tool. But I actually don’t know how much it is used in the German “Teachosphere”.
So yeah… I’ll ask a few questions about that. And, because 2020 was the year of 2020-ism, I couldn’t help but ask a couple of questions about that, too.
So go out and vote, please! I’m really looking forward to checking the results.
And also, if you have any questions about etymology or if you have some cool resources please share them in a comment :)
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About you
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Have a lovely day and see you tomorrow :).
One word relationship trick I use a fair bit is in dict.cc , where you can use wildcards in a search, for eample
https://www.dict.cc/?s=*fahren
:: Wildcard Search
For instance, if you want to find out which words end in “*ords”, just search for *ords.
The following wildcards are supported:
* for any amount of letters (*ords)
? for exactly one letter (?ords)
I do that, too :). That’s truly awesome. I only know about *, though, not ?. But yeah, highly recommended!
I reluctantly clicked “Australia”, but that doesn’t cover New Zealand! “Australia” is ok at a pinch but I prefer “Oceania”.
Wait, is Oceania the continent? Or is New Zealand actually not really part of a continent?
I actually feel like 80% of my friends wouldn’t know where to place Oceania on a map (myself included up till today)… so embarrassing.
Persönlich sind die Erklärungen zur Etymologie das, was ich in diesem Blog am meisten genieße! Wenn man die “Geschichte” von einem Wort kennt fühlt man besser wo es passt und, falls es keine direkte Übersetzung in seiner Muttersprache gibt, begreift man viel besser das Konzept. Und nicht nur zum Lernen, es ist auch an sich ein sehr interessantes Thema :) Mir hat auch diese “analytische Perspektive” geholfen eine bessere Einsicht in viele Spanische Begriffe zu haben, die ich für “Bedeutungseinheiten” hielt, wo sich aber rausgestellt hat, dass sie aus lateinischen/griechischen Präfixen und Wurzeln bestehen :O
Wow, dein Deutsch ist beeindruckend :)!!
When I chose ‘Lemon’ for 2020, I thought I was minority, so I was quite happy to know people thinking here!
I can’t really remember for my German classes, and I think I may have over estimates the use of etymology because of confusing class lessons with what I’ve read here…but I will say I am also studying for my GRE (again) and for that vocab I’ve been putting etymology on my flashcards and have found it’s really helped in remembering meanings. It’s like finding out the backstory and evolution of a word. Once you learn that a word is, say, related to a Greek god, or some folk story, it’s pretty hard to forget. Sometimes the story is boring, do not memorable/helpful, but that seems to be rare.
Example: “hermetic” as in “hermetically sealed” actually comes from Hermes the god of science, and it’s used for “hermetically sealed” because doing that required an involved “scientific” process :)
I toook either GRE or SAT for fun once while I was in the US (I think it was a trial), and yeah…. they ask about a LOT of weird Latin based words. My knowledge of French and Italian helped a TON with that.
I love finding the roots of words. I found an amazing podcast The History of the English Language Podcast (must include the word podcast). He starts out with the Anglo Saxon invasion and traces English word evolution from all the invading languages. It’s a wonderful place to find the relationship between English and German words.
Knowing an Old English root word can be really helpful in trying to get the meaning of a modern German word. English and German went their separate ways quite a while ago but there is still a close kinship.
Please do keep doing etymology. It gives something to help remember the meaning and use. I always think the more context the better.
For etymonline, is there a separate German version or do you just plug German words into it? I never thought to try that before.
Sorry this is out of place. I tried to hit the reply button but for some reason it just shows or hides the reply. It’s not bringing up the comment box like normal.
I’m messing with the layout, but since I do for desktop and mobile and I’m very chaotic about it, it’s possible I missed something :).
As for Etymonline… no, that doesn’t recognize German words unless they happened to be mentioned in their descriptions.
I usually check in German sources if they mention English cognates. Or I go by gut feeling… like… “This looks like it could be….”
Sometimes it’s a miss but sometimes you can find really nice connections that way.
Ah, I saw it now… you have to hit reply REALLY on the lower edge. There’s an element stretching over it (the hide/show comments stuff that I added today). I’ll fix that tomorrow :)
How did 2020 affect your German learning?
My German got better, as it does with time, without me making any intentional effort. I am surrounded by it non-stop though…
As a dutch speaker from Belgium, Germans are my direct neighbours. There is a definite kinship between geran an dutch and I can understand german but if most words have the same meaning in G and D I find it very funny when they don’t and mean something compleyely different. Thats where etymology comes in and it is very cultural and refined to know how words were formed and why…
One of my personal favorite missmatches between german and Dutch is “fressen”. In German, it’s what animals do and it sounds very rough. And then one day, a guy walked into the bar where I was working, suit and tie, and he said:
– Habt ihr hier was zu fressen?
My brain tilted for a second, it was soooo strange. (he was from teh Netherlands obviously)
Thank you for this wonderful site. Regarding the etymology questions, I definitely would like to see the background of German words. In the past your explanations of the background really do help my understanding. I also find the literal translations of German phrases useful. E.g., something as simple as “Es tut mir leid” gave me difficulties at first because it was introduced as a phrase and it was difficult to match up with the English translation. That is, I was expecting something like “ich bin…” oder “mir geht es …”.
I find etymology to be a very helpful learning tool. Making the connection with the word origen helps me remember it. Besides I am fascinated by language and etymology is part of that fascination. When I google a word (I hardly ever use paper dictionaries any more) I always look for its etymology.
I find your discussions on etymology fascinating. I like to compare grammars also. I find it very interesting and puzzling, for example, that many verbs that are reflexive in German are also reflexive in Spanish, my native tongue, but not in English. I would love to understand why that is so.
Etymology rocks!!!!
Ich schreibe nie auf Deutsch, weil ich denke, dass ich habe niemand mit dem unterrichten. Dies ist die erste Mal! Ich bin sehr glücklich! Die automatische Handytastatur hilft viel. Ich liebe die commentare in hier zu lessen und (vielmehr) verstanden. Es gibt Menschen von der ganzen Welt. Ich denke, dass wir alle wirklich Brüder werden! (“wo dein sanfter Flügel weit…”) Fröhe Weihnacht aus Mexiko!
Wow, das hast du super geschrieben :)!!
Hallo Emmanuel ,
Ich bin einverstanden mit dir dass die Etymologie der Wörtern ist helfreich die neuen Vokabeln oder Ausdrücke einer Sprache zu lernen ( Fremde- oder heimlichesprache ) zu lernen. Das ist warum , Folge ich deine Site seit zehn Jahre sogar in meine 70 er Jahre . Schade das habe ich es nicht in meiner Kindheit gelernt !
Es ist ein relevantes Mittel den Sinn jeglichen Wörtern aus seiner Teilchen und Zeitlich durch der Geschichte mehr genauer verstanden .
Schönen Tag und weiter so
I was able to vote for Australia. I guess it pays to read my emails later.
Actually I think the proper drink to describe 2020 is a colonoscopy prep
XD XD XD
Genau! Deshalb habe ich Plaumen gewählt. Es war das Nächste!!!
What Roger H said. I also voted Asia even though I live in Australia.
My apologies! I have added Australia now and I’ll disabled the others for a while, so it’s fair.
Actually… I wonder what would happen if I leave out North America. Part of me is tempted to trying, because they still asleep over there (*malicious grin)
I’m awake over here! But I totally understand if you leave us out. We deserve it and it would be totally on-brand for 2020.
Oh god, I can’t decide. I’d love to see the faces though… like “What the… where’s my continent?! UNSUB!!”
Hi Emanuel, why does in See stechen mean to set sail? It is not clear to me how Stechen is connected to that phrase. See. Your teaching method does invite one to wonder about the origin of words. Regards Michael
I’ve checked now and read that it’s because you’d use the rudder to “poke” against the dock and make the boat start. Might be wrong, I didn’t really take the time to double check the sources but it’d give it a 80% likelyness.
In Schweden essen die Schweden „Kvarg“. Ich vermute Kvarg und Quark sind die gleichen Sachen.
Meiner Meinung nach, sind beide kalte, weiße, flüssige Milchprodukte und ich würde mich lieber mit einer Nachtischgabel in den linken Oberschenkel stechen, als ein Milchprodukt essen, das kein Käse ist.
Deshalb kann ich nicht mit Sicherheit sagen, ob Kvarg und Quark sind die gleiche Sachen. Aber, ist mir egal.
Sorry – on the train and not really paying attention to where I‘m replying.
Actually, the Empfang is mies and when the page reloaded, it reloaded to today‘s date instead of the page I was reading BEFORE disaster struck.
Die Grenze zwischen Quark und Käse ist ja fliessend :). Wie fest muss den Käse sein, damit du ihn isst? Was ist mit Cottage Cheese zum Beispiel?
Die Grenze geht bei Brie. Cottage cheese, hmmm… warum? Es gibt so viele andre leckere Käse. Ricotta und Mascarpone esse ich nicht! Mein Vater ist Italiener und die lieben ihre Ricotta und Mascarpone – verstehe ich nicht – beides hat kein Geschmack! (beides: Mascarpone und Ricotta oder beide: zwei Käsesorten?) Er sagt, dass ich keine echte Italienerin bin – wenn man Mascarpone essen muss, um Italienarin zu sein, lehne ich höflich ab, danke.
“beides” oder “beide”… geht hier beides :).
Wie sieht’s mit Fondue aus? Das ist ja fester Käse made flüssig :D
Genau, aber dann ist der Käse WARM, und schmeckt – weiße, kalte Milchprodukte schmecken nichts außer kalt und weiß. blecch.
2020 food/drink. What happened to Wein? Tequila?
I couldn’t think of a fitting description, but I’m open to suggestions :)
Oh, and my membership was due for renewal next week, and now I find you’re a flat earther! Australia does exist!!!
What part of Earth are you currently living on?
That question really struck a chord with us Aussies! I went with Asia too.
One of the most embarrassing moments on the blog! My apology, mate (*uses “mate” just to score points)
Haha, no worries, she’ll be ‘right mate:)
I don’t see no curve when I go outside. Not even on the friggin Tempelhofer field, which is HUGE. No curve there. Do your research!
Ps.: Sorry for forgetting Australia. Of course it has its place on the disc!!