Hello everyone,
and welcome to our German Word of the Day…. well, actually it’s German Words of the day because it is time for another style special. And after we’ve talked about walking, facial expressions and noise, this time it’s gonna be all about
Refrigerators
Now you’re like “Really? Fridges?!”. And I’m like “Yeah, fridges!”
Because they’re the coolest home appliances ever…. get it? Get it? It’s funny because cool can mean cold and awes… meh anyways, so today we’ll look at fridges or better we’ll take a look inside fridges. And in case you’re worried that this going to be some boring list of stuff that can be in the fridge – worry no more. We’ll look deep inside the fridge at the stuff in the rear. That black, wrinkly banana, that forsaken piece of brie, that thriving culture in the half eaten yogurt. You’ve probably figured it out by now… today, we’ll look at all the words you need to describe such treasures. And we’ll learn the vocab for what happens if we eat it.
So… are you ready to take a mouthful of rotten food? The words for it anyway?
Cool. Then let’s start with one of those awesome compounds.
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Sehr interessant! These thematic wordgroups are very useful.
Thanks! I haven’t done one in a LONG time, I kind of forgot about the format.
If you have an idea, please let me know :)
Just want to echo I was pretty delighted that there is an article themed around fridges here…. I think this is a fun format to have in the mix. It might be a bit obvious but one idea might be hair / haircuts /hairstyles : Iro, vokuhila, pagenkopf pony, knödel all seem like fun words so i imagine there might be a lot more fun hair related ones like these… another fun idea might be names for cakes ( i was pleased to encounter a schlemmerzunge recently). Smells and tastes could be cool too…
just saw smells come already under “die Nase”
Ha, I actually have a draft about “hair special”, but I haven’t felt the “spark” so far to really write about it. But yeah, that’s a possible theme post, for sure.
if its not already covered different types of pain (in english you might have “dull aching pain or a shooting or sharp pain etc) or words relating to sensations around injury /ilness (or general bodily sensation ) could be another one
hey a special request : could you please elaborate on the uses of ablaufen in the prefix verb shorts.thanks in advance
Definitely :).
Hey Emmanuel,spitzes Blogpost wie gewöhnlich.
Kann man auch “verdorben” oder ” schlecht werden ” benutzen, wenn man von Lebensmitteln spricht?
Danke
Ja, “verdorben” geht im Prinzip auch aber klingt ein bisschen hocgestochen
– Die Tomate ist verdorben.
Das sagt man nicht wirklich. Und klar “schlecht werden” kann man sagen und “schlecht geworden” geht auch. Das geworden sagt man aber nur, wenn der Prozess wichtig ist.
– Die Milch ist innerhalb von 2 Tagen schlecht geworden. (Prozess)
– Die Milch ist schlecht. (Fokus auf Resultat)
I’ve been following you post for a couple of months now, and I’ve read almost all of them; just wanted to say that I appreciate all the effort you put in all your posts, they’ve really helped my with my weak German. Hope you never stop doing them.
Greetings from Egypt.
Wow, all of it is a lot to read :): I’m glad you like it! Danke für das liebe Feedback und Grüße aus Berlin :)
Great article but I’ve got to say you made my blood run cold. Not because of the food-related stuff (hey! 8 years in student flats in Aberdeen, if you can survive that you’re pretty much immortal) but because of the concept of Nouns which are declined like adjectives…
OK, some are kind of obvious (Ich möchte ein Helles) but ‘das Erbrochene’?
They’re not that unusual – kind of a pain, but not any worse than declining the adjectives in the first place. The ones that denote people are really common – “der Erwachsene,” say, or “der/die Vorgesetzte.” Or “der/die Deutsche.” :)
Neuter ones are often just noun-ified adjectives like in English: “gut, wahr, schön”/”good, true, beautiful” => “das Gute, das Wahre, das Schöne”/”the good, the true, the beautiful”.
Yeah, these are quite common, actually. Especially when it comes to objectifying the result of an action they are very handy
– “Das Gesagte bleibt unter uns.
– “What has been said” stays among us.
– Ich war beim Zahnarzt und kann die nächsten Tage nur “Weichgekochtes” essen.
– I was at the dentist and I can only eat “stuff that has been cooked soft”.
– Das Gehörte ging ihm nicht aus dem Kopf.
– What he has heard he couldn’t get out of his mind.
–
If these things scare you, just imagine a generic “thing” after it. The rules for the declension are really the same as for the adjectives.
– Das Erbrochene ist auf der Treppe. (nom).
– Erbrochenes ist auf der Treppe (nom, no article)
– Von dem Erbrochenen auf der Treppe wird mir übel. (Dative)
– Von Erbrochenem auf der Treppe wird mir übel. (Dative, no article)
– Ich füge Erbrochenes Erbrochenem hinzu.
– I add puke to puke.
The German version sounds much more poetic though :). Almost like an old wise saying. Oh and you can switch the order
– Ich füge Erbrochenem Erbrochenes hinzu.
Latin anyone?
Truly it’s like something from Cicero or Homer. ;)
The common ones such as Alte were hiding in plain sight but it just hadn’t been explained that these nouns are fully declined as you are demonstrating here.
I wonder what other surprises are in store?
Die Sonne! Sie kommt wieder auf!
Und die Vögel werden bestimmt glücklicher, weil sie im Schnee nicht mehr sitzen muss.
Nice fridge you got there. Open it, indeed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QadhPRU0Dn8
Hahaha…. nice :D
“Erbrechen, auch (aus)spucken, (aus)brechen, sich übergeben, (aus)spei(b)en, kalbern, vomieren (medizinisch), kotzen, kübeln, göbeln, reihern (derb), die Fische füttern, wieder von sich geben sowie (dem) Neptun opfern (scherzhaft), koddern oder (eine) Platte legen”
Ich kenne “speien, reihern, wieder von sich geben und spucken” und ich verstehe “vomieren und göbeln”… der Rest, da wüsste ich nicht was gemeint ist. Oh aber ich kenn noch “Ulfen”. Da gibt es wahrscheinlich in jeder Region was anderes.
“Ulfen”? Also wie der männliche Vorname Ulf?
Das erinnert mich, dass es auf Englisch “to ralph” gibt (klingt etwas kindisch). Wer war dieser arme Ralph bzw. Ulf? :D
Ralph Wiggum doch.
Oh, das “doch” funktioniert nicht…. was wolltest du denn ausdrücken?
Vllt “ja”? Es ist schwer zu formulieren, was ich ausdrücken wollte :)
Hmm… ich denke mal die Langform wäre:
– Das ist doch von Ralph Wiggum, oder?
Aber da fällt mir nix kürzeres ein… also ausser “Ralph Wiggum, oder?”
Thank you for that adventure in decay.
What a glorious word Schimmel is. And there is even Schwarzschimmel. Aspergillus niger will look different now….. Google images for Grauschimmell are an interesting lot, too.
Durchfall is really very similar in meaning to diarrhoea (English, not American spelling). From Greek dia – through + rhein – to flow. Fall, however, does seem somehow more appropriate.
Oh wow, I honestly didn’t know these (Grauschimmel) could be horses, too! Oh and thanks for the background on diarrhoea. That makes me wonder whether “Durchfall” was actually just a translation.
A good childhood friend of mine has the surname, “Schimmelpfennig” which he would tell us meant, “shiny penny or coin” auf Deutsch.
Not anymore, it doesn’t :D… I knew the name (probably because of some writers we had to want to read in school) but it NEVER occurred to me that it could be something other than a moldy penny until a read your comment.
“I think the jogurt isn’t good anymore.”
I would totally say that, except with a y in yogurt :P
This sounds a little understated, though. Like if the yogurt is a solid block of mold, I might hold it out and say “I think it isn’t good anymore.”
“You shouldn’t eat this apple. It’s already decayed halfway.”
“Decayed” sounds like something that happened over a long time, probably while it was buried. I would say an apple was halfway decayed if I found it in the woods the next spring … or in a tomb or something. I think I would just use “rotten” here.
For “schrumpelig” I would use “shriveled”.
You mentioned “ist nicht mehr gut”—can you say “ist schlecht geworden”?
Thanks for the post! Love it as always.
Hmmm… so “ist schlecht geworden” is correct would definitely be understood but the whole werden-part is kind of uninteresting. I mean, what matters is that it is bad. So in that case people would probably just say “Ist schlecht”.
Thanks a lot for the corrections, by the way. And since we’re at it… there is the word “verrotten” in German and that’s the one you’d use in context of a grave or a compost.
“Ich glaube, ich habe was schlechtes gegessen.” Soll man ‘(et)was Schlechtes’ schreiben – mit großem ‘S’?
Ja, wahrscheinlich :)… was das angeht bin ich nicht so ganz sattelfest, wie man so sagt (ok, in Wahrheit denke ich einfach nicht dran :)
Oh, and I’ll jump in before any other English nitpickers…
Officially (or at least historically), “nauseous” means “causes nausea” and “nauseated” means “suffering from nausea.” Realistically, people use them interchangeably all the time. Nur zur Info… :)
Oxford English Dictionary says “affected with nausea; feeling inclined to vomit”, so this English nitpicker thinks Emanuel’s usage of the word “nauseous” is entirely correct. “Causing nausea” is “nauseating”.
My mistake – I’d read a few stickler screeds about this one over the years and assumed there was some actual basis for it, but apparently both usages are original.
Just a note on a couple words from the post:
– “Tenability” doesn’t really work for food. It really only has a figurative sense: a position/opinion/view, for example, can be “tenable” (bzw. untenable, of course).
– I wouldn’t use “edible” with milk – would you use “essbar”? “Potable,” if you want to be a little fancy, means “drinkable.” “Edible” really only works for solid food, at least to me.
Is the verb “erbrechen” also really highbrow, or just “das Erbrochene”?
You’re totally right about “edible”. You wouldn’t say that for liquids in German either.
– Die Milch ist nicht mehr trinkbar.
Oh and another word came to mind in that context… “genießbar”.
As for “erbrechen”… I think I’ve never used that word in my life ever. I did use “brechen”. You actually need “brechen” because it is the one that is the base for the stimulus that makes you throw up… the “Brechreiz”. There is no Kotzreiz or Sichübergebreiz.. But “erbrechen”. THe only context I would use it in is if I have a target for the vomiting.
– Er erbricht sich über die Bar.
– He vomits across the bar.
You wouldn’t use “brechen” here. That would sound super odd and not even like “to vomit”. Long story short, yeah, I think “sich erbrechen” is even more high brow than “das Erbrochene” :)
” You wouldn’t say that for liquids in German either.”
Doch doch, die Suppe war ganz essbar,
Und die Erbsen da drin waren gezählt ;)
“Erbrechen” soll verwendbar sein, wenn man *etwas* erbricht. Ich erbreche, was ich morgens gegessen habe.
Muss nicht sein… wenn man es reflexiv verwendet, dann braucht man kein Essen zu sagen.
– Mein Hund hat sich erbrochen.
Ich hab ja nicht gesagt, dass man das Essen unbedingt erwähnen muss. ;) Nur dass das Verb doch Verwendung findet außerhalb der reflexiven Bedeutung.
Ach so… aber wenn ich drüber nachdenke bin ich mir nicht so sicher…
– Ich erbreche mein Schnitzel.
Das klingt irgendwie komisch. Ich hab mal für “Ich erbreche mein” gesucht. Es gibt einige Treffer mit “Essen” aber wenn man die weglässt, dann bleiben noch 78 Treffer (darunter “mein Mittagessen”) Für “meine” gibt’s dann nochmal 7 oder so. Also.. gehen tut das schon, aber idiomatisch ist es in den wenigsten Fällen.
die Kranke erbricht alle Speisen
das Baby hat seinen Brei wieder erbrochen
Mir geht’s nicht darum, dass es das nicht gibt, sondern darum, dass die Studenten, die das hier lesen nicht sagen “Ich erbreche meine Pizza”, denn das klingt einfach zu gehoben/komisch.
I really love your articles, but I wish they were actually daily.
Oh damn, that would be way too much work :D Thanks for the nice feedback
In the hallway it smells ‘of’ puke rather than ‘after’.
But I’d probably say ‘it smells of puke in the hallway.
But hey, we’re splitting hairs now. Incidentally ‘shitting through the eye of a needle’, is another term for diarrhea.
Incidentally, while we’re talking about ‘that stuff’, I have a couple of friends who refer to it as:
‘I’m about to go and feed the fishes’
‘He’s away dropping the kids off at the swimming pool’
and when ‘needing to go’ another says – ‘its so close, I’m touching cloth!!’
Enough now. I’m sure there are many other phrases used. Why don’t we share them?
Brian
Man, you could probably write a book of just English slang phrases for diarrhea. “The runs” or “the (Hershey) squirts” are maybe the most common American ones, or at least the first that come to my mind. Or just “the shits.” Then there’s tourist diarrhea, a.k.a. “Montezuma’s revenge” (obviously especially in Mexico).
“Montezumas Rache”… I know that. I think it might be from movies where they had to translate it and they just went with.
Hi actually is Moctezuma, greetings
Oh, good to know… I used the German way of spelling because that way people can find the whole phrase better. It’s weird that we went from “c” to “n”, actually.
Does “mocte” even mean “Mountain”?
I thought about some German ones and… I couldn’t think of much actually, besides “kacken” and “scheißen”. One very very common one is “groß”
– “Mama, ich muss mal.”
“Klein oder groß?”
“Groß.”
“Groß” means a number 2, “klein” means “to pee”. Another option is “ein Geschäft machen” (to do a deal/make business). That’s also used for dogs a lot.
– Ihr Hund hat sein Geschäft genau auf meinem Beet gemacht.
– Your dog shat on my patch.
Ha, yeah, “do one’s business” definitely works in English too. If we’re just talking about slang for poopin’ in general, the possibilities are limitless. A related saying is “I’ve got to go see a man about a horse/dog,” which is a more general way to excuse yourself, but often does mean going to the toilet.
From “#2,” you get “deuce” and the phrase “drop a deuce.” I think somebody already mentioned “drop the kids off at the pool.” The head prison guard in The Shawshank Redemption says at one point, “I’ve gotta go pinch a loaf.”
Reminds of “ein Ei legen” which is another German one. But “pinching a loaf” is much better.
Just have to comment again. I’d not quite finished reading the first time. I have to commend you and all Germans indeed anyone who has ever had anything to do with the language on this word you’ve given for diarrhea – Durchfall is so figurative it’s almost poetic. A beautiful thing!
Thank you.
You mean so “literal”. :)
Not really Alexviajero. I meant the word ‘paints a picture’ that is much better/clearer than the ‘literal’.
I think “Durchfall” is really an example where literal and figurative meet and become …. figuiteral.
Woher kommt der Begriff „den flotten Otto haben “?
Keine Ahnung :). Nie gehört!
Another reader actually just mentioned in a comment that “diarrhea” is almost the same…. it’s the old Greek words “through” and “flow” . Just sounds so much more scientific :)
•I think the milk I drank was gone bad/spoiled.
Should be “had” gone bad/ but “was” spoiled.
Great article. You put in a lot of effort in producing these articles. I just wanted to say how appreciated that all is, by this reader anyway. By the way, you’re bang on with ‘use by’ and ‘sour’ milk.
Then I spotted it – your deliberate typo – presumably to see if we were still reading, or just skimming.
-Die Butter tastes ranzig.
-The butter tastes ranzid.
Does that mean I win a prize?
Thanks again for all your work on this. It makes great reading.
Brian from Scotland
Haha… I wish I was that clever. But it really took all my concentration to not write “rancig” (I did that like 5 times) so the one you saw just slipped through. So… no price for you. Tut mir leid :).
Oh… thanks a lot for the nice feedback, by the way.
Zu verbrauchen bis: (Verfallsdatum)
•To be consumed by: (lit.)
•Use by: (is that correct??)
______________
Yes it is. Oh, and everyone knows you don’t put bananas in the fridge! :-)
Took me a while to learn that. You know… being from Eastern Germany and all, we really had a lot to catch up to :D
It feels weird to me too but it’s East Germany (BTW Eastern Germany makes me think of Osterhase xD)
Haha… ops. The Easter Germany is in your backyard hiding eggs :D