Hello everyone,
and welcome to our German word of the Day. This time we’ll have a look at the meaning of
schätzen
We’ll look at the verb itself, the most common related words, the prefix version and we’ll also learn something interesting… uh… I mean something else. The crazy career of Schatz and how it changed from a word for your goat to a word for your lover.
Sounds good? Then let’s jump right in. Oh and speaking of sound… there’s a super special surprise waiting for you.

Define ,schätzeken’, please!!
That’s a dialect version of “Schätzchen” and it means as much as “honey” or “dear” and can be used sarastically.
Danke.
Thank you very much, indeed!
So schätzen is the only translation for Esteeming someone? Because you say is a little bit formal and dry but I feel uncomfortable using a verb that is connecting with “schatz” that I can use for my love one. Are there alternatives? Like if I value my chef for her work and as a human I could say-to her “Ich…… Ihnen”. Danke!!
How do you find all these words and their NUANCES? I can’t do that in my language.
“the time it’ll take her to forgive you for buying a 14 instead of a 10”
what does this mean? :P
Ha… I had to think about this myself for a while but then I realized it was a joke about clothes sizes. Like…. a man buys his significant other a piece of clothing but it is too big. Does that make sense :)?
I don’t know why but after I play like 4 or 5 of the audio files the others would stop playing… This happens to all the articles with audio. is it just me or anyone else has the same problem?
Yeah, I’d like to know too. What device are you using??
Well, it’s playing normally today so I guess it’s just my laptop acting up. I’m using Firefox on Windows XP (cause I can’t afford a better computer).
My experience with Firefox on pretty much any operating system is that it is slooooooow. Never has a browser pissed me off as much. Have you tried opera?
Anyway… great to hear that it works!!
Yeah it’s slow on my computer too. I think I’m gonna switch to Chrome or Opera. Thanks for your suggestion, I almost forgot about Opera :)
This article helps to explain these ads on the trains in Zurich:
This one:

Now “Schatz” is probably related with the Danish “skat” which means treasure. And therefore with the Icelandic “skattur” which at some point had to do with food (it is part of an old word for breakfast) and nowadays means tax.
Cool, thanks for these connections! Do you speak these languages or are you an Etymologist? (as far as I know, Icelandic is used a lot in Etymology, because it has conserved a lot from way back when)
Great info! I totally dropped a casual “schätzen” phrase in the German conversation group I just joined.
Also, if we’re talking about Vieh:
Eine Kuh macht Muh;
Zwei Kühe macht Mühe. :)
Indeed :)
With this word of the day, I can’t resist giving a shout-out to my wonderful dog, a standard schnauzer appropriately named Schatzi. :)
Yeah, keep on rocking and fetching Schatzi!
Gollum in “The empire strikes back” :)))))))))))))
man sollte die Audios nicht unterschätzen: sie helfen wirklich beim Lernen.
Danke nochmals
Das freut mich zu hören. Ich werde das öfter machen!
“Alltagsdeutsch” ist nicht “every day German”, sondern “everyday German”. Das Leerzeichen ist leider wichtig.
every day = jeden Tag
everyday = alltäglich oder Alltags-…
Oh, vielen Dank!!
Benny is in afterschool till his mom picks him up.
Once during an interview, I heard someone described as a ‘geschätzte Kollegin’ That makes sense now, and translates directly as ‘valued colleague’
Ich weiß das sehr zu schätzen! Die Audioaufnahmen sind auch sehr toll.
Wonderful idea to insert pronunciation
Man kann”Wortschatz” als “wordhoard” übersetzen, wenn man akademisch erscheinen will.
https://www.oxforddictionaries.com/us/definition/american_english/wordhoard
Really? Wordhoard is pretty cool!! Much better than “vocabulary”.
By the way… German has the word “der Hort” which was “Schatz” before “Schatz” came around. Today, “hort” is more of a collection. The main use is for the afternoon program of elemetary schools. Keeping the kids there, letting them play and do their homework. That’s called “der Hort”
– Benny ist im Hort bis seine Mutter ihn abholt.
– Benny is [no idea] till his mom picks him up.
Thanks for the amazing posts! I really enjoy reading them. I get to impress my German tutor every time we meet with a new fancy word because of your posts.
I absolutely loved the audio in the lesson. It loaded pretty easy, for the most part. A couple of them wouldn’t play, but it may be because of my slow internet. I’ll have to try those 2 again when I have a better connection.
Thanks again!
Cool, thanks for the nice feedback. if they still don’t work, let me know which ones and I’ll see if there’s a problem with the file.
The audios are a HUGE help! Thank you!
That’s great to hear!
(Braucht ‘belehren’ ein Objekt? Ich glaube, ich habe das vielleicht falsch benutzt.)
Ja, be-verben brauchen (fast) immer ein Akkusativobjekt. Die einzige Ausnahme, die mir aus dem Stand einfällt, ist “beginnen”.
Haha, ok. Ich danke dir. Ich wollte “to lecture” sagen. Wie sagt man “lecture (about something)” ohne Akkusativobjekt (to lecture someone about…)? Ich kenne die Wörter “Vortrag” und “Vorlesung” nur als Hauptwörter. Vielleicht “eine/n Vorlesung/Vortrag geben oder machen”? Gibt es ein richtiges Verb wie das Englisches “to lecture” (i.e. to deliver a lecture in a university classroom)?
Ne, ein Verb gibt’s nicht wirklich. Das kommt auf den Kontext an. Für einen Professor an der Uni würde man sagen “eine Vorlesung halten” aber das geht nicht mit einzelnen Infos. In dem Beispiel mit dem Buch würde ich glaube ich einfach “reden” oder “erzählen” benutzen.
Vielleicht liegt der Grund dafür darin, dass das “be” in “beginnen” kein echtes Präfix ist.
P.S. Ich hab hier niemals kommentiert, obwohl ich Dein Blog immer nachschlage. Es ist echt unersetzbar. Ich schätze es sehr ;). Danke.
Doch, doch… das ist schon das Standard-be.
https://etymonline.com/index.php?allowed_in_frame=0&search=begin
Danke für das liebe Feedback :)