Hello everyone,
and welcome to our German Word of The Week, this time, with a look at a word that can even give fluent learners a sobering reality check about pronunciation:
schüchtern
I mean, come on… it might not be as bad as Eichhörnchen or that one infamous metro station in Berlin that contains these consonants:
Schlsschs Tr
(Leave a comment, if you know what I mean ;).
But schüchtern is definitely a one of those words that can make you feel shy about your pronunciation.
Which is a perfect match because schüchtern actually means shy.
The origin of the family is the rather un-ancient Germanic word *skeukh(w)az which was about being afraid. And there might be a connection to the ancestor of to shoot – to the actually ancient Indo-European *skē̌u– -with the common theme being “make go fast”. Like… when I scare a deer in the forest, it starts to run really fast.
But there’s no consensus about this theory, yadda yadda yadda, science science science. It’s still good material to impress your date with.
“I… I’m pretty shy.”
“Awww… ”
“And you know what they say… shy might be related to shot! *wink wink”
“Oh… uh… so??”
I haven’t thought this through till the end to be honest. But I don’t have any dates on the horizon, so there’s still time I guess…. *sad piano…
anyway…erm… time for some actual examples for schüchtern…
- Thomas ist sehr schüchtern.
- Thomas is very shy.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- “Wieviel kostet das Bier?” fragt Maria mit einem schüchternen Lächeln.
- “How much is the beer?” Maria asks with a shy smile.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Thomas geht zu einem Dating-Coach um seine Schüchternheit zu verlieren.
- Thomas goes to a dating coach to lose his
virg… shyness. - Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
Now, if you look for shy in the dictionary, you’ll find that German also has the word scheu. Which sounds much more like shy and it’s MUCH easier to pronounce than schüchtern. I mean… schüchternes Lächeln?! Come on, maaaan.
The thing with scheu is that it’s the more “instinctive” type of being shy. I don’t know if timid is a good fit, but scheu definitely leans more toward scared, and it’s the perfect word for animals.
- “Ihhh, deine Fashion-Jacke ist so hässlich, die macht die Pferde scheu.”
“Dann setzt ihnen Scheuklappen auf. Die Jacke bleibt an.” - “Eww, your fashion jacket is so ugly, it “makes” the horses scared/spooked.”
“Then give them blinders/blinkers. The jacket stays on.”
(Does English use “shy” here?)
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
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Hi Emanuel,
thanks for the article. Just wanted to clarify one thing. In russian we have shy as a reflexive verb and there is also an adjective. We generally use that verb for an ongoing situation whereas the adjective is for like a permanent state of one’s character. Imagine a situation on a playground: a kid sees a stranger adult and holds onto mum. The mother can say smt like “he shies himself”, that would mean it’s just a temp thing, with another adult the kid would behave differently. If the mother uses an adjective, smt. like “he is shy” that would mean the kid is pretty much always like that and it carries just a tiny touch of negative, like the kid doesn’t know how to behave with others, he just escapes communication.
You see, i can’t describe that in English either, but does German have smt like that? A something for a temporary ongoing situation? Which of these is schüchtern?
“schüchtern” can be both, so it can be the “character” or just the current state of mind in a situation. There’s no counterpart to that verb that you described. Maybe, if it’s a kid that doesn’t dare to ask other kids if it can join the playing, a parent might say “Mein Kind schämt sich.”
Oh, and “schüchtern” doesn’t have a negative touch in German. It’s pretty neutral overall.
Thanks for the answer!
On a second thought, I guess I was incorrect about the negative touch in russian either
This exchange:
“Mann Maria, du sollst ihn daten, nicht einschüchtern.”
“… and then he ran away.”
“Dude, Maria… you’re supposed to date him, not intimidate him.”
caught me by surprise.
I’ve heard “Mensch, Maria” but not “Mann, Maria” but not being a native German speaker or even living in a German speaking country, I defer to you.
But “Dude, Maria” suggests that Maria identifies as male–like for example Karl Maria von Weber, the composer. At least it does for me in English. If Maria had boobs and a skirt, it would be weird to use “Dude, Maria”, the way it would be idiomatic to say, “Dude, Adam,”
Interested in what others think about the English, and whether the Mann, Maria is really common and I just haven’t heard it.
So Maria in my example absolutely identifies as a female :).
This “Mann” in German is pretty much gender-neutral.
This doesn’t sound unusual at all and many people talk that way.
The “Mann” is just an expression of emotion, maybe impatience that the other person should understand.
I translated that with “dude” but maybe “geez” would be the better match. Depends on how native speakers feel regarding “Dude, [woman’s name]…”
I have definitely heard women say “Dude” and “Bro” to other women, but I don’t know if it’s as widespread and neutral sounding as the German “Mann”.
This brought back memories of Family Guy’s Judenscheuche xD
Horses shy (rear up) when they are startled. There are coconut shies at funfairs. (To shy used also to mean “to throw”).
Oh really? That fits quite well with the basic idea of “make go fast” then :)
Southern US, worked with horses a bit during my early teens. A horse ‘shying away’ from something sudden, strange or startling is expected, and steps are taken to avoid it; it’s a common expression along with ‘being skittish’. For people, it’s avoiding doing something due to a lack of confidence or a dislike, “He’s steady, he won’t shy away from a challenge or hard work.”
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schlesisches tor is tricky but i think I got close by breaking it down into three individual parts, practicing those and then put them together fast – it kinda works. Schle (like santa’s sleigh with an “sh” sound) sis ( kinda rhymes with “wish”) “sches” kinda ryhmes with hmmm ….can’t really think of anything in english…sort of “bush” (well not exactly cus i think the sh in bush isn’t as soft and the u of bush isn’t exactly the same…) I’m sure someone who’s first language is german would find my pronunication off but anyway i think the trick to start with is to break it down into 3 parts and then have a german speaker correct the pronunication….
From my experience, the main challenge for people is to assemble the parts fast. Something in the brain actively works against the speaker in that moment :D
I have passed through that station but thankfully have never had to ask for directions to it !
For some reason the audio is not working for me today – it normally does – is there a problem for others or is it something on my phone ?
What device and browser are you using?
I know that a certain MacOS update is refusing to play .mp3 files (which is what I am using), and that’s something I can’t really fix, I don’t think.
Does it work on other articles here, and on other websites?
Zum Thema
virg, habe ich eine Frage. Vermutlich ist ein Mädchen oder eine Frau, das (beziehungsweise die) Sex noch nicht erlebt hat, als eine Jungfrau bezeichnet. Gilt das auch für Jungen oder Männer? Sind sie auch als Jungfrauen bezeichnet?Gute Frage!!
Man sagt “Jungfrau” für beide, egal ob Mann oder Frau. Klingt auch nicht komisch für meine Ohren.
My southern Mama would say ” Good Lord child, you aren’t going to wear that! You‘ll scare the horses!”.
Hahaha, I guess the idea of fashion scaring animals is timeless then :)
Thank you Emanuel–I was very touched by your respectful and serious response to Rita’s comment. I am an unbeliever, who was however raised as a believer, and yet decades later I still say the word God all the time, and this is the first time I’ve read such a sensible explanation of why. Also, as I’ve said in the past, I truly appreciate your sensibility and your humor (and the cartoons!) in YDG, which I honestly think help us to retain the German lessons that we learn here.
Thanks a lot for the nice feedback :)!! Liebe Grüße nach Maine!
I really appreciate still receiving these emails after living for a while in Germany. And want to thank you for it every time I read it. Today: Thank you!! My comment here is about the words going with the drawings. .. In the Altstadt we lived right next to the church and because of Covid the bells tolled thrice a day for a message of solidarity; so over many months (in which I received YourDailyGerman as well; thanks again!) the sound brought thoughts of faith and trust to the forefront for me. So this drawing here have my attention! — And I am wondering .. Why would we speak to God/or use the name of a god when we do not really mean to, for acknowledgement? While in the mean time we are serious (here) about language, having verbs and word endings and the rest right according to language rules? As for the second picture: “Geez” – short for “Jesus”? I comment on this, because we are earnest about German/language we are speaking/learning, but less neat with another type of language. .. Somewhere there might be a Wörterbuch of Swear Words and it will be full of abbreviations and synonyms for God? And regardless of believing in which or no god, we just use these words as if they have not much value. They do not “sign” properly, is what our careless use of them says? They serve us for lightheartedness (fun) or heaviness (cursing). I’m just pondering on how we as language “users” shift value with words in some fickle way. But at the same time we let language rules help us to faithfully speak and write according to a high standard.
Hi Rita, thank you for sharing your thoughts on this!
I had someone tell me something similar in an email a while back.
The reason “God” is so commonly used in daily life is because it was incredibly common in daily life throughout the centuries when highly religious people would call on God whenever something went good or bad for them.
This usage is still the same as it has always been, with the exception that we now have many more people who DON’T believe in God and who still use the phrase the same way.
It’s not that religious people treat the words with respect and then less religious people come in and start using them all over the place.
Also, I am not aware that there’d be some sort of ban or unwritten custom not to use the word “God” in mundane or swearing contexts. Again, this use goes back hundreds of yours and the line between genuine bad luck and just swearing is small.
“Oh God” has become a very heavily washed out phrase. Some people still think of God when they say it, but many people just say it in its capacity to express emotions, good or bad, about “fate”, however mundane it may be.
One could take that as disrespectful toward God, but then all the highly religious people of the last centuries who made these phrasing so common are to blame.
And you could also see it as a positive thing, because it reinforces the concept of God in people, even if they don’t believe. And thinking about God and then making a decision at least acknowledges the CONCEPT of God. In that sense, God has a place in their heads and even if they don’t believe they are aware of the values maybe and might still act differently than if they had never even heard of the concept of God or religion.
For my cartoons, I use language that people speak. I have at some point decided to not use the f-word and I also am not using “Jesus” anymore.
But I don’t think my use of God here is offensive or disrespectful. Yes, it’s a mundane situation, but if the pigeon is a evangelical Christian, maybe it is really calling an God because it is so nervous.
I know this sounds stupid, but people either say it as a genuine plea or they say it because people who did say it as a genuine plea made it so common that it’s the go to phrase now. No one is using it with an intention of disrespect.
Enlightening! Thank you for your reply! It makes me think. Like the rest of your posts. Thanks again. :)
Great article! Note on English equestrian usage: Horses may be shy (afraid of mingling at cocktail parties), or they may shy away from something (like a particularly ugly horse blanket, or rider), but they also shy (rear up) when startled. “The horses shied when Frau Blücher’s name was mentioned.” :D
Haha, I had to look up that reference :)!
I don’t know that English has a perfect translation of “scheu” in the case of animals, but the closest thing that I’ve heard is “spook”. Two ways to use it. Transitive: “The man spooked the deer” or “the deer got spooked.” Intransitive: “The deer spooked.” It means the deer got scared and physically reacted, like by jumping around or running away or something. The verb “shy” by itself is pretty uncommon (at least in the U.S. among people who don’t deal with horses).
I was also going to suggest “spooking the horses”/”those horses are easily spooked” as being in the neighbourhood of a good translation for “scheu”, but my searches were stymied (and muddied) by the existence of a heavy metal band called “Spook the Horses”, and a Neil Young+Crazy Horse song called “Don’t Spook the Horses” :-) As Hugh points out below, the word “skittish” has similar connotations, particularly in relation to animals: “on edge”, “hyper-reactive/aware/sensitized”. One of the best dogs I’ve ever lived with was a huge, and sometimes “spookable”, Scottish Deerhound. He was, of course, always introduced to strangers as a “Skittish Deerhound”.
So to my non-native brain, “skittish” feels too nervous to be a good match for “scheu”.
A deer is “scheu”, but I wouldn’t call it skittish.
On a surface, it might be a translation, but the vibe is not the same for me.
Yep, that makes sense. “Skittish” definitely has a transience (feed the Deerhound dinner, or meet him after he’s done a couple of “zoomies”, and note that the skittishness has totally evaporated), while “scheu” seems much more instinctual, and inherent.
And by way of contrast… Ein Mangel an Scheu war wahrscheinlich die Ursache für das Aussterben der Megafauna in Australien und Neuseeland. (Das und vielleicht auch die Einschleppung neuer Krankheiten.) Quick question: does “Einschleppung” sound weird here? I see “einschleppen” looks like just the ticket for what I’m describing, and it’s such a nice word I’d like to be able to use it properly ;-)
It does sound a bit contrived to me, and I would have intuitively used “das Einschleppen” but I did a quick Google search and “die Einschleppung” is like three times as common in such contexts, so yeah… go for it.
Is that something you’re writing? Or are you a translator?
Oh gosh no, nothing anywhere near so grand, sad to say! My German level’s an infinitesimal fraction of what would be required for such a task. But the extinction of megafauna has always been a source of considerable fascination (and horror) for me, so for some reason the connection to Scheu just reactivated that pathway. Add to that the fact that “schlep(p)” has some currency in at least (American) English —mainly via Yiddish, it seems— and you’ve got a potent enough brew to get me on board!
Good comment. I’d add that to describe the general state of mind of a horse in the moment one would use something like skittish. Shy would be more reserved for describing its underlying personality (ie the cocktail party sense)
Rolle, rolle, rolle in der Hay
I’d like to buy a vowel please :) Schlesisches Tor
For the second question on the quiz (Maria calls Thomas “deoscheu”), I think I would tend to use the simple present for the answer, if I understood “deoscheu” right. I interpreted it as a habit, so “he avoids using deodorant.”
Damn, you nailed it!
Did you know it right away?
And yes, Thomas is generally apprehensive about deodorant, I changed it to simple present. Danke :)
Yeah, I watch a lot of documentaries. Actually it’s more like listening to them while I work, but I really like the ones from rbb where they show you around Berlin. I work on the desktop and have the laptop set up so I can peek over at the pretty pictures.
Hello!
And no, I haven’t left the blog nor am I mad at you, I’ve been on holiday!!!
Let’s not be shy and get into typos:
“with a look at a word can even give fluent learners” (with a look at a word that can even give fluent learners)
yadda – double d
“I don’t know if timid is a good fits” (I don’t know if timid is a good fit)
I’d say the jacket scares or intimidates the horses… don’t think I’d use shy… but can’t say it’s wrong either… I suppose the horses might shy away from the jacket.
“sometimes fast work” (sometimes fast works)
English job interview: “don’t be overly shy/be assertive”
“toward one a slightly different” (toward one slightly different)
I have one question, not related to this article. Where’s the random article feature on the blog? Have you removed it?
Bis bald!
Ah, ja, ich hab mich schon gewundert, ob du mit Deutsch aufgehört hast :).
Ich hoffe, dein Urlaub war schön und entspannend!!
Danke wie immer für die Korrekturen.
The random article feature: I had that on my “home” page, but I got a feeling that I have LESS views when that home page was online, so I switched back to the boring feed and forgot about that feature.
Now as you brought it up, I thought I could actually put it under each article, for people who want to continue reading.
What do you think?
Nein, ich würde auf keinen Fall mit Deutsch aufhören!
Mein Urlaub was sehr schön, ich habe viel Spaß gehabt, Freunde besucht und sogar auf ein Konzert gegangen, um Duran Duran zu sehen! Das Konzert was wirklich der Hammer!
Ich stimme dir zu, du konntest einen Zufallsartikel (?) unter jedem Artikel aufstellen, dann konnte man weiterlesen. Manchmal weiß ich nicht was ich am nächsten lernen soll, es gibt so viele Themen!
Deshalb finde ich den Zufallsartikel sehr hilfreich, weil mir den das Bedürfnis wegnimmt, mich fur etwas zu entscheiden!
Bis bald!
Wo warst du denn im Urlaub?
Ich habe seit 2-3 Jahren keinen Urlaub mehr gemacht. Jedenfalls keinen richtigen. In ein paar Wochen fliege ich mit zwei meiner besten Freundinnen nach Lake Tahoe und freue mich schon sehr drauf.
Dänemark und Schweden! Schade dass du keinen Urlaub gemacht hast. Viel Spaß in Lake Tahoe!
Kennst du zufällig die Küste bei diesem Turm:
Rubjerg Knude Fyr
Ich war im Winter da, und das ist echt eine krasse Küste.