Hello everyone,
and welcome to our German Word of the Day. This time we will have a look at the meaning of
sorgen
And of course that means that we’ll look at the prefixes, too… besorgen, versorgen… these fellows. I gotta warn you though; this one is uber tough. There are only a handful prefix-versions but the meanings of those are freaking crazy. I’m actually… ahem… worried, we might not make it this time. Maybe we’ll just not be able to get a hold of it.
Okay, no… of course we’ll get a hold of them. They’re not so bad. I just wanted to shoehorn in the word worry. Why? Let’s find out.
Historically, sorgen is the brother of sorrow and both come from the tre-freaking-mendously ancient Indo-European root *ser that meant something along the lines of being sick and worrying. In reality, sorgen and sorrow are rarely translation for each other because. And not only because sorgen is a verb and sorrow isn’t. There’s a difference in meaning. Take for example the title of that one Michael Bay novel…. “Transformers : the sorrows of young Optimus”. The German title uses Leiden as a translation for sorrow in German. and leiden is also to suffer. Sorrow is way more serious than sorgen, and it’s usually about your feelings when something bad has already happened.
Sorgen takes place one step earlier. It’s what you do BEFORE something bad happens. And it’s something you do before something good happens that you thought was gonna be bad. And maybe it’s just something you do a lot for no reason because you’re pessimistic. Long story short: Optimus rides a T-Rex and.. oh wait, I meant to say the soul of sorgen is worrying.
Now, sorgen can be a direct translation for to worry but it’s not that common and the structure is a bit of a hassle as it needs a self reference
- I worry for/about you.
- Ich sorge für dich… is not wrong but means something different (we’ll see later)
- Ich sorge mich um dich./Ich sorge mich wegen dir.
The common phrasing for to worry is sich Sorgen machen, which has also a self reference but this one is Dative, so it’s better… oh wait, actually probably not. But anyway, examples:
- Mach dir wegen ein paar Fehlern keine Sorgen! Das ist normal.
- Don’t worry about a few mistakes! That’s just normal.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Thomas macht sich Sorgen, dass er seinen Wecker nicht hört.
- Thomas worries about not hearing his alarm.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Wo warst du denn?? Ich hab’ mir schon Sorgen gemacht.
- Where have you been?? I started worrying.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
So… Germans don’t worry, they make themselves worries. Solid, reliable, long-living, quality, “Made in Germany” worries… maybe that’s why we’re so angsty :).
But anyways… let’s look at some more examples with the worry-idea.
- Thomas hat Geldsorgen. Vielleicht hat er deshalb jetzt Sorgenfalten.
- Thomas has money troubles. Maybe that’s why he has worry lines now.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Das Rundum-Sorglos-Paket für ihr Handy – surfen, mailen, chatten, phonen mit nur einer Flat. (common marketing lingo)
- The all-round carefree package for your cell phone – web, e-mails, chat, phone… all with one flat rate.
(I don’t know how to translate that into marketing English) - Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Der Arbeitsmarkt ist das Sorgenkind in vielen Europäischen Staaten.
- The job market is the problem child of many European countries.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- “Du siehst besorgt aus”
“Ich BIN besorgt.” - “You look worried.”
“I AM worried.” - Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
Now some of you might be like “Hey… if besorgt means worried, then besorgen should mean worry as well, right?”.
Yeah, that would make a lot of sense. But we need to be realistic here… it’s German. But before we can take care of the prefix-verbs we need to take a look at the other meaning of sorgen.
The thing is, the whole idea of worry is not very far from the idea care.
- I know there are dishes to do but I’ll worry about that later.
This doesn’t mean that you’ll sit down later and be like “Oh those poor dishes. So dirty and plentiful. I really hope someone does them soon.”
It means that you’ll take care of them later… okay, actually it means that you hope someone else does it in the meantime, but… you get the idea. Worrying and caring are close. If you worry about someone or something, that also means that you care. And this care-idea is at the heart of quite a few sorgen-words…
- Die Power-Yoga-Lehrerin geht sehr fürsorglich mit den Kindern um.
- The power-yoga-instructor is very caring with the kids.
(lit: treats the kids very caringly. )
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Seine sorgsam gewählten Worte verfehlten die Wirkung nicht
- His words, chosen with care/carefully/attentively, had the desired effect.
(lit.: ….. didn’t miss the desired effect. )
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Das Unternehmen hat seine Quartalszahlen sehr sorgfältig frisiert.
- The company has manipulated their quarterly figures very thoroughly/with lots of care.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
So this was caring with a more emotional, or attention focus and it doesn’t end there. Sorgen also works for the more practical taking care that we had in the dish-example. And that makes sense. Let’s say you’re having a party but you’re worried that you don’t have enough beer. What are you going to do? Exactly… you’d un-invite a few guests, especially Tiffany. That little hussy. But anyway… there’s a potential problem, that problem worries you, so you take care of it. That is part of sorgen, as well.
- Sorge bitte dafür, dass das Büro aufgeräumt wird.
- See to it that the office is cleaned up.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
This is also where we meet the prefix verbs…
- Der Arzt versorgt die Wunde.
- The doctor treats (takes care of) the wound.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Ich wasche mein Fahrrad nicht. Ich lasse es einfach draußen stehen. Den Rest besorgt der Regen.
- I don’t wash my bike. I just leave it outside. The rain takes care of/does the rest.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
Super literally the rain “inflicts worrying, caring” on my dirty bike problem, but if you want to read about the be-prefixe in detail, I’ll add a link below.
There’s a common proverb with besorgen, too, by the way.
- Was du heute kannst besorgen,
das verschiebe nicht auf morgen. - Never put off till tomorrow
what you can do today. - Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
I’m at a complete loss as to what it’s trying to tell us, though. I understand the word but I don’t get the me.. what? Oh, the sentence structure with the kannst before besorgen is creeping you out? Well, that’s really just so it rhymes, so chill out. Macht euch keine Sorgen. There’s nothing to it.
Trust me.
Absolutely nothing,
Big promise.
Al right. So we had sorgen as worrying and then we had sorgen as caring or taking care of something and with the help of Captain Context we can already understand most of the sorgen-words out there.
But there’s something else. Not a completely new idea… just sort of a specialization. And the key to it are our basic needs…. namely food and water. We need to get those from somewhere … buy, harvest, hunt, gather, beg – it doesn’t matter how. But only if those are taken care of we can ask ourselves if our smartphone really fits our style. And for most humans throughout the ages getting food and drink has been a daily task and often a source of worrying. So that might be why some sorgen-words have developed a focus in supply. For example, we’ve seen besorgen in sense of generally taking care of things. But the common meaning in day to day spoken average Joe German is getting things… not going to the fridge to get a beer but really going out there.
- Heute Abend will ich Pizza machen, deshalb muss ich noch Käse und Tomaten besorgen.
- I want to make pizza tonight, so I have to get cheese and tomatoes.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Du brauchst neue Beauty-Tipps. Dann schnell zum Kiosk und die neue Cosmopolitan besorgen!
- Need new beauty tips? Get the new cosmopolitan today!
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
People do use besorgen even if they’re clearly talking about just buying. It has the notion of going somewhere built in and even a pinch of searching… just what the cavemen had to do to take care of food. Of course besorgen isn’t that old, I just hope the image helps making sense of it all.
Another word that is very much about basic needs is versorgen. It is essentially the same as it’s be-rother (haha), only that you don’t go and get, you go and bring. Versorgen means to supply and you’ll definitely come across this word if you live in Germany because it is used in context of water, electricity and gas.
- Mein Stromversorger ist zu teuer.
- My electricity supplier is too expensive.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Der Praktikant versorgt die Leute beim Meeting mit Kaffee und Keksen.
- The intern supplies the people at the meeting with coffee and cookies.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Wegen Bauarbeiten ist die Wasserversorgung morgen von 8 bis 10 Uhr unterbrochen.
- Due to construction work the water supply will be interrupted tomorrow from 8 to 10 am.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
Last but not least, there is entsorgen which means to dispose.
- So entsorgt man Batterien richtig.
- How to dispose batteries properly.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
This isn’t all too common but it nicely shows how close all the meanings really are. We can look at entsorgen as the exact opposite of getting the batteries (besorgen) but also as taking care of a problem…. “I make so the empty batteries are not cause for worrying anymore”
Or take vorsorgen.
- Das Eichhörnchen sorgt für den Winter vor.
- The squirrel provides for the winter.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
The squirrel knows winter, so it’s worried, and because it’s worried, it runs around getting acorns so it’s basic need (food) is taken care of… worrying, caring, taking care of, getting things, supplying things… it’s all the same stuff. And often it is really just context that shifts the meaning here or there.
- Maria sorgt für ihre Nichte.
- Maria looks after/takes care of/provides for her niece.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Maria sorgt für Wein.
- Maria supplies the wine.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Thomas ist besorgt.
- Thomas is worried.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Brot ist besorgt.
- Bread is taken care of.
(someone went and got bread) - Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
And… I think that’s it.
That was our German Word of the Day sorgen. The important takeaways are worrying, caring and basic needs… with those in mind, sorgen-words shouldn’t be a problem anymore. By the way, speaking of basic needs… besorgen also has an adult meaning. But… I’m sure you’ll find out, if you really want to know.
As always, let me know in the comments if that was helpful or you have any questions… and of course you can try out some examples and see if you know how to handle the words.
I hope you liked it and see you next time.
Further reading:
– German Prefixes Explained – “be”
danke
ok. Ich mache mir Sorgen. But what when someone else make me worry? Like my partner doesn‘t come back home and doesn‘t replay to the telephon… Then I send him a message and I say „Mach mir bitte keine Sorge“ o „ du machst mir Sorgen“. It works?
Technically yes, but you wouldn’t say it in that context.
You’d use “X macht mir Sorgen” if you talk about a thing or a person who isn’t there.
– Mein Computer macht mir Sorgen.
– My computer worries me.
– Thomas macht mir Sorgen.
– I’m worried for Thomas.
As you can see, for people it usually means that you worry FOR THEM, like… will he complete the rehab or something like that. You’re not necessarily personally involved.
In the example you described, you’d say “Ich mache mir Sorgen.” You can add “…um dich” if you want it to sound REALLY intense.
Mmh.. Sorry I cannot give up. Whithout this you cannot raise children in Italy :)
Obviusly I am responsable for my feeling of Sorgen but some time we ask to the other to stop doing something that triggers the Sorgen. He inflicts Sorgen to me (besorgen or ersorgen according with what you teach usually would be the right choise but it doesn’t fit in this case).
Maybe there is another substantive similar to Sorgen but more close to feel fear that fit?
Or what about to use bereitet? in the page you use this example (Das würde mir große Sorgen bereiten, wenn es wahr wäre.) It could work even with people that make me worry? Du bereitest mir Sorgen?
Thank you for your help!
It’s not that it’s grammatically wrong or doesn’t make sense. It’s just that Germans typically don’t say it that way. “Du bereitest/machst mir Sorgen.” sounds fairly “accusatory” to me and very serious. You could say that to a partner who you feel like is drinking WAY too much alcohol over an extended period of time.
You would not use it for your child if the child comes home late one evening.
That said, this might be just “my world” so maybe in other parts of Germany, people would say “Du machst mir Sorgen” in a context like what you have in mind.
If you want to make it sound mildly accusatory, you could say “Ich mache mir Sorgen WEGEN dir” instead of “um dich”. There is more of a vibe of “your fault” in it.
Alles klar!
danke für deine Zeit
Hallo, Emanuel! Loved your guest spot on the Easy German video!
I’m trying to understand the difference between ‘versorgen jemanden mit etwas’ and beliefern when I want to use the verb ‘to supply.’
Is it only that you use ‘versorgen’ when you’re naming the item being supplied? (the ‘mit etwas?’ Or are there certain contexts where one is used over the other? Google translate is giving me these translations, and I’d love to understand why!…
Wer beliefert dieses Restaurant?
and
Der Lehrer versorgt die Kinder mit Umschläge.
Vielen Dank!
“beliefern” sounds very technical and is pretty much limited to actually driving stuff there (or have stuff driven). I guess you could also find it for supplying electricity, but the focus is on the “sending/getting it there”, while “versorgen” is about “meeting the needs”.
You do not need “beliefern” actively, unless you work in logistics.
Let me know if that helps.
Ja, das hilft viel! Vielen Dank, Emanuel!
There’s a lot to take in in this article (maybe there always is) and also some really interesting conversations in the comments I could get sidetracked by.
A question:
Die Power-Yoga-Lehrerin geht sehr fürsorglich mit den Kindern um.
Seine sorgsam gewählten Worte verfehlten die Wirkung nicht
Das Unternehmen hat seine Quartalszahlen sehr sorgfältig frisiert.
how interchangable would the words be here ?
A thought:
I’d have actually really liked a quiz for this one. If you plan on doing a new “lets practice” type article one dedicated to sorgen , its prepositions, its prefix versions and the use of reflexive could be cool…
“sorgsam” and “sorgfältig” would be interchangeable here, but “sorgsam” sounds more “caring” while “sorgfältig” leans toward thorough.
“fürsorglich” is Team Caring all the way. “sorgsam” is more about handling, so it’s not a synonym for “fürsorglich”.
Thanks for the quiz idea, I’ll put that on my list!!
cool thanks!
Was ist der Unterschied? Sind sie alle richtig?
Maria sorgt für Wein.
Maria versorgt den Wein.
Maria sorgt den Wein vor.
Danke!
Nur das erste ist richtig.
Das klingt, als ob der Wein was braucht, und Maria gibt es ihm.
“vorsorgen” nimmt normalerweise kein direktes Objekt.
Possibly interesting (or possibly not): the English-rhyming version of the proverb is “Never till tomorrow leave, what today you could achieve”. My teacher when I was 7 was very fond of this!
Wow, this seems to stretch English word order quite a bit :). Is that proper English or does that sound forced?
It definitely sounds odd
Hallo Emanuel –
Interessanter Artikel – vielen Dank!
Nachdem ich diesen Satz gelesen hatte – Dachlawinen sorgen für Gefahr am Hauptbahnhof-, war ich mir nicht ganz sicher, wie ich das ” sorgen für ” übersetzen sollte. Aber nachdem ich einige der Kommentare gelesen habe, denke ich, dass das “sorgen für ” hier als “verursachen” interpretiert werden kann? Meine Frage ist wahrscheinlich überflüssig, aber ich möchte nur sicher sein. Könnte man in diesem Satz “sorgen für” durch “verursachen” ersetzen? Sind in Fällen, in denen “Verursachung” der Grund ist, ” sorgen für ” und “verursachen” ersetzbar?
Danke
Ja, dein Gefühl ist richtig.
Die Formulierung mit “sorgen für” ist eigentlich ein bisschen komisch, wenn man zu lange drüber nachdenkt.
So wie wenn man “are supplying danger” sagt.
Aber es ist eine sehr gängige Formulierung beim Schreiben, und “verursachen” klingt extrem formell.
Außerdem ist “verursachen” sehr konkret, aber “Gefahr” ist ein bisschen unkonkret. “Gefahr” ist nicht wirklich greifbar.
Ich hoffe, das hilft :)
Hallo! I read this article trying to understand the difference between “sorgen” and “sich kümmern”, and when one is more appropriate than the other. I kind of thought i had a handle on it – that “sorgen” refers to literal worrying about something, or I will manage/handle/take care of it, as in “I will worry about the bounced check tomorrow”.
And I thought “kümmern” referred to a literal taking care, as in “I am at home taking care of my sick child”. But I typed some sample sentences into Google Translate just for kicks to see if I was right, and I don’t think I am:
I am taking care of it. Ich kümmere mich darum.
That takes care of the problem. Das kümmert sich um das Problem.
I take care of my sick grandmother. Ich passe auf meine kranke Großmutter auf. (arrgh, a whole ‘nother verb)
I will take care of getting food. Ich werde mich um das Essen kümmern.
I will worry about my rent next week. Ich werde mir nächste Woche Sorgen um meine Miete machen.
He doesn’t take care when he crosses the street. Er kümmert sich nicht darum, wenn er die Straße überquert.
There seems to be some overlap between the two verbs. Can you clarify?
Thanks! (and thanks for always taking the time to write thoughtful answers years after you post an article!)
“kümmern” is always about actively taking action. It can be taking care of a problem or taking care of a cat or looking after a sick person. But it’s not super emotional.
For “sorgen” you have to distinguish between “sorgen für” and “sorgen um”. The latter is about having worrying thoughts. The former, “sorgen für” is about being active. Again, that can be taking care of a living being, and this one sounds “closer” and more long term than “sich kümmern um”.
Taking care of someone’s cat t for a few days would be “sich kümmern um”. Caring for your best friend’s child after they got lost on the unicorn forest would be “sorgen für”.
In a more mundane context, “sorgen für X” is also used in the sense of seeing to it that X is there.
So yeah, “sorgen für” and “sich kümmern um” do overlap; especially in the mundane domain.
Let me know if that clears it up a little.
–
that clears it up a lot – thank you! Your explanations and example are very clear.
What’s up with the “aufpassen” in this Google Translate sentence? Does it overlap with sorgen/kummern also?
I take care of my sick grandmother. Ich passe auf meine kranke Großmutter auf.
“aufpassen” is about watching something or someone. You can use it for kids in the sense of paying attention that they don’t break anything or get hurt, but for a grandma it would only make sense if she would otherwise run away or something similar.
Der Apfel versorge meine Energie durch die Nacht
The Appel sustains my energy through the night
Kannst du mit dem Lärm im dritte stock besorgen?
Can you deal with the noise in the third floor outside?
Are these examples ok and natural. I got a suggestion to replace besorgen with “umgehen”
Danke
Nice try, but they’re not really idiomatic.
“versorgen” is at its core about supplying. There’s an overlap with sustaining, but “versorgen” means that something is brought somewhere in some way.
“sustains my energy” to me sounds like the energy is just kept in place.
What you could say is
– Der Apfel versorgt mich während der Nacht mit Energie.
– The apple supplies me with energy throughout the night.
“besorgen” is “to go and fetch”, not “to deal with”.
The proper verb depends on what you mean by “to deal”… do you mean “passively live with it” or do you mean “tackle the problem and make it go away”.
Hope that helps :)
Ich wasche mein Fahrrad nicht. Ich lasse es einfach draussen stehen. Den Rest besorgt der Regen.
In your example above which I quoted here, the rain does it passively. What I meant in my use of besorgen is for the receiver of the question to go and deal with the sound.
As for versorgen, here is a version of the example I saw using meaning of sustain.
Der Leiter schlaft nicht , um seine Gruppe
zu versorgen . This is similar to dudens example –> er hat eine Familie zu versorgen ( I think dudens can be rewritten like this ( Er versorgt Seine Familie ). Dankeschön
Additional info : dudens example for besorgen
ein Geschäft besorge
Another stuff I don’t understand
It means “taking care of a business” but I have never heard it before. The problem with Duden is that they list EVERY use that they could find.
You got hung up on REALLY nichy uses.
I can see your point now, why you used “besorgen” the way you did, but if the verb was used in general in that sense, I would have mentioned that in my article. Think of “den Rest beorgt….” as a fixed expression that has frozen an older meaning of “besorgen” in time.
There’s no way you can use “besorgen” for the context of noise upstairs.
As for the example with “versorgen” you mention… there, we do have an element of supply in there. You bring stuff to your family (money, food). But when you say “der Apfel versorgt meine Energie”, then that sounds weird. Because the energy doesn’t need to be supplied, it IS the supply.
Was a former name of yours Menchkind-königin, bty :)?
Dankeschön
As for the the name, I am not Menchkind ;)
Oh besten Dank! Ich freue mich so, wenn ich meine Erfindungen richtig treffe, denn es ist aussergewöhnlich. Dass du mit weiteren Möglichkeiten und Details über die Bedeutungen dazu versorgst ist für mich auch noch sehr hilfreich :D Dank dir glaube ich nun, die Sorgenverben richtig verwenden zu können.
Sehr gut :). Hier mal ein paar kleine Korrekturen:
– … wenn ich meine Erfindungen richtig treffe.
Das verstehe ich nicht. Was willst du damit sagen?
– Dass du mit weiteren Möglichkeiiten […] und Details über die Bedeutung dazu versorgst(,)…
Hier fehlt ein “mich”. Man versorgt immer jemanden. Hast du eine Idee, wo das hinmuss?
Der Rest ist perfekt richtig und echt beeindruckend. Die Sätze, die du geschrieben hast sind SEHR schwierig, von der Sturktur her. Perfekt gemacht!
Hello! Thanks for this very hellful explanations! I have a question: how do you say “she is well taken care of”?
• Ist Maria krank? Ja, aber macht dir keine Sorge, für sie wird richtig gesorgt / sie wird gut versorgt ???
Both your versions are okay and there are more.
– Sie ist gut versorgt. (long term, often financially)
– Sie wird gut versorgt (ongoing care, short term)
– Für Sie wird gesorgt (long term, active, sounds very caring )
– Man kümmert sich gut um sie.
– Sie ist in guten Händen.
It really depends on context which one is best.
Hi, thanks for another cool breakdown.
I would like to add one word though. “aussorgen”. The translation is not so easy. My normal souces seem unable to cope with the word. I’ll try to explain the “duden.de” explanation: “to make sure by appropriate measures that one doesn’t need to care about providing for your living later anymore”. I think it is most commonly used in the “ge-form”. “Er hat ausgesorgt.” = “He is good for live./He has made his living.” I am not sure how to translate that best. It means that you are out of (money) worries.
How would you translate the word?
Interesting question… I think I would say
– He doesn’t have to work anymore.
to communicate the idea. “He’s good for life” seemed a very good translation, but I checked it and it’s not very common and it’s not limited to money. I think you can also use it in context of love, for instance.
Another option that came to my mind was the term “fuck you money”, the amount of money that allows you to quit your job (and tell your boss to f… off ).
I also checked Linguee and I think “secure for life” is the best fit.
After that final comment, I’m too scared to use the word besorgen!
Oh, don’t be. In daily life it’s more useful than “sorgen” alone. What are you uncertain about?
Ja, verstehe. Thank you! You just make the answer that i need simple and clear. :D
Hallo!!
Danke für diese klare Erklärung von “sorgen”!!
Außerdem habe ich aber eine Frage:
“Jetzt sorgt der hohe Krankstand von Mitarbeitern dafür, dass Flüchtlinge seit Tagen kein Geld mehr für Lebensmittel bekommen, das ihnen gesetzlich zusteht.”
I learned from what you’ve explained, but I just can’t find any suitable meaning of “sorgen” in the sentence.
“sorgen” in this sentence should not be either “supply” or “take care of.” Both sounds a little bit weird. :(
Good question. It does sound weird if you have this idea of “taking care of, provide” in your head because that sounds positive while the actual object (here: no money for food) is super negative. Like… why would one want to do that. But “sorgen” is used like that pretty regularly, in writing especially. The notion of caring just kind of disappears. I guess a translation could be “leads to” or “causes”.
– Die Tatsache, dass das Bier alle ist, sorgt für schlechte Stimmung.
– The fact that there’s no more beer causes a bad mood.
Hope hat helps.
Also! Das ist hilfreich!
So, can i just say that people mostly use this word with “leads to” or “causes” meaning in writing (or some official work, news, report..), less in oral and the other meanings given above are not limited, no matter casually or officially?
Danke sehr!
I guess so but there isn’t really much of a difference except perspective
– Das gute Bier sorgt für gute Stimmung.
– The good beer takes care of/provides a good mood.
This isn’t super idiomatic English but I feel like it could work.
– Das schlechte Bier sorgt für schlechte Stimmung.
– The bad beer provides a bad mood.
This doesn’t work in English, because you just wouldn’t use “provide” with something undesirable. German doesn’t care here. It’s not formal sounding or anything. Just a bit scripted. Like… I don’t hear it in spoken German that much.
Hope I didn’t confuse you now :)
Like my website. fastgermanbasics.weebly.com
There’s nothing there at your link. Are you sure it’s correct ??
I could really imagine that this could help people learn the language.
Great website
Super, vielen Dank für die Tipps, sowohl mit kümmern als auch mit den Autoren.
PS “Die kümmern-version heißt einfach “to take care of” und kann auch heißen, dass die Person ein Problem ist.” Also, “to take care of” im Tony Soprano Sinn, klingt das!
Emmanuel kannst du vielleicht etwas zu der Beziehung zwischen “sorgen” und “kümmern” sagen?
Und eine zweite Frage: wenn nicht Thomas Mann, kannst du uns (arme leidende deutschlernende Leute!) andere, einfacher schreibende Schrifftsteller bzw. geschriebene Romane empfehlen?
Danke für diese Post, toll wie immer!
Oh gute Frage… die Idee von “kümmern” ist der von “sogren” ziemlich ähnlich.
“Kümmern” kommt vom Substantiv “der Kummer” (the woe, the greivance). Das ist mit Englisch “cumber” verwandt und alles kommt wohl ursprünglich von Französisch “combre”. Da hatte es noch die sehr weltliche Idee von “stuff that is blocking the road”. Die Familie hat dann schnell auch eine übertragene Bedeutung von “mental block, burden” angenommen.
Und dann, wie auch bei “sorgen”, kam die Idee des Handelns dazu. Man hat Kummer also kümmert man sich.
Die Grammatik ist etwas anders als bei sorgen:
– Ich kümmere mich um…
– I take care of … (both people and things)
– Eine Sache kümmert mich. (rare)
– A thing worries me/fazes me.
Die alte Verwendung zeigt sich noch ein bisschen in “verkümmern”, das soviel heißt wie “to wither, to waste away” also im Prinzip “to useless stuff that’s in the way”.
“Kümmern” hat aber erstmal nichts mit Sachen des täglichen Bedarfs zu tun, obschon man sich um die auch kümmern kann.
Die Unterschiede zu “sorgen” sind zweierlei:
– Ich kümmere mich um jemanden
– Ich sorge für jemanden
Die kümmern-version heißt einfach “to take care of” und kann auch heißen, dass die Person ein Problem ist. “Sorgen” ist mehr so wie “to provide”, also immer positiv in diesem Kontext.
– Ich kümmere mich um etwas.
– Ich sorge für etwas
Die sorgen-Version heißt, dass du irgendwie sicherstellst, das “etwas” da ist. Zum Beispiel gute Laune. Kümmern ist allgemeiner für “get it done”, zum Beispiel “der schmutzige Kühlschrank.
Aber es gibt auch viele Situationen, wo man beides verwenden kann.
Mit Blick auf Autoren kann ich dir leider nicht groß weiterhelfen, da ich nicht so der Literaturtyp bin. Als Kind habe ich viel Karl May gelesen, aber ich glaube sein laaaaaaaaaaaangen Landschaftsbeschreibungen sind zum Lernen ein bisschen anstrengend. Vielleicht das Buch “Weihnacht”. Das habe ich drei mal gelesen und es ist ein bisschen salopp, wenn ich mich richtig erinnere. Ansonsten natürlich Michael Ende. Brecht hat wohl auch eine “geradeausse” Sprache, aber das kann man nur lesen, wenn man Drama mag, als Gattung. Und wenn du Fantasy magst, dann den Herrn der RInge. Ich kenne beide Versionen “Deutsch und English” und ich finde, dass das Deutsche ein bisschen Hobbit-mässiger ist. Das Englische kommt mir sehr “chantig” vor, teilweise. Wie eine alte Heldensage. Deutsch mit seiner sperrigen Satzstruktur gibt dem ein bisschen mehr Bodenhaftung.
Du kannst auf jeden Fall immer Populärliteratur lesen. Die ist nie zu kompliziert. Ist eine Frage des Geschmacks. Achso, einen Tip habe ich. Christian Morgenstern. Der hat viele Aphorismen udn aber auch kleine Gedichte geschrieben, oft mit einem Augenzwinkern. Hier mal zwei zur Probe:
Ich habe heute ein paar Blumen nicht gepflückt, um dir ihr Leben zu schenken.
Gedanken wollen oft – wie Kinder und Hunde -, dass man mit ihnen im Freien spazieren geht.
Und noch ein Gedicht:
https://www.textlog.de/17397.html
Just saw that the English Wikipedia for Christian Morgenstern actually has some quite good translations
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_Morgenstern