Hello everyone,
and welcome to our German Word of the Day. This time, we’ll take a look at the meaning of
stecken
I’m sure it’s not a super crazy reveal that stecken is related to to stick. And the two verbs do overlap. But they also have their differences. And their family as a whole is pretty interesting. So we have lots to talk about and lots of cool words to learn and I’d say, we’ll jump right in.
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Typo.alert: “Knives” not “Knifes.”
Ha! An irregular plural! Deal with it German :)
NOT FAIR!!!
Hi Emanuel
Are reintun and stecken substitutes? For example can reintun be substituted for stecken in: ich stecke es in meine Tasche? For example ich tue es in meine Tasche rein? Any preference for one or the other?
Thanks a bunch !!
They can be but it really depends on the situation which is more idiomatic. “(rein)stecken” sounds a bit more “stable” or “narrow”, if you will. “reintun” sounds to me like there’s a fair amount of space.
Oh and if you mention the location (in your example, die Tasche), then you’d not use the “rein”, as that is just a generic “destination”. If you have the destination, adding a generic one sounds clumsy.
Im Beispiel “Wenn klein Thomas krank ist, darf er nicht in den Kindergarten, damit er die anderen Kinder nicht ansteckt.”, warum ist es “klein Thomas”? Ich dachte, dass es “kleiner Thomas” richtig ist… Ist das nur ein Fehler?
Sehr gute Frage. Nein, das ist kein Fehler “klein Thomas” ist ein bisschen so wie ein Name “lil’ Thomas”. Ich bin mir aber nicht sicher, ob ich das richtig geschrieben habe.
Man findet sowas bei Städtenahmen oft, aber dann als ein Wort
– Neuschwanstein, Neubrandenburg, Altberlin, …
Zur Bestätigung, das passt nur mit Eigennamen, oder? Für Gattungsnamen muss man immer die korrekten/passenden Adjektivendungen benutzen
Äh, was meinst du genau mit Gattungsnamen? Gib mir mal ein Beispiel…
Zum Beispiele, in Kleinanzeigen kann mann schreiben:
1. Klein Hund sucht ein Zuhause
2. Klein Bello sucht ein Zuhause
Ich denke, das erste falsch ist, weil “Hund” ein Gattungsname ist, und deshalb muss man “Kleiner Hund” schreiben, aber das zweite ist richtig, weil Bello der Name des Hundes ist. Ist das richtig?
Ah, ja genau, das ist richtig!
Hello,
Sorry, what is the difference between stecken and einsetzen
Thanks a lot
Maria
“einsetzen” is slow and gentle. (rein)stecken is a quick functional plugging.
A gold smith might “einsetzen” a diamond into a ring.
Hope that helps.
I’ve secretly been following you for a few years now and I must say, your posts are getting better and better. After you appeared on “Easy German” with Cari is when I really started to pay more and more attention to you. Now I hardly miss a post. Good stuff mister German man. Keep it up
Hah… I had the feeling someone was secretly following me :).
Seriously… thanks for the great feedback!!! I’ve been doing this for like 7 years now, so hearing that it gets better and not “routine” is great !
Late to the party as ever, but I think “plug” is pretty common in Britain for “socket”. A bit like the confusey-switchy of itch and scratch. Someone with an itch will scratch their itch, and claim they’re itching it. Likewise I’ll stand there with the plug in my hand and ask if there’s a plug somewhere I can use to charge my laptop
Outlet. People will understand socket, but it sounds old-fashioned. People will probably figure you mean outlet if you say plug, but it sounds wrong. Never power point. People would think you were speaking of MicroSoft PowerPoint. lol. But I live in Silicon Valley. In less developed areas they might just not have a clue what you were asking for.
After counting, kids say, “Here I come, ready or not.” In some variations one can get to “base” while the seeker (known as “It,” as in “You’re It!” or “Not It!”) is away after someone else. One would then be “safe.” In simpler versions there is no “base,” and no “safe.”
Hallo zusammen!
Seit einige Jahre lerne ich die deutsche Sprache und von Anfang an habe ich diese Seite ab und zu gelesen, um mein Deutsch zu verbessern. Ich muss sagen, dass diese Seite ganz hilfreich für mich ist, deswegen bin ich mit Emanuel und alle anderen Beitragenden wirklich dankbar.
Heute will ich alle Mitglieder danken, denen für diese Seite Geld gespendet haben, so dass andere Studenten auch lernen können.
Ich freue mich sehr auf die kommende Beiträge, und hoffentlich kann ich euch bald den Gefallen erwidern!
Ich wünsche euch viel Spaß beim lernen!
Bei mir können euch gern einen Freund finden.
Viele Grüße aus Mexiko!
Antonio
If I want a “Steckdose” I’ll ask for an outlet, or a power outlet. An electrical socket is correct but it sounds soooooo nerdy.
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Steckst Du in Schwierigkeiten?
Das zieht mir echt den Stecker! That’s a colloquialism I first encountered in Tshick, which takes place in Berlin. I’ve heard it’s not terribly widespread.
I would ask for a wall socket or a plug point or somewhere I can plug in!
What’s the most likely option :)?
I’ve never heard of “power point” or “plug point” here in New York – but maybe it’s a millenial thing and I’m too old for it? :) I would say “outlet” or, when I want to be more precise, “power outlet.” (I have used “plug” colloquially, though, to mean an outlet.)
I think we usually say “outlet”, but yes, sometimes “plug”. Danke Emmanuel!! Du bringst mich noch mal zu lächeln! hihi
Auch, meine Prüfung war nicht gut. Noch, ich sage, dass diese ist zu viel für eine Lektion. : / (or am I just being whiny??)
Camille
Speaking as someone from the South of England, I’d say that we would understand all those terms but would say “socket”, “electricity socket” or “power socket”. The “plug” is always the thing we stick in it and would never be used interchangeably with “socket”.
I’d say that in British English “socket” is most common (or “power socket” if you want to be more specific). However, I frequently hear “plug” used as well (including by my partner!) and it drives me mad … it’s just so **wrong** …
I’m from London and I think most people would say plug. Even though it doesn’t really make sense!
Another word for socket is power point
Wow, really? I have never seen or heard that before.. what region of the English speaking world are you from?
Don’t know where Prue’s from, but here in Australia we call them power points. I’ve always thought the same term was used in UK, too.
Interesting – (presumably) thanks to Bill Gates, “power point” doesn’t mean anything to me except a computer slide show…
To me “power point” means “getting really really tired” :)
Given the connection between German “stecken” and English “stick” I wonder if you know of (or can invent) any link with “ersticken,” “stickig” and one of my favourite German words, “der Stickstoff”.
Jackpot!!!
“ersticken” (suffocate) and “der Stickstoff” (nitrogen) actually do belong to the same family. It is not clear, however, how they ended up with their meaning. Back in Middle German, ersticken still meant the same as “erstechen”, so to stab to death.
Either the lack of air that comes from chest stabbing is the reason, but another theory says that it comes from sticking something into someone’s mouth.
I find that one actually a bit more intuitive. Something is stuck in your throat and takes your breath away.
Thank you. Second suggestion does seem more likely, and fits better with the “choke” meaning.
Hi, Emanuel,
It’s typo time:
“And they family as a whole is pretty interesting” (their family)
“surprised that teh root is ALSO” (the root)
“placement and use a variety of verbs for to put” (uses, as German is the subject)
“alpha boss musli” (muesli)
“There is lots of hidden messages” (are lots of hidden messages)
“the word for a an outlet/socket” (word for an outlet, you have an “a” too many)
“stecken and it’s prefix version” (its prefix versions)
“most of the family member” (members)
The most common English word for “socket” is…. IMO…socket :)
Also, “fixation” and “fixated” are mostly used for “obsession”, “obsesssed”, but feel free to contest me on this one, because your meaning is also valid, just not what most people would use. BTW and going back to your comment on your previous article, I don’t get in the least offended when you comment on English usage and contest my corrections. You’re pretty much a native speaker as it is! Besides, most native speakers disagree upon finer points of the language anyway (plus we have this AE/BE thing going on).
Thanks for another great article!
Oh, by the way, your article about the relative pronouns helped my ace some piece of homework I did at the time :))))
Till next time!
Ooops, I was rereading the article and I realised I missed one typo (“the genders actually makes sense” – make sense).
I also rememberd two very common English expressions that are somehow related to “stecken”, which I though would be interesting for you to know, if you don’t know them already! I think they’re mostly BE, but maybe our American friends use them as well:
“stuck-up person”, meaning snobbish, arrogant, e.g. “She’s too stuck up to enjoy a beer with us common folk!”
and
“stick your nose into sth”, meaning to try to discover things that are none of your business, being nosy :)
Another thing, do you reckon you could write an article about the use of “damit” (like the one you wrote on “dabei” in the near future? I’m a bit confused about its two (or maybe more) meanings. As far as I can understand, it can be used as a pronoun, as in “with which”, e.g. “Ich habe einen Kuli. Ich schreibe den Brief damit”, but it can also mean “so that”, as it does in your example “Wenn klein Thomas krank ist, darf er nicht in den Kindergarten, damit er die anderen Kinder nicht ansteckt” and, in the latter case, does the subject need to be the same, or can the sentences have different subjects?
If you have already written about this (I searched your site, but couldn’t find a specific article; I only found the one about da-words in general), I apologise and could you please provide me with the link?
Bis bald!
Ha… when I read your question I was SURE i already had written about it but … I can’t find it. So maybe it’s in my drafts. Or I actually never did it. I’m a bit confused now, to be honest :).
Anyway, great suggestion, danke. Und danke für die ganzen Korrekturen. Jetzt ist pdf time :).
Thanks! This was very helpful. And when I’m in a cafe, I ask if they have any outlets available because my laptop is about to die.
I wouldn’t say socket, or even electrical socket in that situation. However, I would say socket if I was making a repair or reprimanding a (hopefully) small child, “Don’t put that knife into the socket!”. Languages are weird. So are kids.
I always wanted to know when German kids play verstecken, what do they say at the end of the count. In English it’s coming, ready or not. Any idea?
„
Versteckt! ENTDECKT!
”Eins, zwei, drei, vier Eckstein,
alles muss versteckt sein.
Hinter mir und vorder mir gilt es nicht,
und an beiden Seiten nicht!
Eins, zwei, drei, vier, fünf, sechs, sieben, acht, neun, zehn – ich komme!“
Oder auch einfach
„Eckstein, Eckstein, alles muss versteckt sein. 1 – 2 – 3 – ich komme!“
regional auch beispielsweise
„Dürkheim, Dürkheim, alles muss versteckt sein.“
Verstecken (Gemälde 1881)
Nun darf es die Augen öffnen und beginnt die anderen Kinder zu suchen. Wenn es ein Kind gefunden hat, muss es je nach Variante dieses berühren oder auch nur laut dessen Namen ausrufen („Ich sehe Anna hinter der Mauer“ oder auch „Anschlag Anna“). Die so entd
eckten Kinder sind gefunden oder gefangen. Als Strafe wird meist aus einem von ihnen der nächste Sucher erkoren. Die Runde ist beendet, wenn alle Kinder gefunden wurden.
Umlaut macht den Meister
Übung Ue alt Taste halten und 0220 eingeben = Ü
MfG
Hast du die Definition von Wikipedia oder so :D
Stiimmt!
”Wiki” hawaiianisches Wort für schnell. ”Quikipedia” Quikunterricht
Wenn möglich und wenn Du Zeit hast –
Bitte meine Fragen in erster Post beantworten.
Im voraus
Danke
Auslass
So much more makes sense from this video after this article and your comment.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fuLPJg2gwjQ (Oomph! – Augen Auf)
I got the hide and seek thing in general from the counting, but I didn’t know about verstecken or if they were saying “Eckstein” for any real reason.
Is it just because the name rhymes?
As kids we always said “I am coming”/”ich komme”. Or just saying the last number really loud.
We just used to say “Ich komme” I can’t remember and addendum :). Ask me again in 10 years when I hopefully have kids, for an update.
Oh while we’re at it… does the game in English include the option of a “hidee” securing themselves by touching the counting base before being called by the “seekee”?
The word for that would be “erlöst”. Like… the person searching is way over at the bushes and you rush out from behind the door to where the person was counting and if you make it there before the person, you’re basically good for that round.
That would be a “house rule,” something you might agree upon as part of the game. Usually you’d say something like “safe” or “on base” for something like that. Fascinating that it’s “erlöst” in German – I’m so used to that as a Bible/Christianity word that it sounds sort of ridiculously epic to apply to getting to safety in a game of hide and seek.
Do Germans play Sardines? It’s like reverse hide and seek – one person hides, then each person who finds the original hider has to squeeze into the hiding place with him/her. The last seeker becomes the hider for the next round.
Hahaha… just now I realized the “epic” tone that “erlöst” has. Like, as if you’d yell “delivered”.
I have never heard of Sardines and now I’m pissed. It sounds like a lot of fun and kid-me wants to play it.
Schöne Ostern, übrigens :)!
Hab vergessen, auf deinen schönen Ostergruß zu antworten – danke dir!
Apropos, noch ein “Stecken” ist mir eingefallen, und zwar aus der Lutherbibel, im wohl berühmtesten Psalm des ganzen Psalters:
Und ob ich schon wanderte im finstern Tal,
fürchte ich kein Unglück;
denn du bist bei mir,
dein Stecken und Stab trösten mich. (Ps 23,4)
Wohl ein eher veraltetes Wort für “Stab”? (“Stecken und Stab” sind im Hebräischen ziemlich synonym.)
Oh ja, das habe ich völlig vergessen. “der Stecken” ist ein Wort für einen dünnen Stock.
Da kommt auch das Wort “Steckenpferd” her. Ein Holzpferd an einem Stock, für Kinder.
Schumann’s “Ritter vom Steckenpferd”
How cute, I didn’t know that :)
Great post. The colloquial word for Steckdose in English is “outlet” or just “plug” (even though the latter also means Stecker). You probably wouldn’t ask at a café “is there a (wall) socket somewhere?” though I think that would be correct as well. “Outlet” is probably the most common.
I just thought about the word outlet for a bit while reading your comment and it’s actually quite funny. The thing that let’s out.
Very much like German words like Flugzeug or others. English has them, too :)
From my generation/part of the world, we would say “power outlet.” As opposed to a phone or ethernet outlet I guess. But saying “outlet” or “power” would also be understood.
Wait, “power” as well? Like… I could ask “do you have power?” in a cafe? Or is that just for a statement like “The power is over there under the seat.”
We gonna be schreib styl’n now!
style. Yup, style. Style comes directly from the Latin word stilus, which was a pointy object to write with.
OK!
der Stift – stiften- anstiften ?? Die gehören eng beisammen im Umfeld dazu oder???
Die haben auch einen direkten verkabelten Anschluss, denke ich.?
Thomas hat mit seiner schlechten Laune alle angesteckt. angestiftet.????
Ami slang-
Steckdose “plug in” -‘reinstecker Where’s a plug in? A verb turned into a noun. Oft wird auch “plug” für outlet falsch verwendet.
Aber bei mir schon lange eine Frage-
Sind die Wörter –
stiften to sponser -to dontate
und
das Stift monastery
die Stiftung -foundation
alle mit “Stift” stilus verwandt?
———————————————————————————————————————————–
A Steckdose on the other hand is ONLY the word for a an outlet/socket where you actually get electricity from.
the only word from which you actually get electricity.
Stimmt nicht. USB ist Unter Strom Beladen! so zu sagen “Kraft Busses”!!! :+)
5 volts
The standard USB port, be it USB 1.1 or USB 2.0, delivers 5 volts of electricity and allows your connected device to draw 500 milliampere. As this is standardized among USB devices, any device that can charged via USB is safe to plug in to your computer.
Nach Deiner Erklärung ist ein USB Anschluss doch eine Steckdose.
Die Antwort im Quiz ist
sicher richtig aber es muß einen anderen Grund dafür haben. ????
https://www.vol.at/wie-gefaehrlich-sind-handys-in-der-badewanne/6104286
Hat ein Verlängerungskabel eine ”Steckdose” genanntes Ende)?
MfG,
Abgazz
Nice idea about “Stift”. What I found by checking my usual resources was that it’s related to English “stiff” and they go back to a Indo-European root that was about an staff or pillar and could also mean squeeze together.
A pen is a rigid, staff like object, so that’s an easy connection to make.
For “stiften” it’s a bit more complicated. It used to mean “lay foundations” , “build” and there’s a theory that it was coined based on putting wooden pillars down as a foundation of a building. That theory is not proven though.
Later, the word shifted toward just paying for a building and “anstiften” changed from “setting building in motion” to “setting mischief in motion”.
But the sources do not mention a relation to the family of “stick”, though there is a lot of pragmatic overlap.
As for the “Verlängerungskabel”… good question. Calling the socket a Steckdose feels weird to me, but I can’t think of an alternative either. I don’t know what I’d call it, tbh.
Lastly, about the usb… yes, you can take power from it, but that is NOT what I meant :). I call a USB port an Anschluss or Buchse or Eingang, depending on context. I wasn’t able to pin down the most common name, but it’s definitely not USB-Steckdose :)
Wenn es um Stecker und Steckdosen geht, was tut man mit dem Stecker? Man steckt den Stecker (in die Steckdose) (r)ein?
Also entweder:
– Ich stecke den Stecker in die Steckdose
oder
– Ich stecke den Stecker rein. (Steckdose was mentioned before)
Du kannst auch “in die Steckdose rein” sagen, aber das ist umgangssprachlich und unelegant.
“rein” ersetzt sozusagen das konkrete Ziel “in die Steckdose”.
Hoffe, das hilft.
Sehr hilfreich, danke!
comment answered my question too!