Hello everyone,
and welcome to our German Word of the Day. This time we’ll have a look at the meaning of
die Taste
And I have to say… I’m don’t have degree in seeing but to me Taste looks a LOT like taste. However, most of you probably know that the German word for taste is der Geschmack … or at least you know it’s something with smack or shmack or something.
Die Taste on the other hand means the key. Not in sense of lock, but in sense of buttons. A piano, a computer keyboard, the new iPhone Press® … they all have Tasten.
Looks like German was dancing again. It has done the twist… haha… or has it? Let’s find out :)
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I just want to say how happy I am to have discovered your writings on German. I’m a near beginner, but I was blown away by your article on TASTE. I was just looking online for the gender and etymology of TASTATUR. Thrilling. But how confusing that one can’t predict a word’s gender from its ending (I’m a Russian speaker, where you generally can predict it).
Many, many thanks. And I look forward to reading a lot more of your stuff
Katie
Thanks a lot and happy exploring here!
Aber dann… Was meint ‘spüren’ denn? Die sind irgendwann gemeinsam…
Fast nie… “tasten” ist etwas, dass du mit deinen Händen machst, eine Bewegung. “Spüren” ist eine “Perzeption”. Hoffe, das hilft ein bisschen.
Many thanks I will. Not very broad though. Minna
Minor point, but clearly you like details: The policeman pats you down or frisks you. No such thing as to pet someone down. Thanks for your site! I love it.
Can I ask you any questions that I have, about German language of course, that may not have been covered by your topics? thanks Minna
Yes, but I can’t promise that I can answer it in a comment. Really depends on how broad it is.. just go ahead though.
Es war einmal ein Bauer, der einen Ochse an einen Käufer zu liefern benötigt. Aber, wie diese waren schwierige Zeiten mit Kontrollpunkten, diese Art von Transaktion zu verhindern, der Bauer baute eine große Kiste, Kennzeichnung es “Klavier” und setzen Sie den Ochse in der Box. Während der Bauer stand, sprechen seinen Weg vorbei an der Prüfung, bemerkte der Wachmann eine Art von Flüssigkeit austritt einer Ecke der Box, fragte er den Bauer, “Welche Art von Klavier haben Sie darin?” Der Bauer antwortete schnell, “ein Schifferklavier” Pardon my google translate. (wes)
Hahahha… nice :)…. where’s that joke from, though? Like… does it exist in English??? I would have though the punch line only works for German.
It doesn’t work in English. I reconstructed the story once told to my night-school class by the teacher. I reconstructed the story as best as I could remember but my German memory has forgotten almost all of the rules. In order to keep the themes Taste and Klavier I left it to GOOGLE to thrash out a poor but reasonable account. Not to mention, to translate verbs into the imperfect, the story needs telling in the style of Grimm. WES
I’d say “grope” works well for tasten in the sense of feeling around blindly to try to find something (although there is also the transitive version “to grope someone” which is Not Okay). “Feel for sth.” or “fumble (around)” work just fine too.
Yeah, I knew the “grope someone” meaning, that why it sounded a bit odd to me. Like “creeping up to the keys”. How would the sentence be
– I grope for my keys in the dark.
?
Can I also just “grope”? Or can I grope my keys?
Danke :)
“I groped for my keys in the dark” would be fine, and, to me anyway, doesn’t have any of the connotations of “groping someone”. “I groped my keys”, on the other hand, would be decidedly strange. Both senses of groping have the implication that you can’t see where your hands are, whether because it’s dark, or because your eyes are, well, otherwise engaged.
Only if it’s consensual. :0
Yeah, “grope for” is right, or you can just grope in general, hoping to find something (“grope around” etc.).
It’s interesting – “to grope someone”/”to be groped” really has the feel of a much more literal/personal “antasten.” (There’s also the somewhat slangier “feel someone up.”)
Cool site! Especially for people learning German and English at the same time. In Poland it is becoming more and more common. Great job! Thanks!
Wow… two languages at once:). Don’t you mix up stuff all the time? Danke für das Feedback und liebe Grüße nach Polen.
Die Tastatur as the word for keyboards in instrumental contexts reminds me of a whole world of complex terminology related to keyboard instruments in German – you’ve got Tasteninstrument, Taste (not to be confused with the other ‘key’, Tonart or [Noten]schlüssel, ‘clef’) Tastatur, Klaviatur, Klavier, Piano, Flügel, Pianino, and a host of historical terms like Pianoforte, Fortepiano, Hammerklavier, Hammerflügel, Cembalo, Clavicembalo, Kielflügel, Spinett, Virginal (the latter five being words for harpsichord or types of harpsichord), etc. For an English speaker studying music history it makes for quite a bit of confusion – such as when talking about Bach’s Das Wohltemperierte Klavier, due to the number of meanings associated with Klavier. And I haven’t even brought organs, clavichords, or synthesizers into the mix.
Hahaha… you seem to know your way around by now :).I had “musicology” as a minor and all that stuff confused me too. And I wouldn’t really know how to tell them apart. The common ones are “Piano”, “Klavier”, “Flügel” and “Cembalo” and of course Tonart and Notenschlüssel… the rest is only for “Auskenners” :)
I was actually wondering…Is “Klavier” or “Piano” the more common modern term for a piano? Like, if I say “Ich spiele Klavier” does the listener immediately think of a piano or do they think the person is saying they play keyboard instruments in general?
I’d say definitely “Klavier”…
– Ich spiele Piano.
This doesn’t sound very idiomatic to me. German actually also makes a distinction between keyboard and piano… like… people distinguish between “Keyboardunterricht” and “Klavierunterricht”. And there are books targeted at people learning “Keyboard” and other for people learning “Klavier”. I think it’s mainly for “Anschlagsdynamik” which many keyboard players do not bother with, at least in the beginning, and also for the missing pedals and the automated chords and all that. But “Piano”… everybody knows the word but when it comes to actual phrasings people go with “Klavier” most of the time.
Another of the lovely extras from this blog. All the different terms used can be confusing, too, for those who just listen to the music and want to know what the instruments are. Kielflügel is new to me. Nice. The cutest one I know in English is the triangular spinet, abbreviated to triangle.
Interestingly, what we call in English the “keys” on a wind instrument are not “Tasten”, but “Klappen”.
I think it’s the same in German… at least the Wikipedia for Saxophon calls them “Klappen”. But colloquially people call them “Tasten” as well.
Thank you so much for all these detailed explanation. I have a question, is “antasten” mostly used in the negative , with “nicht” and “un-” etc? And is it mostly used with governments, comissions etc?
Yeah, I think you’re right. It mostly comes with “nicht”. That makes sense, too, because if you actually were to “antasten” it you’d probably proceed and do more :).
As for contexts… yes, laws, money, abstract things like dignity are the context you usually use it with. I wouldn’t use it for a cake on a window sill, though that wouldn’t sound odd either.
I love your blog! Thanks a lot!
Freut mich, dass er dir gefällt :)
Thanks