Getting Christmas presents for everyone is pricey, no doubt. So take care it doesn’t turn into today’s word :)
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(sich) verschulden
Schuld means guilt as well as debt. Combined with the mix of the change-ver and the for-ver we get a verb that expresses the idea of “to become guilty for something” – so basically to cause, to do with a strong focus on guilt.
When it’s used with a self reference it means “to endebt oneself ”
die Staatsverschuldung – the national debt
das Fremdverschulden – third party negligence (law)
unverschuldet – without bearing part of the
- Thomas ist unverschuldet hoch verschuldet.
- Thomas is deeply indebted of no fault of his own.
- Wenn man den Unfall verschuldet hat, ist es schwer, Geld von der Versicherung zu bekommen.
- If you are responsible for the accident it is hard to get insurance money.
As always, if you have questions or if you want to try out some examples, just leave me a comment.
Haha – Lustig! Das erinnert mich daran, vor 6 monate bin ich mit meiner Freundin zur eine Party gegangen, dass wir kaum andere Leute dort gekannt haben. Als ich eine scheibe Käse auf einem voll bedeckten Klapptisch geschnitten hatte, hat der blöde Tisch eingestürzt. Alle dass ich sagen könnte, als ich inmitten vermischt Eintopf, Brot, und Nachtisch gestanden wurde, war ‘Es war nicht mein Verschulden!’
Ha… das klingt extrem formal und viel zu ernst für einen Tisch. Da würde man einfach sagen:
– Ich war’s nicht. (it wasn’t me)
oder
– Ich hab nichts gemacht.
Ein paar Korrekturen:
– … Party gegangen, dass wir kaum Leute…
Das funktioniert überhaupt nicht. Ich glaube du wolltest “auf der wir kaum…” sagen (at which/where ) . “Dass” mit doppel-S ist total falsch.
– … hat der Tisch eingestürzt… muss “ist … eingestürzt” sein (Statusänderung)
– Alle dass ich sagen könnte…. sollte sein:
– Alles, was ich sagen konnte…
– … gestanden wurde … sollte sein: “gestanden habe”
Sage Bescheid, wenn du Fragen dazu hast.
Verlegen
I’ve been thinking about the word “verlegen” and have come to the conclusion that there are two of them derived from two different verbs, with two different meanings. The one coming from legen, legte, gelegt (English: lay, laid, laid); and the other coming from liegen, lag, gelegen (English: lie, lay, lain). I’ve always have had trouble with lie and lay in English, but here goes:
verlegen ONE: the present infinitive of the transitive verb “verlegen, verlegte, verlegt,” which you explained something like: “Ich habe mich verlegen.” I have mislayed myself (lit.). I have lain the wrong way (and now my neck hurts).
verlegen TWO: the perfect participle (is that the right word?) of a non-existent or no longer existent intransitive verb “ver-liegen” (verliegen, verlag, verlegen) which means “to be lying in a wrong position”; or figuratively “to be in an awkward position”; therefore “to be embarrassed.”
What do you think? Did I make any mistakes? I thank you for your wonderful blog on prefixes. It has opened up a world of words to me.
Judith Walters
You’re spot on with the embarrased-version but you mixed up the rest a bit.
There is: “legen” (to lay) and “liegen” (to lie) and both have a ver-version
– sich verliegen:
Only exists with a self reference and means “to lie in a wrong position thereby creating a painful muscle tension or something. The ge-version is “verlegen” just like “gelegen” is the ge-version of “liegen”
– Ich verliege mich. (present… not used much)
– Ich habe mich verlegen.
The “embarrassed”-verlegen comes from “verliegen” (its ancestor anyway) . The verb once meant something like “to become unfit, impractical by lieing too long”. The ge-version shifted toward “doing nothing” to “having no idea, being undecided” to “timid, ashamed” and the connection to “verliegen” was completely lost.
Then, there is “verlegen” and the ge-form of that is “verlegt”
– verliegen – habe verlegen
– verlegen – habe verlegt
Hope that helps :)
Yes, it helps a lot. The history of the “embarrassed” verlegen was especially interesting. Thanks
Full credit goes to all those etymologists who have researched this stuff :)
Typo – “dept” in the first paragraph :)
Great post as usual!
Just to be clear… dept should be “debt”
Yeah, I just didn’t get around to changing that yet. But thanks :)
Nice Christmas series of articles over the past couple of weeks!
By the way, a few months ago, during the height of the EU (i.e. Germany) vs. Greece debate on the debt, I read a very interesting article that tried to explain the German position. In it, the author pointed out how “guilt” and “debt” were the same word in German, and how this wasn’t necessarily an accident, but a good way to understand German thinking and position on the debt issue as regards that particular debate. Maybe part of it was “psycho-babble,” but I don’t think so. I thought it explained a lot and made sense!
Happy holidays and keep up the great work. Your blog is always very, very interesting.
Ha, you just kind of spoiled the half finished article on “die Schuld” :).
Seriously, I think there’s a LOT to that theory. The word “Schuld” just has a very very negative ring to it, not least because it is part of the standard prayer:
– “… and forgive us our trespasses just as we forgive those who trespass against us.”
– “… und vergieb uns unsere Schuld ie auch wir vergeben unseren Schuldigern.”
From my childhood days I remember how people would murmur the prayer in church and it always sounded very grave and serious.
And even after having reflected on the idea of debt and that it isn’t necessarily a bad thing I have to admit it … I have an incredibly high reluctance against debt. Even against using my credit card and being billed at the end of the month, never mind going into *gasp* the red.
The idea of having debt freaks me out. For me it’s more the aspect of losing independence and freedom but that negative vibe of Schuld definitely has something to do with it, too. And when I recently learned that Haribo (the gummy bear company) doesn’t ever go into debt to invest but pays everything up front with their own money I was like “Hell yeah, solid! Rock on Haribo.”, while an American business major would probably be like “What the hell is wrong with them. Why chastise yourself like that.”
And the same goes for the German society as a whole I think. Schuld is just something you don’t want to have. It’s so bad, you gotta ask God for forgiveness for it :).
By the way, speaking of debt. I definitely owe you a copy of my upcoming book :) (these calendar posts are from the book I’m working on. There will be like 400 of those in there).Danke für deine Unterstützung und schöne Weihnachten!
Neues Schriftart? Is ja schön!
Wirst du auch mal uns Dialekte unterrichten? Wäre voll der Hammer! :)
Neue Schriftart? Ich hab’ eigentlich nichts geändert. Komisch.
Dialekte mal sehen…. vielleicht. Ich weiß leider zu dem Thema nicht wirklich viel und kann nur “Berlinerisch”
Danke Emanuel für die Verbesserungen
Alles verstanden außer.. ‘auf der wir kaum’. Warum ‘auf der’ (ich wollte sagen ‘a party, that/where we hardly knew anyone’. Waren wir ‘auf eine Party?’ Hätte ich sagen können ‘worauf wir kaum…?’
Chris
In Deutsch ist man “auf einer Party”. Es ist Dativ, weil es ein fixer Ort ist (Wo?)
– Ich gehe auf eine Party (Acc)
– Ich bin auf einer Party (Dat)
Ich glaube “a party that we knew anyone” ist kein korrektes Englisch.
Gute Idee mit “worauf” aber das ist hier nicht idiomatisch, da wir nicht wirklich “auf” etwas sind. “worauf” klingt in diesem Kontext zu wortwörtlich (literal)
Hoffe, das hilft