Hello everyone,
and welcome to our German Word of the Day. This time, with a look at the meaning of
wachsen
And I’m not known to be one to beat around the bush, so I’m gonna te…
“Actually, Emanuel, on your show, you have beaten around the poor bush so much, there’s barely anything growing anymore.”
Oh yeah? Well, if you didn’t interrupt me all the time, I could get to the point much quicker.
“Uhm… we interrupted you ONCE.”
Your mom interrupted me once.
“Emanuel, your behavior is not very mature right now.”
Hmm, I guess. I waxed my armpits, by the way.
And if you’re now thinking “Too much information”, well then wait till you read the article.
There’s plenty more information in there ;).
So let’s take a look.
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Hi! Another great post—thanks! What about „heranwachsen” as in „Ich bin in Berlin herangewachsen”?
Nah, you wouldn’t say that.
“heranwachsen” is a bit high register. You usually find it with a “goal” or as a participle.
– Seit ich ihn zum letzten Mal gesehen hatte, war Thomas zu einem jungen Mann herangewachsen.
– Dieses Medikament ist nicht für heranwachsende gedacht.
You won’t need this actively. I never use it.
Oh, I get it. So even if you wanted to be more specific? Because sometimes words are less frequent but widely understood enough to be used every once in a while. It’s useful having your opinion because if I consult the Duden, it doesn’t say anything about “heranwachsen” being seldom used. Your examples are very interesting and useful! Thanks again!
Sehr guter Beitrag. Danke, Emanuel.
Darf ich noch eine Frage stellen? Meiner Meinung nach fehlt in deinem sonst sehr ausführlichen Beitrag ein Beispiel für „to wax + <Adjektiv>“, z. B. „In seinem letzten Beitrag wurde Emanuel ziemlich poetisch.“
Wäre in diesem Kontext auch das Verb „to wax (as…)“ angebracht, d.h, “werden” anzubringen, z.B. „In seinem letzten Beitrag wurde Emanuel ziemlich poetisch“? Ich gehe davon aus, werden sei das richtige Verb.
Noch wichtiger für mich: Wenn man einen Satz mit z.B.,”<waxes poetic> [Satz] </waxes poetic>“ schreiben wollte, wie würde man das ausdrücken? Verwendet man das Präsens, also <wird poetisch> [Satz] </wird poetisch> oder wäre der Konjunktiv 2 in Ordnung? Beispiel: <würde/wächse poetisch> „Ihr habt euch oft als Freunde des Dichters bezeichnet, ihr Götter; Gib ihm, was er braucht!” </würde/wächse poetisch>?
Ich gehe davon aus, dass die Präsensform die richtige ist, bin mir aber nicht sicher und finde weder im Langenscheidt Deutsch als Fremdsprache noch in meiner Duden-Reihe passende Beispiele.
Vielen Dank für jede Erklärung, die du evntl. geben möchtest :)
Sorry, ich verstehe nicht, was du hier meinst.
Warum sollte es Konjunktiv 2 sein?
“werden” ist das richtige Verb für dein Beispiel.
Yes, these things are basically adjectives that get “upgraded” into the role of a noun.
They get an article and they get capitalized, but they KEEP all the adjective endings they’d have as a proper adjective.
– Ich bin ein Erwachsener.
– Ich sehe den Erwachsenen.
– Ich sehe die Erwachsene. (feminine)
– Ich gebe der Erwachsenen ein Eis. (feminine)
…
Thanks, that’s really helpful because I had always thought these types of words were nouns that had been stretched into adjectives! :)
What about “etwas gewachsen sein”, or to be able to handle something? Could you add a section on gewachsen sein? Why does it mean to be able to handle, or not mean that? Thanks
Nice question:
“einer Sache gewachsen sein” essentially means that you’ve grown “tall” enough to handle it. You’re on “eye-level” if you will.
Does that make sense?
It stretches my imagination, but I should say my imagination gewachsen sein. German can be a very poetic language.
Thank you for the explanation. I am a fan of your work. So so valuable, danke schon.
I still enjoy the lesson :)
I think I noticed a little mistake in the sentence. The audio quite clearly confirms that “in” is missing.
“Ich bin Berlin aufgewachsen.”
Ups, ha stimmt, danke :)
Hey, consider the following
“Mir wächst langsam das Interesse an Theaterspiel”- To me the interest in dramatics is growing slowly
correct?
Grammatically, it’s perfect, but it’s not idiomatic. People would say “In mir wächst… “
The csv file seem not to be available. I think it is a brilliant idea…..
Hallo Leute!
I just wanted to say vielen dank to everyone who has donated extra to make scholarships for the blog possible. I am going to Germany in the new year and trying to learn as much as possible.
Prost!:)
Hello everyone, I’m Carlos Pérez! I would like to thank all the people that give some extra for those in need like me. Thanks to your support I have been sponsored, and I am really excited about this opportunity, thanks to Professor Emanuel too for letting me in to this invaluable learning section he have made with so much effort and love.
Thank You
Gerne :)
Vielen dank. Ich habe viel gelernt.I did not know that there exist so many uses of wachsen.
You missed a very obvious use of “wax” in English. The waxing (getting larger) and waning (geting smaller) phases of the moon.
Another good one is “etw [Dat] gewachsen sein.” Bist du der Aufgabe gewachsen?
Yeah, I learned this one fairly recently. Corresponds roughly to one use of the (AE?) idiom “to be up to something” (when it means “be capable of/competent to do something”).
Just to make sure… “up to something” with something being a challenge.
It’s not used for “up to something” in sense of some sort of scheme.
– He’s up to something. We’ll have to keep an eye on him.
That wouldn’t work with “gewachsen sein”
Yeah, that’s it. Really, I should have said “to be up to a task.” I feel like there’s another phrase that I’m not quite recalling that would also fit, maybe better. You could also say:
– Thomas only just got over the flu he had last week. I’m not sure he’s up to running the half-marathon tomorrow.
That doesn’t seem like it would work with “gewachsen sein” either, even though it’s related in English.
It doesn’t work but mainly because of grammar. “einer Sache gewachsen sein” doesn’t really work in combination with activities that are phrased as “to”-sentence.
Only with nouns.
I saw in the Dark series from netflix the sentence:
– Bist du auf Niel’s Mist gewachsen?
Is here the meaning “be up to something” in the sense of some sort of scheme? (the police guy suspected he was participating in a scheme to fool him). Saw this scene after reading your post but cant really understand this context
I would need more context to be sure.
Now, I understand it as something along the lines of
Which does fit with the “normal” sense of the idiom, which is about “who came up with this shit/who’s responsible”.
I’m not sure if that really fits the scene though, it sounds a bit odd to me.
I’m so confused! on leo.org they write that “wachsen” is conjugated as “wächsSt” for 2nd person singular and “waschst” for 2nd person plural, indicative. Präteritum is “wuchsSt” and “wuchst”, respectively. Can’t find the extra “s” at any other conjugation source. Have trusted leo.org until now. Can anyone shed some light on this? I’m not asking anyone to take responsibility for what leo.org writes on their site, but I’m thinking perhaps someone more experienced in Deutsch could shed some light on this – something to do with the language reformy-thingy?
Suddenly, I feel like Manuel on “Fawlty Towers”.
HILF!
To me, this double s is just plain wrong and it looks REALLY weird.
So glad to hear that! Thought I was not being receptive. Sorta wondering about leo.org – they are supposed to be reputable.
Its great your German help me learn my own language, English! Great fun
Hi Emmanuel! I really appreciate your blog, thank you! BTW , if you use offspring it can*t be plural. Also, offspring is a rather scientific term, I would suggest babies (or maybe kittens in this case). I think the phrase is more usually “The cat is going to have kittens”.
Wow, I didn’t know offsping was singular only. Danke :)
When my sons start falling in the popularity polls, I call them “The Offspring”. As in, “The Offspring sent their book bill for this term,” or “Should we ask the Offspring to join us for dinner?”.
When I’m feeling less guarded, the Brats, Big D and little D (see reruns of “Sanford and Son”) or even Son from Hell. I often take the opportunity to blame it all on my husband by saying things like, “YOUR son did this/that,” or “YOUR Offspring is going to send me to my grave.” We are the biological parents of both, but I sometimes prefer to make it sound like I had no part in the matter.
Your suggestion to use “kittens” is spot on, as is your info regarding “offspring” as being somewhat scientific, (think: The unicorn’s offspring are often shy and become invisible when threatened). However, Emanuel should know that the term CAN be used in other ways.
Great examples! You could definitely use “Nachwuchs” the way you’re using offspring.
– Sollen wir den Nachwuchs fragen, mit uns zu Abend zu essen.
Ooohhh! Now I can be “unausstehlich” auf Deutsch, as well! Danke sehr!
Danke
So, like…
– Bei einem tragischen Brand im Madame-Tussauds-Museum wurden 63 Besucher zusammengewachst.
?
Hahahaha… hmmm, in the Titanic magazine, maybe :)
Hello,
Thanks for yet another helpful post!
Now for the typos I picked up on (not sure if you remember our little e-mail exchange, but I did promise I’d look out for typos and you said you didn’t mind at all, so here goes!)
“your behavior s not” – either behavior’s not or behavior is not
“wait, till you read” – no need for a comma at all (I know you Germans love them!)
“The English, a beard can grow” – In English,…
“arm pits” appear somewhere, a little typo unless you mean pits on someone’s arms ;)
(For all you readers out there, I’m not being mean or finicky here, it’s just that I promised Emanuel I’d proofread his new posts!)
An finally, Emanuel, hope you’re having a great time in Slovenia!
All fixed :)! Danke!!!
Wow. Wax and grow. All in the same word. I know the moon waxes, but it’s a separate word from grow. So, how do we know if we’re letting our mustache get waxed or if we’re growing one. I can see about 7 potential embarrassing mistakes that could be made if one isn’t careful here. Hmmm…
For a mustache, it can be sort of clear.
– Ich lasse mir einen Bart wachsen.
This always means that you grow it.
With “meinen” instead of “einen” it is ambiguous, but context will usually clear it up.
But for Achselhaare for instance, it is totally up in the air :)
Ok, think I got it. Not quite as bad as I feared.
You have NO idea how many of your posts have already come in handy at Uni! Handelt, pleite, and about 7 more I can’t even think of right now – but that’s just the word of the day! As far as the theory – WHOA! German-is-easy theory is WAY better than Uni-Deutsch. Accusative/Dative – they want us to learn Kia/Dida – Puh-leeze! Emanual’s direction/location is not only easier but More Intuitive. And where in the H*ll would we be ohne Ellie the Unicorn? How can anyone even PRESUME to teach Deutsch without Ellie the Unicorn’s help. Not to mention the ongoing antics of Thomas and Maria.
But they mean well…
Awww, thanks for the praise :D.
But wait, what’s Kia/Dida… I have never heard that…
Sorry, Ria, not Dia. (Riktning – ackusativ). Dida (Don’t remember, but the “di” is for location and the “da” is Dativ). It’s so ridiculous I can’t even remember it. But your stuff, I remember! So, how’s Ljubljana? Waiting patiently for a podcast of a tour of your Kiez (Umgebung).