“Something to chew on“
Hello everyone,
it is Monday …. moment of silence, please….
and it’s day 7 of our Advent Calendar. And the headline sounds like it’ll be a quiz. But nope – today we’ll actually talk about a word you’ll hopefully not need at Christmas dinner.
And no, I don’t mean “disowned“.
I am talking about
zäh
And yup, that’s how you should say it. You see, usually, in many regions of Germany, people tend to pronounce the “ä” as a normal “e”.
For instance, I say write “Käse” but I say “Keese”.
For zäh, however, that doesn’t work because German also has the Word Zeh, which means toe.
So for zäh, you really have to do this overarticulate ähhh sound.
And this way of pronouncing it really fits what it stands for, and the best example for something zäh is an overcooked chewy steak. It’s not exactly “hard” but it’s hard to break apart.
That’s pretty much what zäh is and it actually has a pretty well known relative in English… tough.
Tough is a lot broader in meaning, and way more common. But still zäh is also used in quite the range of contexts, from steaks to meetings to boring lectures to just people’s character in general.
- Das Fleisch ist sehr zäh.
- The meat is very chewy.
- Die Mitte des Films war ein bisschen zäh.
- The middle of the movie was a bit of a drag.
- “Ich glaube, du hast zu viel Zucker in deinen Kaffee gemacht.”
“Warum denkst du das?”
“Er ist zäh-flüssig.” - “I think you put too much sugar in your coffee.”
“Why do you think that?”
“Because it’s viscous.”
- Auf der A10, Berliner Ring, zur Zeit zäh-fließender Verkehr.
- On the Highway A10, Berliner Ring, currently slow moving traffic.
- “Wie geht Maria mit den Hatern auf ihrem Youtube-Channel um?”
“Ach, die ist sehr zäh.” - “How does Maria deal with the haters on her Youtube-channel?”
“Oh, she’s very sturdy.”
As you can see, zäh can be a translation for many words and it won’t always fit. But I think the image of a chewy steak is a very good guideline.
Besides zäh itself, there’s also the noun die Zähigkeit, and then there’s the verb erzählen. Experts and scientists will say it is not related to zäh, but to zählen (count) and tell.
But my experience is… like… when my girlfriend tells me about her day that feels very very zäh. So there MUST be a connection. I mean… I can feel it in my gut, and certainly trust my gut more than some random expert, who doesn’t even know me.
Meh… we’ll never know who’s right, I guess.
Anyway, that’s it for today. Have a great day and I’ll see you tomorrow :)
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Prima!
Thank you Emanuel. Very helpful! Always love your work. Your clarification about “die” vs ”sie” explained my question too.
This article is the perfect length for a daily post!!!!
Freut mich. It’s also easier to write for me, because I don’t have to worry about “narrative arc” (I actually spend a lot of time on that). Maybe I should do more of these shorts sometimes :)
Ich mag das, eigentlich sehr nützlich. Danke!
Kleine Korrektur: das “eigentlich” passt hier nicht.
Ich habs, danke
Hallo lieber Emmanuel,
Ich habe nie bemerkt daß Zäh/ tough. und Zeh / toe. sind fast homonyme , doch mit unterschiedlicher Sinne . Denn Aussprache und gute Artikulation zählen !
Bis Morgen
In dem Fall zählt es wirklich :)!
“Zäh” kommt sehr oft im Gespräch vor. In der Alltagssprache spricht man das Wort allerdings als “zah” in Österreich aus. Ich vermute, dass das auch für Süddeutschland gilt.
Kann gut sein, dass die Bayern das auch so sprechen.
For long e vs. ä, I learned this Zungenbrecher in a German class once:
Not even sure how to visualize that, but it sounds unpleasant. (Google turns up a few variations, but I think that’s the version I learned.)
How does zäh compare with the loanword tough / taff when describing a person?
No problem I should think, ‘zäh wie Leder” zum Beispiel.
Glück zu!
Was meinst du mit “Glück zu”?
That Zungebrecher makes no sense to me. Are you sure it isn’t “deren” instead of “denen”? I really can’t make sense of who is doing what to whom as it is.
As for “zäh” vs “tough/taff”… “zäh” is purely about how much someone can “endure”.
“taff” can be about actively being tough.
Yeah, I don’t know if I can work it out grammatically either… I think maybe there could be a Dänen missing? So like:
Actually, now I feel like I might have gotten a handle on it. But it’s REALLY contrived, that’s for sure.
I tried to come up with one myself… it’s a bit more sesnsible, I think.
– Dänen dehnen deren dehnbare dänische Sehnen beim Gähnen.
Hello, Emmanuel! Beginner here. I’ve been following your blog and I must say that it is my favorite learning resource ever. I have a simple question.
“Wie geht Maria mit den Hatern auf ihrem Youtube-Channel um?”
“Ach, die ist sehr zäh.”
Why did you use “die” instead of “sie”? Are they interchangable or is there a certain rule or nuance to it?
There’s not really a rule, but there is a nuance. “die” has more of a pointing quality than “she”.
Think of it as “SHE” vs “she” in English.
Hope that helps and thanks for the great feedback!
Etymologie ist zäh. Hahaha!
Guten Morgen! Heute habe ich vor mir eine zähe Zugfahrt zurück nach Schweden von Hamburg. Es gibt Maskenpflicht die ganze 4.5-stündige Reise. Bis morgen!
Eine zähe Zugfahrt zurück nach Zweden :D
Ich liebe die deutsche sprache, weil sie zäh ist…schwer zu schneiden, aber mit Geduld im Mund zufriedigend
“befriedigend” oder “zufrieden macht” :)
Danke.