Hello everyone,
and welcome to our German Word of the Day. This time we’ll have a look at the meaning of
das Ziel
And this is one of the few examples, where English actually has more words for something than German. Das Ziel is aim, target and goal. And it’s related to neither of them. The origin of goal is a bit in the dark, aim is actually a (very slurred) cousin of estimate, and target is based on an old French word for shield. Hmmm… I wonder if that’s why they didn’t do so well against the French in the 11th century. Like… shouldn’t you try to shoot for NOT the shield?
But anyway, so Ziel is not related to any of its translations. But it does have a couple of relatives in English.
Das Ziel comes from an old Germanic verb that was about the idea of striving, working toward a goal. In English, this verb eventually turned into the verb to till. Seems odd at first but think about it – farming (tilling) your land, plowing and sowing and weeding, is hard work and there’s a clear, very, very important goal – have enough food to last till spring comes.
Now you might be wondering “Wait a second what about till as in till spring comes… is that related, too?”
And indeed it is. Till/until are also related to das Ziel and I don’t think the connection is too abstract, because they basically define an end-point, a destination in time.
But enough with history, let’s look at some examples. And by the way… destination and objective are translations for das Ziel, as well.
- Maria hat ihr Ziel verfehlt.
- Maria missed her goal/target.
- Sie haben Ihr Ziel erreicht.
- You’ve reached your destination/goal.
- Ziel der Übung ist es, die Pomuskeln zu aktivieren.
- Aim of the workout is to activate the glutes.
- Das Team hat das Ziel aus dem Auge verloren.
- The team lost sight of their objective.
- Maria ist als zweite ins Ziel gelaufen.
- Maria was second to cross the finish line.
Of course there are also lots of compounds.
- “Ich finde die Show ganz furchtbar.”
“Du bist halt überhaupt nicht die Zielgruppe.” - “I find the show really horrible.”
“Well, you’re not the target group/demographic at all.”
- Maria ist ein sehr zielstrebiger Mensch.
- Maria is a very focused/single-minded person.
(A question for native speakers: Zielstrebig is 100% positive, to me single-minded has a negative sound… is that the case, or is it a positive trait?)
- Nach dem Streit mit Maria, wandert Thomas ziellos durch die Stadt.
- After the argument with Maria, Thomas wanders around the city aimlessly.
Those were just a few examples of course. If you’re in the business or manager world, you might want to also learn stuff like Minimalziel (minimum goal), zielorientiert (goal-oriented) and zielführend (expedient).
- Also meiner Meinung nach ist Piano in Beispielen nicht zielführend.
- So, in my opinion, using a piano in examples is not helpful/doesn’t help the cause. (lit: target leading)
Your boss will have a CEO-gasm when you drop that at the right moment during a meeting. There, I just got you a raise :).
All right.
So this was the noun das Ziel. Now let’s take a look at the verb zielen. And this one is actually not all that useful. We learned earlier that it used to be about thriving, working toward a goal. But it has lost pretty much all of that and is now just about taking aim, targeting.
- Ich ziele auf den Apfel.
- I aim at the apple.
And only in the very literal sense.
For more abstract targeting or aiming you’d usually use richten an or something.
- Meine Frage richtet sich an alle, die die C1-Prüfung gemacht haben.
- My question is aimed at those who sat the C1-Exam.
(lit.: “directs itself“)
- Eltern sind wütend, denn die neue Bierwerbung richtet sich offen an Teenager.
- Parents are outraged because the new beer ad is openly targeted at teenagers specifically.
The only instance where zielen is used in an abstract sense is the ge-form gezielt which can express the idea of specifically.
- Der neue Virus namens CatSHAME_X3 attackiert gezielt Webseiten von Bloggern, die Online-Dating-Portale nutzen, und ändert die Links.
- The new Virus called CatSHAME_X3 specifically targets/attacks websites of bloggers who use online dating sites and changes links.
- So nehmen Sie gezielt am Po ab.
- Here’s how to lose weight on your butt specifically.
Wait the cat is not what I li… oh… uh… awkward… I uh…
Let’s have a quick look at the one prefix version that matters here. Erzielen is essentially about the result of aiming – getting whatever you were aiming for. The actual translation depends on context but in practice, erzielen is pretty formal sounding and limited to politics and business.
- Das Unternehmen erzielt hohe Gewinne.
- The company is making great gains.
- Auf dem Treffen konnten die Staatschefs eine Einigung erzielen.
- At the meeting, the heads of state were able to reach an agreement.
It would sound REALLY out of place for reaching C1-level, even though that’s totally a good Ziel to work towards. Or should I say, walk towards?!?! Because don’t forget the wise words of Confucius, that apply especially to learning a language
“Der Weg ist das Ziel. ”
On second thought… screw that. Fluency is das Ziel. Dream big! You can do it. You just got one step closer because you learned Ziel. And to make sure you don’t forget it, here’s a little rhyme.
Ziel – you’ll get there with zeal.
And if you need something even more visceral… here’s a picture for Ziel that’ll ingrain Ziel in your memory once and for all
What? Cruel? Come on… I know it’s not nice. But it works. You can thank me in 10 years, when you still know what Ziel means :).
All right, so that’s it for today. As always, if you have any questions or suggestions or if you want to try out and tell us what your language goal is, let me know in the comments. I hope you liked it, and see you next time.
** vocab **
das Ziel – the goal, target, aim, destination, objective
die Zielgruppe – the target group
das Urlaubsziel – the vacation destination
ziellos – aimless(ly)
zielstrebig – determined, focused, single-minded (sounds 100% positive in German)
zielen – aim, target (only in context of actual projectiles)
gezielt – specifically, “in a targeted manner”
erzielen – make, reach (finance and politics)
You left out the “ist” from “Maria ist als zweite ins Ziel gelaufen.”
For me, single-minded does not have to be negative at all. That said, I don’t think I would typically use it to describe a person.
Tom is single-minded. >> doesn’t sound quite right to me, needs something more
Tom is single-minded in his pursuit of that girl. >> sounds ok
Tom has been practicing his German with a single-minded determination that puts his classmates to shame. >> sounds ok
Also, you probably know this, but “to sit an exam” strikes me as very British. I think most Americans would say “to take an exam.”
As usual, I enjoyed my bit of German – thank you so much!
I agree with Jake, I’d be more likely to use “single minded” as a description of a specific effort. However, I have heard it used as a general description of a person. I don’t get any negativity with it either way. However, I have heard “Tom is stubborn” used in place of “Tom is single-minded” which does give it a slightly negative connotation. I personally don’t think ‘single-minded’ and “stubborn” are exactly the same – “single-minded” has a more focused, zielstrebig feeling, while ‘stubborn’ is a relatively mindless attitude.
In “So, in my opinion piano in examples is not expedient/doesn’t help the cause.” It just sounds incomplete to me, it stopped the flow of the sentence, though I could just be odd. At any rate, I would have used “..in my opinion, using piano in examples…” Would the German sentence turn out any different?
In “Ziel der Übung ist es, ..” Even on a sales blurb, I would expect an article in English, “THE aim of the workout is..” I guess the same feeling does not hold in the German version.
However, one day thanks in part to your efforts here, I WILL have more than enough German Sprachgefühl to be much more sure of these questions myself. Thank you very much!!
Hey Ruth, thanks for the bits about single-minded. What would you use for “zielstrebig” as description for a person though? Is “focused” the closest or is there a better option.
As for the piano… when I read the sentence in your comment, I was actually confused, too. In German it works fine though “Piano” is treated kind of like a mass noun here … kind of like “sugar in coffee” (would that even work=)
“Ziel der Übung… ” now that you say it, it’s indeed not the most natural German and has some marketing/sales copy kind of feel to it. But it’s subtle. The sentence goes unnoticed by my brain’s grammar center, if that makes sense :)
Agree with the others. I would add that single-minded is only negative to the extent that you disagree with the person’s goal. And even then the term carries a sense of grudging respect. “The Terminator is single-minded in his pursuit of Sarah Connor.” As Jeff said, the word always needs some context, but in my opinion it is essentially neutral.
On the other hand, if you say someone has a “one-track mind”, that’s kind of a negative (i.e. said more in dismay than admiration).
Trying hard to think of a word that is unambiguously positive/complimentary. English has a tendency to make a vice out of virtue. (See “proud”, “ambitious”, etc.)
Thanks for the post!
Er, Jake… beg your pardon
Thank you, Danke, Merci!!! Love your posts, they are perfect companions to (my attempts at) learning German!
Freut mich :). Danke!
Here are some helpful „Verben-Nomen Verbindungen“ for everyone:
1. to target something/set a target
ein Ziel ins Auge fassen
sich etwas zum Ziel setzen
das Ziel stecken
2. to make goals
Ziele um•setzen/planen/entwickeln/formulieren
3. to reach a goal
das Ziel erreichen
4. to miss a goal
das Ziel verfehlen
5. to overshoot a goal
über das Ziel hinaus•schießen
6. to not deviate from a goal
nicht vom Ziel ab•lassen
Hey, great addition :). Thanks. Did you know all these by heart?
I have them on flashcards. I have 100s of idiom flashcards for German
Yes, I would think that “focused” is the best option for a “zielstrebig” person, if I understand your excellent explanations well. No negative connotations at all.
Pianos – the English comes across as referring to the use of the word “piano” rather than actual pianos (or even “sugar in coffee”). After some consideration, I think that in English, to distinguish between ”use of the word X” and “use of X” would have to be contextual (or actually use punctuation! One can’t count on that any more…) – it’s amazingly subtle for a piano!! :-D
Question:
In your example: “Das Team hat das Ziel aus dem Auge verloren.” you translated it as “The team lost sight of their main objective.” Would “main objective” usually be more like hauptziel?
You’re right. I don’t really remember why I put “main” in there. Maybe I felt that “Ziel” is stronger, more ultimate sounding than just “objective”. Thanks for the heads up.
“So, in my opinion using a piano in examples is not expedient/doesn’t help the cause.”
I don’t think “expedient” is a good translation here for zielführend as it has slightly negative connotations – eg “It was politically expedient to freeze the tax but it made the deficit worse.” “Expedient” usually implies something that is less than ideal.
Ah, I was wondering about “expedient”. “Zielführend” albeit dry and lifeless doesn’t have a negative tone. Danke :)
I’d disagree with jmedway here – granted, “politically expedient” tends to be negative, but I think it’s the “political” part that lends it the negative connotation… :\
“Expedient” really is neutral in itself. It might mean “less than ideal but helps achieve a goal,” but it might just as well mean “helps achieve the goal without getting bogged down by secondary concerns.” The positivity or negativity really comes from whether the things an expedient solution bypasses really ARE secondary.
Have you heard the word “zielführend” in German before? Like… do you have a feeling for its vibe? Does “expedient” match?
Eh, I think “expedient” is a little different… I think it tends to be more general in meaning, just sort of describing something advantageous or that is a good idea, with a connotation of getting you from Point A to Point B quickly and effectively.
I’ve heard “zielführend” before, though not often. LEO suggests “constructive” or “productive,” which I actually think are pretty close to the vibe as I understand it, even though the literal meanings aren’t related.
I forgot to say that I can’t think of a single English word that really does justice to “zielführend”. “Helpful” is the nearest I can think of. One up to German!
Does “abzielen auf” have the same meaning in most cases as “sich richten an”? I looked it up and, like one of your examples, the example there also involved Werbung.
And how about “anzielen”? Is it just a more targeted, precise aiming at something?
Great post!
No, “abzielen auf” and “sich richten an” are not very often about the same thing. “abzielen auf” is at its core about purpose. Why is something done. “sich richten an” is about direction. Where is your communication going.
As for “anzielen”… I’ve never heard that. I would understand it as “starting to aim” or something but it doesn’t really exist.
Hope that helps.
As well as das Ziel, I’ve learned der Po. (Sheltered life?) I’m wondering how the latter relates to the English expression “po-faced”?
The different readings of the piano example are interesting. With just “piano” my interpretation would be that it referred to music played on a piano, rather than any other instrument(s) or voice(s). With “a piano” I’d think it probable that an instrument would be visible. ….But I’d expect the instrument to be called das Klavier in German. Is das Piano more commonly used?
I’ve never heard “Po-faced” but in German we have “Arschgesicht”. It’s pretty common and maybe the concept of a face like a human’s rear was known to the old Germanic tribes already :).
As for Piano… I would have thought that words Piano and Klavier are equally common. But I did a check on Google books and apperantly, “Klavier” is more common.
https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=Piano%2C+Klavier&year_start=1800&year_end=2000&corpus=20&smoothing=3&share=&direct_url=t1%3B%2CPiano%3B%2Cc0%3B.t1%3B%2CKlavier%3B%2Cc0
For one specific piano standing in a room, you’d definitly say “Klavier”
– Die Frau sitzt am Piano.
That sounds stilted to me.
I like “Klavier” better, but because the example was meant to have a somewhat snobby, “Piano” came to mind first.
Thanks for the Google books thing. Very nifty. I’m glad Klavier is well ahead!
Not sure whether this one will help or hinder remembering, but there’s also
ein Tor erzielen – to score a goal
Cool article. I like the example with the navigation system, do you know if they say it like that in English systems or did you just guess?
I saw “auf etw. abzielen” already in the comments. There is also “auf etw. hinzielen” with about the same meaning, probably less common. I would say the difference between the two is that “abzielen” has a more clear objective and you can already do actions for that while “hinzielen” is more for goals far away that you just hope with your actions to get there. Anyway, here is an example:
“Seine Bestechung zielt darauf ab, den Wettkampf zu gewinnen.” = “His bribery is aimed with at winning the competition.”
“Mit seinem Training zielt er darauf hin, den Wettkampf zu gewinnen.” = “His training is aimed with at winning the competition.”
Till next time, I’m aiming to tune in.
*
“Seine Bestechung zielt darauf ab, den Wettkampf zu gewinnen.” = “His bribery is aimed at winning the competition.”
“Mit seinem Training zielt er darauf hin, den Wettkampf zu gewinnen.” = “His training is aimed at winning the competition.”
*
That navigation example was a guess. maybe a native speaker can verify?
What does a sat nav say when you’ve reached the destination?
As for “hinzielen”… just to give people a little idea as to how rare it is, I did a quick n-gram for it
https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=zielt+*+hin%2C+zielt+*+ab&year_start=1800&year_end=2000&corpus=20&smoothing=3&share=&direct_url=t2%3B%2Czielt%20%2A%20hin%3B%2Cc0%3B%2Cs0%3B%3Bzielt%20darauf%20hin%3B%2Cc0%3B%3Bzielt%20alles%20hin%3B%2Cc0%3B.t2%3B%2Czielt%20%2A%20ab%3B%2Cc0%3B%2Cs0%3B%3Bzielt%20darauf%20ab%3B%2Cc0%3B%3Bzielt%20dahin%20ab%3B%2Cc0%3B%3Bzielt%20nicht%20ab%3B%2Cc0%3B%3Bzielt%20er%20ab%3B%2Cc0%3B%3Bzielt%20sie%20ab%3B%2Cc0%3B%3Bzielt%20es%20ab%3B%2Cc0%3B%3Bzielt%20also%20ab%3B%2Cc0%3B%3Bzielt%20vielmehr%20ab%3B%2Cc0
It might be a regional thing of course, but I don’t ever hear it, I think. Not that it shouldn’t be mentioned… just so people don’t worry about having to learn another couple with subtle differences :)
Wow, the last eight years “zielt darauf ab” skyrocketed (2000-2008).
It’s been a while since I heard one in English, but I think you usually hear something like “the destination is on your [left/right].” Though it’s definitely possible that some systems say, “You’ve reached your destination” or something more like that.
My mother used to say that her mother used to say “I am single minded, you are obstinate, he is pig-headed”. So it’s less negative than the others, but depends quite a bit on context. If the situation calls for focus then it’s positive, but if a bit of lateral thinking or sympathy for alternate points of view
is required then it can be negative.
Hugh, I remember both my mother and grandmother saying that! I’m not sure the point was understood by all members… :-D
´Who is “he” in that setting :)?
If I recall correctly, it was usually two women discussing someone, most likely Dad, Uncle or Brother, who may or may not have been present. I do remember that it was done with tongue in cheek, often to tease whoever ‘he’ happened to be at the time. Occasionally it would be ‘she’ instead. I was shocked many years later to realize that one of my aunts always took it seriously. I have no idea how she could miss the point…..
“He” is anyone other than “me” and “you”. The character Bernard in Yes, Minister and Yes, Prime Minister called such things “irregular verbs”. Wikipedia has a brief item on the topic, calling it “emotive conjugation”. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emotive_conjugation
A similar sentiment is said to have been expressed by Robert Owen as “All the world is queer save thee and me, and even thou art a little queer.”
Look what you did…. wrong target :-(
Thank you so much I love this blog, and I enjoy reading the discussions regarding the english expressions so I improve my english as well.
Yeah, I enjoy these insights a lot, too. Thanks for the nice feedback :)
To Ruth (the other one): Love it!
Me too!!
I personally feel single-minded usually has a negative connotation to it. I think “focus” is a good single word translation here. Most of the other translations to keep the same meaning require a phrase. My boss tells me I’m “zielstrebig” all the time (only in English lol). He says things like “I’m focused on the task” “See it through to completion” “know it inside and out” “detail-oriented”. I personally like “focused” the best though, because it reminds me of the phrase “focused on the task at hand”.
I am poor and cannot donate to you at this time, but thank you so much; I truly enjoy your site.
Cool, thanks for the great feedback. If you’d like a sponsored membership, send me an email please. We can work something out, so you can use the site more often.
The English word zeal: great energy or enthusiasm in pursuit of a cause or an objective.