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why are there so many words to learn????

Happy International Translation Day!

The work of translators is usually noticed only when it is done badly, because when it is done well, no one even notices that they are dealing with a translation... This is very unfair.

To all translators and interpreters: you are one of the most important pillars supporting our civilization. It may sound too pompous, but it's true.

Now on a lighter note. What is your favourite lost in translation example?

I'll start! My "found in translation" favorite moment is from the Lord of the Rings:

Original: "Boromir smiled." (Боромир улыбнулся)

Russian translations:

"И Боромир, превозмогая смерть, улыбнулся." (And Boromir, transcending death, smiled) - by V.Muravyov, A. Kistyakovsky

"Тень улыбки промелькнула на бледном, без кровинки, лице Боромира." (The shadow of a smile flashed across Boromir's pale, bloodless face.) - By N. Grigoryeva, V. Grushetsky

"Уста Боромира тронула слабая улыбка." (Boromir's lips touched with a faint smile.) - by M. Kamenkovich, V. Karrik

Hi, do you know any strategies for learning the gender of German words? I'm Italian and I know Latin and Greek, so I'm not foreign to the concept of gendered words, I just find that German words give very little help to guess if they are feminine, masculine or neutral.

Thanks a lot and have a good time being a TA

Hallo! We just tell our students to memorise the genders but there are actually some general patterns! This isn't foolproof though because there are always exceptions in German:

Masculine: male people/jobs, days/months/seasons and most times of day (except for night), cars and trains, nouns derived from verbs without ending, a lot of nouns ending in –ant, –ling, –ner, –or, –m, –en, –er, –ismus, -ast, -ich, -ig,

Feminine: female people/jobs, numbers, ships and motorcycles, a lot of nouns derived from verbs ending in -t, lots of nouns ending in –heit, –keit, –ik, –schaft, –ur, –ität, –ung, –e, –ei, –enz, –ie, –ion, –anz, –in

Neuter: diminutives in -chen and -lein, colours, a lot of nouns starting in ge-, nouns derived from infinitives and adjectives, letters of the alphabet, a lot of English loan words, most fractions, a lot of nouns ending in –ment, –nis, –o, –um, –tum, -icht, -ma, -sal

Again: for every rule in German there's usually more exceptions. Mark Twain wrote an entire essay about this. We even have words where no one can agree on the correct article (like Nutella) or where several are correct.

Compound words take the article of the last noun eg die Armbanduhr because it's die Uhr even though it's der Arm and das Band.

The good news is that even if you get it wrong people will generally understand you.

auf Gedeih und Verderb

literally: for prospering or decay

for better or worse

Origin: From Low German legal language of the Middle Ages.

in jemandes Fußstapfen treten

literally: to step in someone's footsteps

to follow the path of one's predecessor

neue Kleist-Briefe HEUTE

in german we don’t say “i wanna go apeshit”, we say “ich werd gleich fuchsteufelswild” which mean i’m gonna go fox devil wild, and I think that’s feral as fuck

Listening to native speakers of the language you’re trying to learn

One Song in Every Language

Okay, tumblr. Let's try something.

I want to make a playlist with one song in every single language. Of course, this is impossible- the spotify playlist limit is something like 5,000- but I want to try. Of course, I can't do this alone, and so I'm sharing the project with the entire online language nerd/ music nerd community. Together we can celebrate linguistic diversity- and find some really cool music :)

Here's how it works. This spreadsheet will document every song and language represented. When you want to add a song, first look in the spreadsheet to see if that language is already represented. If it isn't, add the song to the playlist, and then add it to the spreadsheet.

What counts as a language? This is, as we all know, a fundamentally political question (Russian/ Ukrainian? Hindi/ Urdu? "Chinese" and its "dialects"...) We don't have to solve those debates here. My thinking is: the point is to celebrate linguistic diversity in as many forms as possible. If you can make a reasonable argument for why a song and its linguistic variety should be represented, go ahead and add it.

Yes, this means conlangs count (cause conlangs are SICK!) This also means dead languages count- throw in all the Latin and Classical Nahuatl you like. Glossolalia (à la Sigur Ros) and semi-linguistic scat-esque nonsense (à la Kobaian)? Sure, why not!

I'm calling this one song in every language, but we also want to highlight small and minority languages. So maybe we don't want ten different French songs, but if there are two or three different artists singing in Sami (especially different varieties of Sami), throw it in!

Let's make this awesome. Let's make this huge. Spread it around to every language nerd and music geek you know.

Thanks, dankon, merci, etc :)

i don't remember if this was in the mega folder already, but either way i'm sure you could pirate yourself a base level intro to literary studies book. I can highly recommend the J.B. Metzler "Germanistik. Sprachwissenschaft, Literaturwissenschaft, Schlüsselkompetenzen" intro. it explains all these notions in short paragraphs, it's wonderful. truly. if you can't get it, i'll send you scans of whatever you want, i mean it

Ohhhh I should look into that!

Translate me unfaithfully. Translate me adulterously. Translate me and leave a stray hair or a forgotten lipstick stain to tell the audience you have been here.

german resource spotlight: ard audiothek

are you an intermediate or advanced german learner looking for listening practice? ard audiothek is a website and app containing dozens of podcasts, radio shows, and audiobooks to listen to for free! you can even download content to listen to offline. for literature fans, check out kafkas kosmos, a series of kafka's short stories. if you're looking for something more simple, have a look at the children's section. there's something for everyone!

goethe schnur brief jubiläum

"Man wird also erlauben, die Schreibart 'Deutsch' für eine niedere Schreibart [...] anzusehen, und beym Herkommen zu verbleiben, und 'Teutsch' zu schreiben."

Fulda, Friedrich Carl: Sammlung und Abstammung Germanischer Wurzelwörter. Nachdruck der Ausgabe Halle 1776. Hildesheim, New York: Georg Olms Verlag 1977.

... es tut mir so leid herr fulda

i have recently learned (from my uncle who has been teaching me German) that apparently their version of "fits like a glove" is "fits like a fist to the eye" and it gives such spot conlon vibes and I love it

Jumping on the bandwagon with something niche: Can you name all German states? Here is the quiz

Ernsthaft jetzt ich kann das alles nicht mehr

Japanese Counting Words

〜着（ちゃく）counter word for suits and dresses

ワンピース３着を買った

〜膳（ぜん）counter word for bowls of rice and chopsticks

テーブルからお箸２膳が落ちました

〜杯（はい） counter for sake cups, bowlfuls, spoonfuls

すみません、お酒５杯お願いします

〜個（こ）counter for articles, pieces

ケンタくんからコップ２個を貸してもらった

〜枚（まい）counter for flat, thin things

うちに宿題の１枚が忘れた

〜台（だい）counter for machines

アリスさんは車４台がある

〜本（ほん）counter for long cylindrical objects

ビール２本お願い

〜冊（さつ）counter for books, bound papers

昨日２冊本を読んだ

People who don't speak German are really missing out on that one play that starts with people being told they shouldn't let strangers in because there's dangerous arsonists around and then these guys knock on someone's door and go "can we sleep at your house? We're arsonists btw" and the guy is like "haha so funny sure come in" and they keep setting up stuff and he's like "what are you going to do haha" and they're like "we're going to burn down your house" and also there's a Greek choir of firemen

I've found a person, thanks a lot!

(this is my language sideblog)

Hello! I'm looking for a pen pal to practice my written German but I'm struggling to find one. I don't really enjoy the Tandem app because how can you really learn a language by writing short messages? And also everyone on there always tries to look the Smartest™, the Funniest™ and of course the Person of Culture™, almost like they are on some kind of intellectual Tinder.

More recently I have tried Slowly but I find it's much easier to connect with people who speak my own native language than to find someone to do some actual linguistic and cultural exchange.

So the person I am looking for is a germanophone who is learning to write in Italian (on which I can give qualified feedback as I am a native Italian speaker and a Linguistics student) and is willing to correct my mistakes as well.

Can you help me finding someone on langblr, or give me some advice on the best sites or apps for linguistic exchange?

Hello :)

I don't really know any other sites apart from the ones you already mentioned, sorry

I also don't think i know any langblrs who are learning Italian, but maybe someone who reads this is interested

Nein, das sind keine Genusfehler. Mein Deutsch ist perfekt, diese Tisch ist einfach transgender.

The best German online dictionaries for learners and translators

Dict.cc

Duden

DWDS

Glosbe

Leo

OpenThesaurus

Redensarten-Index

Reverso