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1500 questions
21
votes
3 answers
Is There a German Equivalent For "Shoot the Messenger?"
Is there a German equivalent for "shoot the messenger" (kill the bearer, but not the originator, of bad news)?
Tom Au
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Recommended news and culture streaming radio stations (auf Deutsch)?
I am specifically thinking of an analogue to NPR in the USA, whose stations generally broadcast a wide variety of show formats (news, interviews, talk radio, & entertainment) covering range of newsworthy and cultural topics.
I have done a little bit…
maaku
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What is the difference between “in” and “im”?
When do you use im and when do you use in?
I’m taking introduction to German, and have seen both of them being used as in in English.
alamoot
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Why 'der' in 'Danke der Nachfrage'?
I've read this in a reply to a mail:
Danke der Nachfrage!
Why is der there and why is not für die Nachfrage instead? And is it genitive or dative? (My only guess is that we are omitting a preposition, but I've never seen that in German).
c.p.
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21
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Dies vs Diese - what is the rule to follow
I want to translate the sentce
These are newspapers.
Newspaper is die Zeitung, plural is die Zeitungen. Since this plural has die as an article, I thought this should be diese (because with die it’s meine, deine and so on).
The system I’m using to…
ducin
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"Ja, verb ich." - which verbs work?
In spoken German, it is very common to answer basic mundane yes-or-no question with an elliptical construction like this:
»Willst du noch ein Bier?«
»Ja, will ich.«
This works for haben, sein, the modal verbs, and a seemingly random selection of…
Emanuel
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20
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3 answers
When is it justified to drop 'es' in a sentence?
Take for example a sentence like
Doch sollte daran erinnert werden, dass . . .
The way I see it, and the way I would write this had I wanted to express the same thing, would be
Doch es sollte daran erinnert werden, dass . . .
I have noticed that…
Chubby Chef
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6 answers
Is it standard practice to use the female gender in legal German?
When reading through my work contract (German employer), I (non-native speaker, male) noticed it also contains a lot of words with a feminine ending. When I wrote my employer about this, they told me this is not a mistake and it is written so per…
HelloWorld
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4 answers
Schweizerisch oder Schweizer?
Ich selber würde mich wohl immer für den Schweizer Käse entscheiden, aber es gibt wohl auch schweizerischen Käse. Jedenfalls lese ich das aus diesem Google NGram.
Wann ist welche Verwendung richtig?
Nicht nur in Bezug auf Käse, sondern…
Baarn
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20
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10 answers
German word for a specific situation in an image
I know the word Pechsträhne (streak of bad luck) or maybe even Pechvogel (unlucky person) would fit the case, or even Schwein gehabt! if he survives (or Schadenfreude for what some observers may feel)
Then one German speaker told me the following…
Tiago Martins Peres
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20
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3 answers
Looking for comprehensive, parsable table of German noun declensions
I'm looking for a reasonably comprehensive, and "script-parseable", list/table of German nouns with their declensions (the four cases for all applicable forms). I.e., the desired information for each noun in the list/table would be something…
kjo
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20
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6 answers
How do you say "to play Devil's advocate" in German?
In English, I use the phrase "to play Devil's advocate" quite often, it allows me to ask difficult questions without challenging the other person's position or status too directly.
The nicest translation I have found so far is this one (from…
mcaleaa
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20
votes
3 answers
Was genau ist ein "Teutonismus"?
Erst durch Kommentare wie diesen
"Schippe" kenne ich nur als Teutonismus für das Wort "Schaufel". Kann sein, dass das in einigen Gegenden Deutschlands verwendung findet, aber Hochdeutsch ist "Schippe" auf keinen Fall. Link
bin ich auf den Begriff…
Takkat
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20
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4 answers
What does VB stand for?
When people are selling their products privately on some online websites, I often observe, they write VB with the price. Can somebody tell me, what does VB stand for and what does it mean?
Xeoff Baloch
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5 answers
Zusammengesetzes Wort: Bindestrich oder nicht?
Wie ist die korrekte Schreibweise für zusammengesetzte Wörter. Werden diese mit einem Bindestrich getrennt oder nicht? Mir geht es vor allem um Leichtathletik-Verein / Leichtathletikverein oder Leichtathletik-Zentrum / Leichtathletikzentrum.
Bei…
Jan
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