German Language Stack Exchange Community Digest

Top new questions this week:

“Als” in the sense of time at the same time as “als” in the sense of “than”

Sometimes I have an inclination to compare something to some other time in the past when I took a particular course of action. For example, if I was talking about referring to a time in the past that …

sentence-structure relative-clause

asked by Tim Seguine Score of 3 answered by Janka Score of 4

Are any or all of these variations correct?

Are these sentences correct German, and do they mean the same thing? Ich habe dir schwer zu schaffen gemacht. From DWDS: umgangssprachlich ⟨etw., jmd. macht jmdm. zu schaffen⟩etw., jmd. verursacht …

meaning grammaticality

asked by user44591 Score of 2 answered by Helena Score of 6

Here comes the sun auf Deutsch?

There’s a song sung by a Slovenian band with German lyrics where I don’t believe they’ve got the German quite right. They’re wanting to say “Here comes the sun” just like the old Beatles …

english-to-german idiomaticity

asked by 147pm Score of 1 answered by HalvarF Score of 0

Welcher Fall nach zwei Präpositionen (mit und ohne)

Im Satz «Das Resultat wird mit und ohne dem/den Gebrauch eines Assistenzsystems berechnet.» würde ich logischerweise den Akkusativ wählen, d.h. den Fall, den die Präposition ohne verlangt. Allerdings …

preposition dative accusative

asked by Brigitte Score of 1 answered by bakunin Score of 3

How can “als” be appended with a genitive case?

In Sein und Zeit, there is such a sentence: Die Interpretation der Zeit als des möglichen Horizontes eines jeden Seinsverständnisses überhaupt ist ihr vorläufiges Ziel. (“ihr” refers to …

genitive conjunction

asked by YangZai Score of 1 answered by phipsgabler Score of 3

Greatest hits from previous weeks:

Was bedeutet: “Das geht sich nicht aus”?

Die Phrase “Das geht sich nicht aus” ist denke ich österreichisch? Ich bin Muttersprachler und hatte es davor noch nie gehört. Kann jemand helfen?

meaning phrase idiom austrian

asked by vonjd Score of 42 answered by Tim Pietzcker Score of 32

Difference between “antworten” and “beantworten”

Is there any difference between “antworten” and “beantworten”? In which situations should I use one and in which another?

difference verb

asked by dmitru Score of 42 answered by Thorsten Dittmar Score of 40

Differences between zu Haus/nach Haus

When should I use zu Haus and when nach Haus? For instance: Ich fahrt nach/zu Haus. Ich gehe nach/zu Haus.

preposition

asked by Luis Andrés García Score of 16 answered by knut Score of 18

Saying “Congratulations!” in German

What are the possibilities for saying “Congratulations!” in German? Google Translate suggests “Glückwünsche”, “Gratulation”, and “Gratulieren”. Do people actually use these as one-word phrases?

phrase

asked by Mika H. Score of 9 answered by user unknown Score of 9

What is an acceptable response to “wie geht's”?

If someone asks me how something is or how I am doing, for example if someone asks me “wie geht’s?” Is it okay to respond with “alles gut” or should I say “Alles ist gut?”

salutation

asked by user10804 Score of 13 answered by Veredomon Score of 14

How would you say, “I speak a little bit German”?

I put this into Google Translate, and it came up with, Ich spreche ein wenig Deutsch. Is this correct? I doubt so. When I look up wenig I find that it’s an adjective, not an adverb, and obviously …

translation english-to-german adverb

asked by ktm5124 Score of 35 answered by Hubert Schölnast Score of 41

Was ist die korrekte Anrede in E-Mails an Personen, die man nicht persönlich kennt?

Was ist die korrekte Anrede in E-Mails an Personen, die man nicht persönlich kennt? Sehr geehrte Damen und Herren oder Sehr geehrte Frau / Herr … Beides klingt sehr formell, Hallo oder …

salutation

asked by swegi Score of 29 answered by teylyn Score of 20