No it isnt. After checking the percentages I saw the two close together and thought ow great, now every american is gonna think zeitgeist means timeghost...😕 (or is the word a uk thing too?)
Cameron, the literal translation is Time spirit. The word Geist means both ghost and spirit (and mind in some cases). A word can have several meanings.
thats not entirely true. über is just over if you use it as a single word. you may use it as a prefix to mean super but still its not that common. über as super is more of an american idea
not at all. as a native, über is a preposition, like over. über as a prefix like super is not something commonly used in german. its an english concept only. in german youd say "super" too.
As a native german speaker I can tell you that "über" can mean (depending on context): over, above, across, by, beyond. However, "super" is not a translation.
I found "Achtung!" hard because I don't think English has a single word with the exactly same meaning. I'd say "Watch out!" but it didn't accept two words. Couldn't think of "attention".
Everybody, if you re-translate "know" back into German, you will only get the basic form "wissen". "Weiß" is just a conjugated form of "wissen" (as in "ich weiß"). I don't suppose QM has intended to be that specific in this quiz.
Yep, 'wissen' is the infinitive form of 'know', so if 'know' were an answer than 'wissen' would be listed, not 'weiß'. The basic form of the adjective 'white' is 'weiß', so that is the correct answer.
My understanding too. Though the German autobahn is much longer/larger/busier than a "weg", isn't it. I think in this case, it]would be more appropriate to translate it as "highway", isn't that what it is?
I agree, Bahn is generally used for a much broader track for speedy traffic. So that works for Auto-bahn = highway, and Eisen-bahn = railroad (literally ironway). Internet highway seems evident, too, but only in English. We don't use it as such in German.
Achtung is not alarm, Achtung means "attention" The problem with German is that there are a lot of different meanings for one single word depending on the context it is used. As a single word without context Achtung means attention. In a sentence it can be respect "Ich habe Achtung vor seiner Arbeit" means I have respect for his work" or you use it as a warning "Achtung, da kommt ein Auto." "Look out there is a car coming."
When I saw Zwei I immediately thought of Zweiback and tried all variations of toast, bread, etc. Had to look it up to see that Zweiback means "twice baked". Now it seems so obvious.
Studied German for 4 1/2 years. Had a brain cramp on Blitz and Flug (kept thinking "air" as in airplane and airport) and not as in flight. Love to see more of these.
@bejmaninmarker - I call BS. Most Europeans cannot speak 3 languages. I bet a lot do, but "most" is an ENORMOUS exaggeration. This source puts bilingualism at 1 in 5 and multilingualism at less than 10%. That's going to vary within different populations, socio-economic groups, etc, but Europe simply isn't a continent brimming polyglots.
you are not wrong. Although, as a german, the natural translation of Bahn ist 'train' (or railway). Obviously Bahn is also a translation for 'path' but this meaning, in colloquial speaking, basically only survives in the combined noun 'Autobahn'. Every other street or road is called 'Straße'. And a pathway isn't referred to as Bahn, but as 'Pfad'.
No, it doesn't work. "Achtung" means literally attention and could also be used as "watch out".
Yes, you could say Achtung!, if you want to make someone aware of imminent danger, but the word for danger is "Gefahr" and exactly like in English you can't use both words interchangeably.
Blitz was a nightmare for me, tried flash several times. :-) Took me ages to get lightning. As non-english speaker, I thought flash and lightning were synonyms. Aren't they?
yeah, über can basically mean anything cos prepositions are different in english and german. depending on the phrase it can mean across, about, over and more
I agree, prepositions are generally diffcult if not impossible to translate between any two languages. However, the most common and typical meaning of über is probably over or above.
Prepositions often have several meanings, even in English. Take "for" for instance. It can mean "in favor of" (I'm all for it), "towards" (I'm heading for the coast), and lots more (Dictionary.com lists 32 different meanings of "for" as a preposition, and two as a conjunction). Translated to other languages, all those meanings would likely have different words in that language. So if you want to quibble over which translation is the best, you might be awhile.
theres no real translation for "Volk" - at least people isnt really the same
its more like the nations population as a whole, and also if you use it historically like a tribe or something(e.g. "Das persische Volk" -"The persians")
I would argue that a nations population as a whole is exactly what the term "Volk" means. So, "das persische Volk" can indeed be translated to "the Persian people".
In most cases Bahn means path, way, lane or track. Bahn as the word for railway is actually only used colloquially. Properly it would be Eisenbahn. According to Duden the official dictionary of Germany, Bahn as railway is only the 6th definition of the word. 1st = path, 2nd = route, 3rd = track in different sports activities, 4th = strip, 5th = the flat part of the top of a hammer. Thus, the definition railway is less important than "the flat part of the top of a hammer".
If you want to stick to railway, you might still want to add the much more common definitions.
In Austria when we want to say "We're going to take the train." or sth. like that, we say "Wir werden den Zug nehmen." It might be a teutonism to use "Bahn" in this context. In Austria we would never say that.
For many of the beaches in northern Australia, there are signs that say 'Achtung' as a way of warning about crocodiles. That's how I got it, though I thought danger should work as well.
Beware is a verb, while Achtung is a noun. The -ung in Achtung is a clue that it's a noun. Very much like how we use the suffix "-ing" in English to create a gerund from verbs (ex. swim becomes swimming) or "-tion" to create a noun.
In German, the term for 'beware' is "in Acht nehmen" which basically means to take notice of or be wary of. It's a verb.
In English, we "pay attention", "attention" being the noun that is the object of the verb "pay". So Achtung (noun) is a better match with the English noun, "attention".
That is true but "beware" is often used in exactly the same way as "Achtung", which implies to me that it is a legitimate translation at least some of the time :-S
Anyway it means spirit of the times.
Its the way its spelled. No german with a good writing education will write "ich weiß", when we mean "I know".
'Völlig losgelöst von der Erde
Schwebt das Raumschiff
Völlig schwerelos'
Great song.
Yes, you could say Achtung!, if you want to make someone aware of imminent danger, but the word for danger is "Gefahr" and exactly like in English you can't use both words interchangeably.
- über can also be about
- Blitz can also be flash
- Achtung also means respect
its more like the nations population as a whole, and also if you use it historically like a tribe or something(e.g. "Das persische Volk" -"The persians")
Danke anyway
If you want to stick to railway, you might still want to add the much more common definitions.
4/24
wow german is really similar to dutch
Beware is a verb, while Achtung is a noun. The -ung in Achtung is a clue that it's a noun. Very much like how we use the suffix "-ing" in English to create a gerund from verbs (ex. swim becomes swimming) or "-tion" to create a noun.
In German, the term for 'beware' is "in Acht nehmen" which basically means to take notice of or be wary of. It's a verb.
In English, we "pay attention", "attention" being the noun that is the object of the verb "pay". So Achtung (noun) is a better match with the English noun, "attention".
Hope this makes sense.