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.
No, because "white" is both an adjective and a noun, while "know" is a verb, and since nouns are capitalized in German, "Weiß" = "white," and "weiß" = "know." "Weiß" cannot mean "know."
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."
I was going off the word "Autobahn" when trying to type an answer for "Bahn," and was quite confused as a result, so I'm glad that I'm not the only one.
"Bahn" actually means "lane" in its plain form. "railroad" is actually not correct, as "Bahn" on its own is only used colloquially when referring to the railroad.
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
So why do Americans use Uber like " very" or the ultimate? Ubersexy? Confusing. Americans also use chef when it means boss not head cook. we seriously screw up foreign languages like entree for example. We use it to mean main dish wtf?! I am fluent in Spanish and proficient in Italian and speak basic Turkish and Albanianso I see all these mistakes and lmao
Got all except zeit, weis, verboten, flug and blitz. Forgot verboten and blitz, didn't connect weis to white and for flug I tried fly, plane, escape. Didn't realize to try flight! Fly in Swedish means to escape so I tried that. Flyga is fly, flight is flyg. Don't know why I didn't try that...
I knew Weiss from trying to buy bleach in Europe. Dude Germans don't have chlorox they have this whitener that doesn't get things white! Maybe they have chlorox in a different section but not in the clothes detergent section. I was in Netherlands when I bought It
In addition to the other comments about "weiß" also technically being acceptable as the first-person singular or third-person singular conjugation of "wissen" ("to know") – I should also point out that it shouldn't be capitalized here. It's almost never a noun, so there is really no reason to capitalize it if you're leaving other non-nouns lower-case too.
I hate German. Pleas give me an Italian, Portuguese,french or Spanish or even a Latin quiz. They sound so much better, even reading this quiz hurts my ears
Strictly speaking "lightning" and "lightening" have two different meanings. I also had to master this. The first is a noun (as in a "thunderbolt") whereas the second is a verb (as in "reducing weight"). Hope this helps.
Missed out on time and white (always wondered where the "edelweiss" got its name from). Don't understand why it wouldn't accept "lady", "girl" or "woman" for "vrau" but when l typed "wife" it was accepted and up popped "woman"...
I also thought 'bahn" meant "road" or "path" but neither was accepted. I then out of desperation typed "route" and hey, it was accepted, but "railway" popped up instead! Weird, not so?
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.