German expressions in english and vice versa.

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R@re!
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German expressions in english and vice versa.

Postby R@re! » 2020-04-03, 17:07

Hello everybody. I have recently stumbled across some german idioms that do not obey the grammar rules I was taught about.

For example:

:arrow: Mir ist kalt.
The subject isn't in nominative and the verb is conjugated in third person singular. My question is, if I want to change the pronoun does it mean I would have to conjugate the verb as well? Do you know any other such expressions in german?
:arrow: Es ist nächsten Winter.
The adjective is in acusative here. Why?

:arrow: Euer ernst?
Can I use other pronoun instead of "euer"? I think this would translate as "You serious?"

What about an englisch expression:

:arrow: Stop it you donkey!
Can I translate it word for word?

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Re: German expressions in english and vice versa.

Postby kevin » 2020-04-04, 8:57

R@re! wrote: :arrow: Mir ist kalt.
The subject isn't in nominative and the verb is conjugated in third person singular. My question is, if I want to change the pronoun does it mean I would have to conjugate the verb as well? Do you know any other such expressions in german?

There is no subject in this sentence. You can add a dummy "es" subject if you want (this is the more natural version in my dialect), which would it make look more like a regular sentence: "Mir ist es kalt". Accordingly, it's always "ist".

This construction is only used in a few cases. Apart from temperature ("mir ist kalt/warm/heiß"), I can only think of "mir ist schlecht" at the moment. There are probably some more, but not many.

:arrow: Es ist nächsten Winter.
The adjective is in acusative here. Why?

It's just how time specifications work when there is no preposition.

Das Fest war letzten Monat.
Diesen Sommer fahren wir ans Meer.
Er kann jeden Augenblick kommen.

Accusative is also what you use for the date in a letterhead, e.g. "Stuttgart, den 4. April 2020".

:arrow: Euer ernst?
Can I use other pronoun instead of "euer"? I think this would translate as "You serious?"

This is a colloquially shortened form of "Ist das euer Ernst?" (Capital "E", it's the noun "Ernst", not the adjective "ernst") The same shortening works well for "Dein Ernst?" and I don't think there is anything that would make it impossible for other pronouns either.

:arrow: Stop it you donkey!
Can I translate it word for word?

I think I would understand the English as meaning the same as "Hör auf, du Esel!", but I'm not sure about the exact meaning or connotation of calling someone a donkey in English.

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Re: German expressions in english and vice versa.

Postby R@re! » 2020-04-04, 12:54

:arrow: Stop it you donkey!
Can I translate it word for word?

I think I would understand the English as meaning the same as "Hör auf, du Esel!", but I'm not sure about the exact meaning or connotation of calling someone a donkey in English.


It's a Gordon Ramsey quote. It is synonymous with the term stupid.

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Re: German expressions in english and vice versa.

Postby linguoboy » 2020-04-04, 14:48

kevin wrote:There is no subject in this sentence. You can add a dummy "es" subject if you want (this is the more natural version in my dialect), which would it make look more like a regular sentence: "Mir ist es kalt". Accordingly, it's always "ist".

This construction is only used in a few cases. Apart from temperature ("mir ist kalt/warm/heiß"), I can only think of "mir ist schlecht" at the moment. There are probably some more, but not many.

Mir ist übel with basically the same meaning, mir ist schwindlig "I feel dizzy".

I guess you're excluding the construction with egal because the usage is a bit different?

In addition to examples with sein, there are a few other verbs this works with, e.g. mir schwindelt's, es tut mir wehleid. Some, such as schmerzen, take accusative objects rather than dative.
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Re: German expressions in english and vice versa.

Postby kevin » 2020-04-04, 15:00

linguoboy wrote:Mir ist übel with basically the same meaning, mir ist schwindlig "I feel dizzy".

Also "mir ist nicht gut" or "mir ist nicht wohl/unwohl", but that's all the same category.

I guess you're excluding the construction with egal because the usage is a bit different?

In addition to examples with sein, there are a few other verbs this works with, e.g. mir schwindelt's, es tut mir wehleid. Some, such as schmerzen, take accusative objects rather than dative.

I think these are somewhat different because they need to have a subject. For example, "mir ist egal" doesn't work on its own without a subject ("ist mir egal" works, because an implied "das" is understood). The same is true for "mich schmerzt". For "es tut mir weh/leid" you even already included "es".

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Mind to chat with me in German mix with English language, I am newbie here

Postby Billionlbl11 » 2020-04-18, 10:14

Schönen Tag,
Ich heiße Billion, joining this for conversation using simple basic german language to better improve since I always just learn it from listening. :)
Anyone would like to chat german mix with English here?

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Re: Mind to chat with me in German mix with English language, I am newbie here

Postby linguoboy » 2020-04-18, 15:32

Billionlbl11 wrote:Anyone would like to chat german mix with English here?

Willkommen, Billion!

Das können wir machen, aber maybe it would be besser to start a neuen Thread of your own.
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Re: German expressions in english and vice versa.

Postby Billionlbl11 » 2020-04-18, 16:19


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Re: German expressions in english and vice versa.

Postby liljorna » 2020-07-28, 8:59

kevin wrote:
linguoboy wrote:Mir ist übel with basically the same meaning, mir ist schwindlig "I feel dizzy".

Also "mir ist nicht gut" or "mir ist nicht wohl/unwohl", but that's all the same category.



And "Mir ist langweilig."
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