German learners&#x27; society

OP

Kind of.

Only it should be "nichts". ("Nicht" is "not". Quite a common mistake.)

Was hast du morgen vor? :smile:

(Vorhaben = to have planned)

Reply 761

Ana

19

generalebriety

Kind of.

Only it should be "nichts". ("Nicht" is "not". Quite a common mistake.)

I'd take note, but that has the aura of a mistake I shall be making quite often despite my best efforts... :p:

generalebriety

Was hast du morgen vor? :smile:

(Vorhaben = to have planned)

Ich werde in die Uni gehen (or is it zu?)

Reply 762

OP

Ana

I'd take note, but that has the aura of a mistake I shall be making quite often despite my best efforts... :p:

Ich werde in die Uni gehen (or is it zu?)

I think they normally say 'auf die Uni' or 'an die Uni', interchangeably. Bit of a fixed phrase, and I don't really understand why. They also say "auf die Schule gehen".

Reply 763

Ana

19

generalebriety

I think they normally say 'auf die Uni' or 'an die Uni', interchangeably. Bit of a fixed phrase, and I don't really understand why. They also say "auf die Schule gehen".

Oh, ok, thanks :smile:

Reply 764

generalebriety

I think they normally say 'auf die Uni' or 'an die Uni', interchangeably. Bit of a fixed phrase, and I don't really understand why. They also say "auf die Schule gehen".

There's a slight difference, actually:
"zur Uni [I suppose you could say 'auf die' as well, but I think it's less common] gehen" = "go to university" in the general sense, i.e. as opposed to getting a job straight after school.
"an die Uni gehen" = "go to university" in the specific sense, i.e. as opposed to skipping lectures in order to stay in bed a bit longer.

In Ana's case, "an die" would be better, at any rate. :smile:

Reply 765

OP

hobnob

There's a slight difference, actually:
"zur Uni [I suppose you could say 'auf die' as well, but I think it's less common] gehen" = "go to university" in the general sense, i.e. as opposed to getting a job straight after school.
"an die Uni gehen" = "go to university" in the specific sense, i.e. as opposed to skipping lectures in order to stay in bed a bit longer.

In Ana's case, "an die" would be better, at any rate. :smile:

Oh, really? That's something I've wanted to know for a while. :biggrin:

Does that apply to Schule too?

Reply 766

generalebriety

Oh, really? That's something I've wanted to know for a while. :biggrin:

Does that apply to Schule too?

Sort of.
"zur Schule gehen" = "go to school" (as in "Meine jüngste Tochter geht noch zur Schule, aber ihre beiden Geschwister sind bereits fertig." / "Na, du bist aber groß geworden! Gehst du denn schon zur Schule?")
"auf die Schule gehen" = "attend school" (usually used when you're talking about a particular school or a particular location, as in "Peter geht in Köln auf die Schule." / "Als sie klein war, wollte Clara unbedingt auf die selbe Schule gehen wie ihr großer Bruder. Später hat sie das etwas anders gesehen...")
"in die Schule gehen" = "physically walk to school"
but
"an die Schule gehen" = "become a teacher" :smile:

The "Uni"-equivalent for this one is "an der Uni bleiben" (="become a lecturer").

In some situations you can substitute "zur" for "auf" or "in" (mainly because a lot of people aren't fully aware of the differences and just use them interchangeably), but if you stick to those destinctions you'll probably be using the correct form most of the time.

Reply 767

Hallo alles zusammen!

Hmmm I wanted to say "I'm bored at work" but I don't know if it would be "ich bin angebohrt" or have some form of "to be bored" (which LEO tells me). Do they say, "i have boredom?" "Ich langeweile haben"? I'll go with that for now.

Ich langeweile haben bei der Arbeit. Ich bei 8 uhr gekommen(?) aber mein Chef wird bei 9 uhr kommst (is that right? I can't think if with the future tense you use the infinitive or the conjugated verb..). Ich habe jetzt eine Arbeit aber keine zeit! Ihr seid (their are?) in der Tag (i never know what to use for "in"..is it "in" or "im" or something totally different?) genug (enough? It's hard to know which word to choose from LEO without gf to ask lol) zeit nicht. (I want to say "their are not enough hours in the day!").

Ok ich sollte etwas Arbeit machen! (Now feel free to masacre my unaided attempt at German!)

Reply 768

OP

wtid

Hallo alles zusammen!

Hmmm I wanted to say "I'm bored at work" but I don't know if it would be "ich bin angebohrt" or have some form of "to be bored" (which LEO tells me). Do they say, "i have boredom?" "Ich langeweile haben"? I'll go with that for now.

"Anbohren" is "to bore" in the sense of "to drill into". So "ich habe den Tisch angebohrt" = (roughly) "I've drilled a hole in the table" ("I've bored the table"). To be bored = sich langweilen, so "I am bored" is "ich langweile mich"; "you are bored" is "du langweilst dich", etc.

Ein bisschen Korrektur:

wtid

Ich langeweile mich bei der Arbeit. Ich komme (1) um (2) 8 Uhr (3) aber mein Chef wird um (2) 9 Uhr (3) kommen (4). Ich habe jetzt eine Arbeit aber keine Zeit (3)! Es gibt nicht genug Stunden im Tag! (5)

Ok ich sollte ein bisschen Arbeit machen!

(1) Ich komme - I'm not sure why you were trying to use the past tense.
(2) Um (8 Uhr) = at (8 o'clock).
(3) Uhr, Zeit - these are nouns, so capital letters.
(4) Future tense takes infinitive.
(5) It's not a very German phrase, but this is how you would literally translate "there aren't enough hours in the day":

•

There are = es gibt

•

not enough = nicht genug

•

hour = Stunde, plural Stunden

•

in the = in + dative. As the next word is masculine, the dative form of the article is 'dem', so 'in dem', which normally shortens to 'im'

•

day = Tag.

Nicht comes near the thing you're negating, in this case it's "enough hours in the day". Putting "nicht" at the end, however, negates the "im Tag" (and so it would sound like "there aren't enough hours in the day (but there are at night)", or something like that. It's a bit of a bizarre construction, though; nicht adopts some funny places in the sentence and I can't really give you any hard and fast rules for it because I don't know how you'd explain it in rules (because I picked it up purely through experience).

Reply 769

Thanks

You're a very patient "teacher" :wink:

I tried to use the past tense for (1) as I wanted to say "I came at 8..." rather than "I come at 8" since it was past 8 when I wrote that.

As for the rest, is there a rule when to use um/bei? And lastly I'm not used to writing nouns with capitals, sorry :redface:

I'm sure I'll forget many more time before I get it drilled into my head!

Thanks for all the help anyway!

Reply 770

wtid

Thanks

You're a very patient "teacher" :wink:

I tried to use the past tense for (1) as I wanted to say "I came at 8..." rather than "I come at 8" since it was past 8 when I wrote that.

In dem Fall wäre es "ich bin um 8 gekommen". :smile:

As for the rest, is there a rule when to use um/bei?

There probably is, but the only ones I can think of at the moment are:
"um":
- at (as in at a particular time of the day) -> "Um halb sieben gibt es Abendessen")
- about/around -> "In Ulm und um Ulm und um Ulm herum"
- [as part of um... zu constructions] to / in order to / so as to -> "Ich rufe an um zu fragen, ob Sie für heute nachmittag noch einen Termin freihaben".
- as part of fixed phrases -> "Ich kümmere mich um meine Enkel während ihre Eltern arbeiten." / "Dreh dich nicht um, der Plumpssack geht um."

"bei":
- at (for places) -> "Dann treffen wir uns also alle bei mir zuhause zum Kaffee?" / "Bei Schachturnieren gelten strenge Regeln".
- with -> "War sonst noch jemand bei Ihnen, der das bezeugen kann?"
- as part of a handul of compound verbs (most of them are fairly old words) -> "beikommen", "beileigen", "beipflichten", "beisetzen", "beisitzen", "beistehen", "beiwohnen"...

It'll probably be easier for you if you just learn them in their proper contexts, though...

Reply 771

OP

Meh, I don't know of any rules. Prepositions are things best learnt independently.

Reply 772

generalebriety

Meh, I don't know of any rules. Prepositions are things best learnt independently.

tzz das ist schlecht aber was Hobnob sagt ist ein anfang!

Reply 773

OP

wtid

tzz das ist schlecht aber was Hobnob sagt ist ein anfang!

Ja.

Ich muss ihr Recht geben; alles, was sie gesagt hat, ist richtig. Aber das ist nicht die ganze Wahrheit.

Reply 774

generalebriety

Ja.

Ich muss ihr Recht geben; alles, was sie gesagt hat, ist richtig. Aber das ist nicht die ganze Wahrheit.

Of course it isn't. :smile:

But I'm afraid I'm simply not used to thinking about prepositions in that way. I think you're right, actually; it's probably much easier to just learn them by heart... If there are proper rules, they're bound to be complicated.

Reply 775

OP

hobnob

Of course it isn't. :smile:

But I'm afraid I'm simply not used to thinking about prepositions in that way. I think you're right, actually; it's probably much easier to just learn them by heart... If there are proper rules, they're bound to be complicated.

No, I know. :wink:

What I meant to express (but didn't bother to in that rather throwaway message) was that, once you know about prepositions and how they work (as you and I do), unless you actually give a specific 'rule' no one will understand your explanations as well as you expect them to. It seems obvious to me when to use 'bei', 'um' and 'zu' to mean 'at', and I'm sure I could explain it in about 3 sentences, but it'd only make sense to someone who already knew the difference (and they'd all be sitting in the corner nodding and agreeing with me while the people who didn't know before remained entirely oblivious :p:

).

(Such is the case with the French subjunctive, to use my favourite example. The "rule" is that you use it with wishes, emotions, moods etc. etc. etc. which seems perfectly lucid to me now that I understand how to use it, but which I can honestly say didn't help me at all in coming to understand it.)

Reply 776

Having said that though, what you told said (Hobnob) was useful. I mean fine it may not work as simply as that, but at least it's somewhere to begin. I get the type of situations where to use which generally even if it doesn't work every time, and that's something, rather than just totally guessing every time :smile:

Reply 777

OP

wtid

Having said that though, what you told said (Hobnob) was useful. I mean fine it may not work as simply as that, but at least it's somewhere to begin. I get the type of situations where to use which generally even if it doesn't work every time, and that's something, rather than just totally guessing every time :smile:

No, I agree. Hobnob's explanation was very good. :smile:

You just need to know it's not the whole truth before you get into the habit of applying those rules blindly even when they don't fully work (which will be a difficult habit to break). :smile:

Do you have a good grammar book, incidentally? If not, get one.

Reply 778

generalebriety

No, I agree. Hobnob's explanation was very good. :smile:

You just need to know it's not the whole truth before you get into the habit of applying those rules blindly even when they don't fully work (which will be a difficult habit to break). :smile:

Do you have a good grammar book, incidentally? If not, get one.

Well, I have Berlitz German Grammar Book, but it's too complicated, I don't understand it. You suggested the Hugo In Three Months (i think that was the title?) and I ordered that but got an email yesterday saying my card had been rejected (forgot to update it with my new one) so I'll be reordering that in the next few days. If you can suggest any good ones I'm happy to hear!

Reply 779

OP