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- Topic: German >
- "Der Ton"
36 Comments
2658
That's interesting. I'm German and I've never seen 'Ton' referred to as clay. I've looked it up though, and it's indeed correct.
Evidently, however, they have different plural forms:
- der Ton | die Töne (sounds / shades of color (from Farbton))
- der Ton | die Tone (types of clay)
Rather important to know! "Oh, friends, not these types of clay!" would have been a terrible anthem.
The words Beethoven wrote:
O Freunde, nicht diese Töne!
Sondern laßt uns angenehmere anstimmen,
und freudenvollere.
Freude!
Freude!
Ist wahrscheinlich regional; ich bin aus Wien und hier ist Ton (und auch Lehm) ganz normal, Klei kenne ich dafür wieder nicht.
It does: sound/tone/note. But it also means clay (in geological contexts, I guess).
Yes, as in
- Tone of voice: He said it in a tone that made her angry. = Er sagte es in einem Ton der sie verärgerte.
- shade of color: I like the tone of blue in this carpet = Mir gefaellt der Blauton in diesem Teppich.
...whereas
- At the tone of the bell - Beim Klang der Glocke.
- 308
I would say: "At the sound of the bell". On the other hand: "The bell has a very deep tone". I believe "tone" implies a type of sound, not the sound itself.
Something that's a thing (i.e. a noun), but not a concrete thing that occupies physical space. House = concrete object; idea = abstract object.
- 45
You forgot to add the function of an object in a sentence as being the entity that is acted upon by a subject.
Is Duo correct translating der Ton as the word? I'm not finding that in a dictionary...
Do you mean "the word" is given as a translation for "der Ton"? If that's the case, then maybe only some users can see it, because I don't:
Yes. Duo shows the definition of Ton is word. But I can't confirm that any where else.
Presume so. English stems from German originally. Or so I am told. Not sure if the ‘clay’ meaning translates well to English though. Earth tones....
- 2048
Wiktionary says the two senses are unrelated. The "sound" version of "Ton" is from Latin, and the "clay" version is Germanic (so I suppose it's a coincidence that they became the same word). The "sound" version was borrowed into English as well, and the "clay" version wasn't.
Hi what's the meaning of,,Clay,,in dictionary I see /clay=bole/ But ,,Clef,,indicating the pitch of the notes//Thanks
Really "useful" in a lesson where we learn "abstract objects/concepts", where in other practice the "tone/shade/sound" meaning was taught, while there is no such meaning suggested in hints when hovering over the word.
