47 Comments
is "wichtiger" = "important" but also "more important" for singular male? a bit confusing..
DUO translates "wichtiger" into "important" when hovering over it, I think DUO means "important" as in: "Ein wichtiger Knopf" - "An important button"
In general in English comparative words ending in -er have germanic roots (as german comparatives always have -er) and words that take the comparative form 'more something' are latinate (latinate languages tend to use the form 'more something' eg 'more important' in french is 'plus important')
I think the only equivalent word would be 'graver' but that implies something bad.
Does anyone know why the g is pronounced as hard in the comparative form when it is usually pronounced as a "ch" after an i (e.g. richtig)? Does this only take place at the end of a word (thus making it a hard g for most forms of wichtig, such as wichtiger, wichtige, etc.), or is it a rule for comparatives, or something else?
The suffix -ig is regularly pronounced -ich, but that pronunciation is for for "g after i" in general.
So when you add a vowel, you get the regular pronunciation of "g" that it has everywhere else: /g/. Since it's not in the word-final suffix -ig any more but now in the middle of the word :)
When you add a consonant to the -ig ending (e.g. König : königlich = king : kingly), some say "köniklich" and some say "könichlich" and I'm not sure what the standard is.
I wonder why not : (als ) not follows the adjectiv : Wichtiger, ( Nichts ist wichtiger als ) because the rule is : the superority to and adjective is introduced by adding ( er ) to the adjective : wichtig + er =wichtiger and follows by : ( als ) . Glad to hear from you. Thank you very much . Arnaud Charles
"Wichtiger als" means "more important than", e.g. "Er ist wichtiger als sie" (He is more important than her). As in English, you don't always have to use an "als (than) phrase" in a comparison in German.
He is more important than SHE. Not her.
There are some words where I just don't here the "r" at the end. In this sentence it's wichtiger. I got it right because I knew the word however this has happened enough off and on over the courses that I wanted to ask. Is it due to how some words are supposed to be pronounced, is this particular word (or other words) not being clearly pronounced or something else? Thanks.
The "-er "at the end of words is pronounced as a vowel (although this may differ in certain regional accents) . This phenomenon also exists in English: many people from England don't pronounce the "r" in words like father or mother. The sound they use instead is slightly different from the one used in German, though.
See:
Thanks for the reply and info. It's not all words ending in "er" that I've noticed this with though. Humm...maybe it's just the newer words that I've been learning that I notice more because I'm listening more carefully.
Well when you "roll your tongue" in German it sounds kind of like "eeea..." So maybe it just blends in a bit with the "e" sound.
Since Duolingo translates "wichtiger" as "important" or "more important", how do we know whether this sentence means "Nothing is important" or "Nothing is more important"? Those two sentences have very different meanings!
"wichtig" means "important" and "wichtiger" means "more important".
Since adjectives can take on case endings, "wichtiger" could also be "important" in the masculine nominative singular if not preceded by the default article, e.g. "ein wichtiger Mann" or (completely without article) "Wichtiger Hinweis!".
Here, there presence of "ein" (or the absence of an article) and the following noun shows that the -er must be a case ending and the adjective is "wichtig" so this is "an important man".
If, on the other hand, you had "Der Mann ist wichtiger", then the -er cannot be a case ending since we don't use those in predicate adjectives (after "ist", for example), so this must be "The man is more important". Similarly in this sentence: "Nichts ist wichtiger!" - the word is by itself immediately after "ist" and so the -er can't be a case ending.
If you wanted to say "a more important man", you would need to add both the comparative -er and the case ending -er, and get "ein wichtigerer Mann".
ChristophBassi, you wrote, "Wichtig - important Wichtiget - more important"
May I offer a correction? "more important = wichtiger
I entered "nothing is as important" and got an incorrect. Can someone explain?
"Nothing is as important" means that nothing has the same importance.
"Nothing is more important" means that nothing has greater importance.
If two things are equally important, then A is not more important than B, but it's not true to say "A is not as important as B", because the two are equally important, i.e. as important as each other.
So the two sentences mean different things.
Because it says wichtiger and not just wichtig -- the -er is the comparative ending here. (English has the same -er ending in short adjectives, e.g. "long - longer" = lang - länger.)
This one was easy for me since we also use the word "wichtig" in my native language (West Frisian) where it means the same thing.
I don't know why this reminds you of "Nothing else matters", but it's a great song and no reason to mark you down IMO.
Would "Nichts ist mehr wichtig" also be a correct way to say "nothing is more important?
No, that's not correct.
1) In English, regular comparatives are formed either by adding "-er" (e.g. small-er) or with "more" (e.g. more important).
2) In German, all comparatives are formed by adding "-er" (klein-er, wichtig-er, interessant-er ...).
3) The combination of "nichts" and "mehr" actually means something else: "nothing ... anymore". So "Nichts ist mehr wichtig" means "Nothing is important anymore" or "Nothing matters anymore".
PS: Too late ... ;-)
No; German doesn't do the "more/most" thing with separate words.
If anything, Nichts ist mehr wichtig would mean "Nothing is important any more".
Rather than, 'this is most important', 'nothing is more important' wins as rhetoric.
"Not important" is the most common English equivalent. The majority of times I give incorrect answers on Duolingo is due to me either having a better command of English and using more technical variations or bigger vocabularies than what the moderators have adapted the programme too, or typos that the system mistakes for incorrect on an inconsistent basis.
"Not important" does not mean the same thing as "Nothing is more important".
It's not even a complete sentence.
Also, if you often encounter frustration because Duolingo's relatively basic course in German does not accept the complete breadth of English vocabulary, have you considered using more basic English vocabulary instead?
Please try to use Duolingo to improve your German, not to show how good your English is.
Weird. 'Nothing is important' is the opposite of 'Nothing is more important.' I guessed that you wouldn't use an exclamation for nothing is important
when you do the slow version (as with many other examples), "ist" becomes "list". Please correct this.
