What's the difference between "Beziehung" and "Verhältnis"?

[Karlsenski]

I've noticed that "Beziehung" and "Verhältnis" are both translated as "relationship". What's the difference between the two?

[chooyo]

I'd really like to know that too ... I've always thought that Verhältnis was more of a ratio (more or less / in comparison to) relationship between things and that Beziehung was more like a direct connection between people / events (almost like a Verbindung). Maybe a native speaker can help us out?

[Thomas.Heiss]

German native speaker here - but probably I just suck in explaining or creating in context descriptions ...but I try to give some short examples as I personally see it.

Chooyo I guess you got it right.

Beziehung = could be a real constant partner (true love) relationship
or
could also mean: the correlation / connection between two things, not necessarily persons

Verhältnis could be a temporarily love / sexual partner relationship (e.g if either one is married and additional got a love affair)
or

Verwandtschaftsverhältnis (you usually do not say "Verwandtschaftsbeziehung"; but even that is IMHO not totally wrong) = kindship = connection between near and more far family members
or

Nachbarschaftsverhältnis: relation to neighbors; is it good or is it bad - how profound is it

synonyms Verhältnis (=Beziehung): objectively comparing things like mathematical x/y axis
IMHO you usually use the word "Verhältnis" for that too.

Example Verhältnis: relation working hours to personal health/energy: The more you work overtime the more exhausted you will get in the long run and the sooner you could get ill if you do it too often / too long.

I hope there are some teachers around who do have more examples on hand and better descriptions :-)

[Karlsenski]

Thanks!

[Preischadt.]

Hello LegoLink, I'm not a native speaker but I did have this doubt back like some months ago. So, you can trust me as a guy that kinda found the difference but it'd be nice for you to find a native speaker and really confirm this.

The difference is that "die Beziehung" is about what kind of relation you have with someone, let's say a sister, a brother, a girlfriend, a friend. Now "das Verhältnis" is a rating of that a relationship, if it's good, bad, etc.

Hope I could ellaborate on that, I just got back from school, had 2 tests so I'm kinda tired.

[Preischadt.]

OOH i'm dumb just looked down and a native answered haha