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- Topic: German >
- "Das ist der Keller!"
31 Comments
If anyone here know Hebrew, notice that in Hebrew "Kele", translates prison.
I have a mental image of someone tied down in the basement, as a way to remember this word.
I learned that Keller means cellar in my German 2 class. Could this be because I have an outdated textbook, or is it interchangeable?
Cellar and basemant are used pretty much interchangably in english to just mean a room/floor below the ground floor.
Ok i got this sentence right after another which read: Is this the balcony? Does this mean someone was like; "Is this the balcony?" "This is the basement..."
When do you know to use this, or that? Why isn't "That is the cellar "correct, when the answer choices said That is the basement, but This is the cellar ?
Architects use to use 'basement' for the whole lower section of a building, das "Kellergeschoss"
In German they count the following way:
0 Kellergeschoss (souterrain) = basement / cellar, (this is underground or at least half way)
1 Parterre = ground floor/bottom floor,
2 erste Etage = 1st floor,
3 zweite Etage = 2nd floor,
(n) Obergeschoss = top floor, (last full size floor)
(x) unterm Dachjuchhe = attic. (applies to peaked roof buildings)
Base = is related to where the slab/foundation is, it includes the whole lower area of the building.
In Europe a basement it is always fully underground, whereas in Australia a basement can be also half underground. In Europe they would call that a sou-terrain, especially for houses build in a hill or mountain.
A "Keller" -cellar is mostly used for the part of a 'basement' allocated to a flat/person/tenant, or by purpose, like: "Weinkeller" -wine cellar, or historical: "Auerbachs Keller", "Kartoffelkeller", potato cellar. Also restaurants can have the by-name "-keller" especially when they have such an underground floor and are known to serve wine for instance.
But "Tiefgarage" is used for a garage in the basement of a house. You would not call it a "Kellergarage!" :-)
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Haha, nice long explanation, but I think they were just asking when to use "this" or "that". As far as I can tell, they are interchangeable for das, but I am not completely sure of that. If you got it marked wrong it could be an error on their part.
Thanks.
Bugger, -I forgot to answer 'footprint's' question.
Hey footprint! Your translation is perfectly right. "Keller" is cellar! For more explanation, see above.
Thank you for the informative post, I wrote "This is the downstairs" but it's literally cellar.
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To answer 'footprint's'' question, it has to do with proximity. Something near you is this, while a thing farther away, even just a bit farther is that.
"That is a cellar" ... Really... UK don't say basement. We say cellar. Germans say kellar. I'm going with cellar duolingo...
When the verb is „sein“, what follows is always in the nominative case, just as the subject, since no action is being taken on what follows the verb.
A foreigner hearing the word 'Keller' while being introduced to the basement might have second thoughts. XD
Inconsistency.First it is a cellar and suddenly a basement.This happens frequently with Duolingo
I have never heard of a basement called a "Keller" in Germany, only "Untergeschoß". In English, we would never call the basement "the cellar"; the two terms are simply not interchangeable. The basement is the level of the house that is below the main level. It can be completely or only halfway Underground. It can be a properly finished living space or an unfinished storage area. The cellar is a storage area that is underground, specifically to keep storages of produce, and home-canned foods from harvest, through the year, at a naturally-refrigerated temperature. Even in the rare situation where a person has to traverse the basement to gain entrance to the cellar, the two terms are descrete from one another.
I would't use "Untergeschoss" for simple houses or apartment buildings in colloquial speech, only for buildings like universities, libraries, schools etc. But the abbreviation used in most elevators is "UG", which, of course, stands for "Untergeschoss".
I answered "that is the cellar" and got it wrong. Apparently I should have said "that is the basement"???? My apologies - I realised after I posted this that I missed the word "is" in my translation.
