"Mein Werkzeug, bitte!"
Translation:My tool, please!
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Zueg=thing Speilzeug= plaything=toy Werkzeug=workthing=tools Feuerzeug=firething=lighter. I find it weird that Germans add their adjectives to the words. I.e. Kindergarten (Garden of kids), Poltergeist (Noisy Spirit (Geist=ghost)), etc.
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German doesn't do anything so different from English when it comes to compound words. Adjectives aren't just tacked onto nouns without spaces willy-nilly. It's just that German tends to prefer native roots for its compounds instead of Latin, Greek, or other foreign borrowings. Consequently, new compounds are formed a bit more freely in German than they are in English.
One example is the German word for oxygen: Sauerstoff. The German word literally looks like "sour stuff", but that doesn't mean it's the same as the adjective-noun combination sauere Stoff. Sauerstoff literally means something like "acidic substance", which is very similar to the etymological meaning of our word "oxygen". We just borrowed our word from French, so the literal meaning is obscured in English. (Both names were given at a time when oxygen was thought to be essential for forming acids, by the way.)
And then you have words like Schweinfleisch, which can seem horrifyingly literal to English ears. Why not call your pig meat (or swine flesh) what it is? Well, in English we don't do it because we have a set of fancy French words to refer to meat instead of the animal. (Going back to the Norman Invasion and the French-speaking aristocracy of Robin Hood days.) So pig meat is "pork". Neat and compact, but oh so many roots to deal with! I prefer the German way.
A serious question for native English speakers, especially the English. Do you still feel resentment about the Norman invasion and latinization of your language? Don't you feel sorry that many Germanic words have been lost, that we say victory, and not winning, ornithology, and not birdlore, foreigner, and not outlander? Do you feel that the language was conquered and weakened, or you just go by? Thank you!
The way I feel about this is that we English have a mixture of Germanic /old English words and Latin /French words giving us the richest language in Europe and probably the world. As for "the foreign Normans", they are just as much my ancestors as the old English, Vikings, Anglo saxons and the rest... It's nearly 1000 years ago, a lot of more current stuff to get het up about in this world!
We really are a '57 varieties' nation, or more. This area has old English, Viking and French place names within a small distance. The Vikings landed on our local beaches years after Iron age Parisi, many speaking older French, had left their major local encampment. We have had the Romans, a Scots invasion as far as Derby, Welsh and Irish interaction, and for centuries we have had people from all over the world arriving. English may be Germanic but the Scots use more 'German' sounds, by far. I think we should celebrate our mixed history. Learning words, fine. Lamenting the implications of the battles of Stamford Bridge and of Hastings? No, our history is part of who we are,- literally, and it has served us well.
Theres a kind of movement to restore English to a more pure germanic form called "Anglish" which I think is very cool. The normans were b**s anyway. Hael Godwinson.
I have this , perhaps incorrect, view that the Norman takeover and their use of French in the higher levels of society, left the developing English language to the peasants. who then took the opportunity to simplify the language by dropping gender, adjective endings and many of the other grammar features which make foreign language learning so difficult for us English native speakers.
In short, no we don't! Normans were Scandinavian and intermarried with native Brits to make the modern English nation
For the most part, we just go by. At this point English is such an amalgamation of multiple languages (just as our countries are amalgamations of many cultures) that the Norman/Germanic influence feels like another piece in the larger puzzle. Perhaps larger pieces, sure, but certainly not the whole thing.
A serious answer: none whatsoever, and anyone who pretends to feel resentment for something that happened well over 1000 years ago is really grinding a different political axe having nothing to do with their 18th-great grandparents. I personally love that being a native speaker of English has acquainted me with such a wealth of vocabulary from not only Germanic languages but also Romance languages. It's certainly the most confusing language ever born, though. I truly feel sorry for anyone who has to learn it as a non-native speaker.
I celebrate and love the diversity of the English language. It's wonderful how it is made up of so many of our European neighbours and is a testament to freedom of movement and a truly multicultural nation over past 2000 years. It grieves me that we are turning our back on them at this point in our history; this diminishes Britain (and indeed other English-speaking countries currently putting up literal and metaphorical walls). I am really enjoying learning about the Germanic origins of some of our words having previously studied French, Italian and Spanish at school. To my European neighbours, please know that there are many Brits who still love you and grieve the foolishness of Brexit. I was raised as a European, not an Englishwoman, and I am having my identity stripped away from me.
I personally find beauty in kennings and wish they were incorporated into everyday English more. Often, we borrow from German for such words (for example, I read a whole news article on the word 'wanderlust'), but never really use them.
I have a reasonably large vocabulary but can't recall seeing the word "kennings" before. So take a lingot. I looked it up and here's two examples that seemed relevant to Duo in yourdictionary.com:
Head twister = an owl
Hot potato = something no one wants
They also gave other examples like ankle biter, brownnoser, pencil pusher, rugrat, bookworm and bean counter.
I still don't understand why "grey beard" for old man is a synecdoche and not a kenning. Maybe it's both.
Aha! Found something at Harvard:
"A kenning is a characteristic rhetorical device of Old English poetry (and Old Norse). The typical kenning is a compound in which each element identifies an attribute through the figures of metaphor, synecdoche, and metonymy. ... Pay special attention to the distinction between metonymy and synecdoche."
Now I have to look up metonymy. This is a never-ending story...
Another good one is der Staubsauger = the 'dust sucker' much more vivid than the vacuum cleaner
On its own, "Zeug" doesn't mean "thing". "Das Zeug" means "The stuff". See https://www.duolingo.com/comment/10859628
I find it really nice.It makes a lot of sense and it is easy to learn.Because it LITERALLY means just that.
if you are into nerdy stuff explore English Morphology. It shows you how English does the same with prefixes, roots, and suffixes... but also if you look at any other language they build like this. In Chinese for example the word for Train translates to fire car. Wo= is I/me. You add men to it, it becomes we/us. You add de (sounds like duh) to it and it becomes our.
Thank you for making me think about what was going on in German though...
I would like to share here a list full of "-zeug" words with their ‘literal’ and actual meanings:
Das Raumfahrzeug ▶ ‘The space travel stuff’ ▶ The spacecraft/spaceship
Das Weltraumfahrzeug ▶ ‘The space travel stuff’ ▶ The spacecraft/spaceship
Das Flugzeug ▶ ‘The flight stuff’ ▶ The plane/airplane/aeroplane/aircraft
Das Luftfahrzeug ▶ ‘The aviation stuff’ ▶ The aircraft/airplane/aeroplane
Das Segelflugzeug ▶ ‘The gliding/sailing flight stuff’ ▶ The glider
Das Strahlflugzeug ▶ ‘The beam flight stuff’ ▶ The jet plane
Das Düsenflugzeug ▶ ‘The zap flight stuff’ ▶ The jet plane
Das Sturzkampfflugzeug ▶ ‘The dive fighter flight stuff’ ▶ The dive bomber
Das Linienflugzeug ▶ ‘The scheduled flight stuff’ ▶ The airliner
Das Verkehrsflugzeug ▶ ‘The commercial flight stuff’ ▶ The airliner
Das Passagierflugzeug ▶ ‘The passenger flight stuff’ ▶ The airliner
Das Ultraleichtflugzeug ▶ ‘The ultralight flight stuff’ ▶ The ultralight aircraft
Das Wasserflugzeug ▶ ‘The water flight stuff’ ▶ The seaplane
Das Luftkissenfahrzeug ▶ ‘The air cushion travel stuff’ ▶ The hovercraft
Das Bodeneffektfahrzeug ▶ ‘The ground effect vehicle’ ▶ The ekranoplan/wingship
Das Tankfahrzeug ▶ ‘The tank travel stuff’ ▶ The tanker
Das Minenabwehrfahrzeug ▶ ‘The mine-defence drive stuff’ ▶ The minesweeper
Das Fahrzeug ▶ ‘The drive stuff’ ▶ The vehicle
Das Kraftfahrzeug ▶ ‘The force drive stuff’ ▶ The motor vehicle
Das Hybridfahrzeug ▶ ‘The hybrid drive stuff’ ▶ The hybrid vehicle
Das Wasserstofffahrzeug ▶ ‘The hydrogen drive stuff’ ▶ The hydrogen vehicle
Das Elektrofahrzeug ▶ ‘The electric drive stuff’ ▶ The electric vehicle
Das Raupenfahrzeug ▶ ‘The caterpillar drive stuff’ ▶ The caterpillar vehicle
Das Schlagzeug ▶ ‘The hit stuff’ ▶ The drums
Das Spielzeug ▶ ‘The play stuff’ ▶ The toy(s)
Das Sexspielzeug ▶ ‘The sex play stuff’ ▶ The sex toy(s)
Das Zaumzeug ▶ ‘The bridle stuff’ ▶ The bridle/headgear
Das Feuerzeug ▶ ‘The fire stuff’ ▶ The lighter/matches
Das Schreibzeug ▶ ‘The write stuff’ ▶ The stationery/writing utensils
Das Werkzeug ▶ ‘The work stuff’ ▶ The tool
Das Arbeitswerkzeug ▶ ‘The working work stuff’ ▶ The work tool
Das Schneidwerkzeug ▶ ‘The cutting stuff’ ▶ The cutter/cutting tool
Das Strickzeug ▶ ‘The knit stuff’ ▶ The knitting utensils
Das Unterzeug ▶ ‘The under stuff’ ▶ The underwear/lingerie
Das Badezeug ▶ ‘The bath stuff’ ▶ The swimwear/swimming attire
Das Badeanzeug ▶ ‘The bathing stuff’ ▶ The bathing suit/swimming attire
Das Knabberzeug ▶ ‘The nibbling stuff’ ▶ The munchies/snack food
Das Grünzeug ▶ ‘The green stuff’ ▶ The greenery/salad
Correct me if I mistranslated anything, I am not a native Deutsch speaker, I just researched and found all these words and wanted to share the knowledge!
Good Luck <3
Why does this lady pronounce er like ar? I looked up other pronounciations on the internet and they pronounce it more like in the English word "hair" (which I thought was correct), but this lady definitely pronounces it like the English word "car" or "lark". Isn't her sound wrong?
You're right. It's just like the mispronunciation of "fertig" in earlier lessons. I think it's just her accent.
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I don't hear it that way. Her pronunciation sounds like a good German "er" to me, which is neither the same an English "ar" nor an English "air". Kind of more like "eh-rr", but that's not a combination we normally hear in English. And sure, it may be a bit more open-mouthed than the English "eh", but it's still distinguishable from "ah" (at least in German), and that's what's really important: the contrast.
There is a funny thing that happens when you hear sounds that don't occur in your native language (or at least one of the languages you're very comfortable with). You'll tend to put the sound into one familiar category or another, rather than creating a new category on the spot.
For example, when I was learning the rounded front vowel sound(s) spelled with a "ö" in German, I heard it differently in different words. I thought everybody was just inconsistent with the pronunciation of that letter until I got comfortable pronouncing it myself. I heard "tsvelf" for "zwölf", "shern" for "schön, and "Koonigsvinter" for "Königswinter" (the town where I was staying). Now I can see that while the surrounding consonants do color the vowel a bit, it's always really an "ö" sound underneath.
Not to invalidate your thesis (which I think is correct), but there are two distinct ‘ö’ sounds: one short and one long, and specifically ‘zwölf’ contains the former, while ‘schön’ and ‘König’ contain the latter.
Totally agree about her pronunciation. In an earlier exercise I heard mag instead of milch.
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when this sentense comes right after the "I am not your toy" it gives a different meaning to the sentense.
For " Mein Werkzeug , Bitte " Shouldn't it My tools please not just my tool ?
For " Mein Werkzeug , Bitte " Shouldn't it My tools please not just my tool ?
Both are possible translations.
Werkzeug can be used collectively (perhaps the more common use) or as a countable noun.
Type what you hear это вроде пиши что слышишь, какого лешего он перевод спрашивает!?
Even after reading the answer I do not hear Werkzeug. It sounds like dragzeug. Usually when not clear I can relate to a recent word, but couldn't get this at all.
I take it zeug basically means "contraption"
Zeug on its own means "stuff".