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- "Is that what it boils down t…
"Is that what it boils down to?"
Translation:Läuft es darauf hinaus?
63 Comments
83
It's good to learn such idioms... but I wish they wouldn't just chuck them in without warning!
I feel like a less idiomatic and more direct way of translating this is "It's like that?" or "Is that how it is?"
- 1251
https://www.dict.cc/deutsch-englisch/hinauslaufen+auf.html» hinauslaufen | auf
to result in something. to boil down to sth. [fig.]
to amount to, to add up to, to be equivalent to, to be tantamount to, to come to [amount to]
auf nichts hinauslaufen to amount to nothing
auf das Gleiche hinauslaufen to amount to the same thing
auf ein Verbrechen hinauslaufen to amount to a crime
auf ein Vergehen hinauslaufen to amount to an offense
In my mind to memorize:
"Thereon it runs out?"/ "From thereon it runs out?" / "It runs out thereafter" / "After that, it runs out" ...etc
= "It's done after that"
= "That's all there is to it"
= "That's what it boils down to"/ "That's the essence of it" / "That's what it amounts to"
"Boils"??? Really?? isn't "Is that what matters?" a more sensible translation??
my dictionary gives "amounts to." To be fair, the above expression is common enough in the English language. If you're not familiar with it, think of reducing a soup stock or some such liquid substance and once all the liquid has evaporated what you are left with is, some might say, the essence.
- 470
While I'm familiar with the English idiom I would think "That's what it amounts to." is equally correct.
- 108
Here in Ohio that phrase makes perfect sense. You're getting a simplified/summary version; that's what it "boils down to."
My qualm was that there wasn't good guidance for the correct syntax
- 1616
I don't see the point of not giving a literal meaning of a German saying. We should never get an English idiom to explain a German phrase. If the idiom itself is German, give it to us literally and anyone with half a brain will figure out what it means. Parroting makes for poor learning.
For other notes on this: "darauf hinauslaufen" means 'to imply', with hinauslaufen being separable. So, literal transation of this is: "does it imply?"
Not really an idiom hinauslaufen auf is a verb meaning to amount to or boil down to. You just have to rembember to use the preposition auf
This is really a bad way to teach idioms. The stuff comes out of nowhere with no context and really has no connection with the other items in the unit
- 488
Yeah. They should have put this stuff in the Idioms topic you can get, and put the topic further down than it is. Duo wasted that Idioms topic by putting practically nothing in it!
Since i am not an english native speaker i do not understand what it means by. "Is what it boils down to?" can please somebody explain
- 83
Hi there. This could be explained in another way:
Is this the fundamentally important idea?
In other words, the thing being discussed might be larger or wider-ranging, but this is the important part.
Two examples:
A cup final is heading into the last minute. It's been a tough game, lots has happened in the game and the previous rounds, but it's a draw. The ref gives a penalty: this (the penalty) is what it (the preceding cup games) all boils down to.
Another example:
You make a series of complaints to a partner. They haven't done this, they haven't done that. They realise it's your anniversary and that they forgot to say. This (forgetting the date) is what it (the other complaints) all boils down to.
- 244
no prep, no "sometimes this sentence construction is used" just, here you go! And because the hints are terrible, you fail, you don't know why, and ultimately you just don't learn it. The hints are awful
- 538
This whole averb section is driving me crazy. It is all idioms rather than adverbs. Defenders of this stupid approach say that we have to learn the idioms, but Duo teaches by repetition. We are simply not getting it here. We get seemingly random combinations of darauf and hinaus and davon and missing words which we are told are left out because its idiom and the missing word is assumed. Making any sense of it all is impossible without resource to external references. Where is the learning structure in that
OK, I get it that it's a free learning tool (which can also be paid), but I would expect a more detailed explanation for these complex idioms. For example, what is the link between the English and German sentences in this case? At my current level of German, I can make no connection between them. I cannot learn from this example. All I learned is that I have to look elsewhere for explanations. This tool can definitely NOT replace a proper German course. I am more confused than educated by "idioms" like these. So please, if you want to bring this tool to a proper level, just add a proper explanation system. Every time I encounter these philosophical emanation sentences made for people who already know German, I have to scroll through countless pages of more-or-less relevant comments to just... get to the point and move on to the next sentence. I get it that you can learn "other stuff too" from the comments, but given that I'm (still) a beginner, I need to focus on ONE thing at a time. But well... it's a free tool, so I'll be fine...
- 475
Take it easy! It is only one extremely bad translation of a very idiomatic English sentence. Other better German translations would be "Geht es darum?/Ist es das, warum/worum es geht" and that is also accepted.
You cannot expect a perfect tool for learning a language at Duolingo, bu you can use it to improve your own knowledge in a language and to exercise.
I didnt understand either english or german sentence. How am i supposed to do this question if duolingo doesnt have an extensive section for idioms? Make it make sense please.
- 288
Seriously, but how can anyone memorise an idiom when it's translated to another idiom that I have never even seen in English?
- 83
That's just language, though, isn't it? There will be words you don't know and phrases you don't know - and the more you learn the easier it'll be. It's always going to be an especially hard part of communicating.
- 288
While true, you're missing my point. This course is for beginners so translating an idiom by another one is hardly the most efficient way of teaching,
I wrote : Ist das worum es geht?
and was corrected to : Ist es das worum es geht?
Can someone explain me why?
- 475
I wrote: "Geht es darum?" and it was accepted as a correct and understandable German translation. (;
- 83
At a guess (English speaker), it's maybe because the first one means:
"Is that what it's about?"
That's quite a basic idea or concept, maybe? Whereas the second might be more like:
"Is it that that this is about?"
And so maybe the second is more in the spirit of, "Is that what it boils down to?"
I understand what you mean, but it still makes makes no more sense to me. In that case the English translation should be "is it that what it boils down?"
I don't think the problem is about a different meaning but about some syntax issue.
- 83
Yeah. Might be one for a German native speaker to solve.
Another option is the way the algorithm works - i.e. your answer was closest in form to the second answer, which someone has submitted and had accepted, but your answer hasn't been submitted. So, in that scenario, rather than giving you the standard translation, it's tried to point you to one it thinks you mean.
- 410
Introduced to me as a "fill in the missing word" exercise with "darauf" nowhere in the hints. I understand losing hearts when I'm at fault, but this is more like paying a chastisement fee to RTFM.
I can't believe that was the LAST question I had to answer in my test, and I had no hearts anymore. Aaaah. Hadn't learned that expression. .-.
And what would you have it translated to?
Admittedly, there are a few variants in English for the same thing
I am not mother english speaker but boil evoke me something with cooking, kitchen etc... So when i shoudl translated i was really confused what i shoudl do with that.
So back tothe first comments it is really IDIOM and i shoudl learn it or leav it as it looks like.
It is an English idiom itself. Others have suggested above that "Is that what it amounts to?" is an alternative, which is valid.
To help you understand the underlying meaning of the "boils down to" version, it is in fact cooking based in reference. A follow up idiom would be about getting to the "meat" of the issue. For instance, when you have minced beef, it'll also have some fat on it. Before you boil it down, it can look like there's a lot of it. But, you boil it down, and get to the actual meat.
In use, you'd be talking about a problem, or an issue. And the person being asked "is that what it boils down to?" may have said a lot of unnecessary information, which makes the actual issue hard to see. Until someone removes all the 'fat' of their problem and gets to the real 'meat'.
I've probably not cleared that up at all (:
- 543
THANK YOU! This sentence broke me, because I couldn't even translate the parts to ANYTHING approaching the meaning. "That's what it comes out to" is, in comparison, perfectly comprehensible.
This is what I'm going with for my translation: "Is that what comes out of it from there?"
You can also say 'geht es darum?' - that also translates to this. These are the kinds of exercises I can do a hundred times, and a hundred times I'll get them wrong. The German words don't seem to want to stick in my head - I look at them and a half hour later I'll forget. Not easy, this stuff...
- 83
It's frustrating, but it'll stick eventually. It's a lifetime skill you're learning, and it'll be worth it.
Los geht's!
- 463
Ich kannte den Ausdruck nicht. Ich kann ihn mir höchsten so vorstellen, dass nach längerem Kochen nur noch eine Essenz übrig bleibt. Also eine Verdichtung des Problems, sozusagen das Wichtigste.
A part of me dies every single time Duolingo throws in a sentence like that.
- 1271
Protip: next time you encounter a garbage sentence, google the discussion thread for the answer first.
