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- Topic: German >
- "Wir sprechen darüber."
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That would mean something like "we are speaking above it".. at least i hope so
That is correct if you are referting to something in Neutrum. "Wir sprechen über das Kind - wir sprechen über es." "We speak about the child - we speak about it".
I said "we are talking about THEM" and got it wrong. What about darüber indicates it's singular? Thanks!
You know how "it" in English refers to a fact/previous sentence/act ? The da in darüber more or less does the same in here and it sounds weird to translate it as "Them"
Lot's of folks are asking why "We are talking over it" is not acceptable solution. I just want to point out that (1) "We are talking over it" and (2) "We are talking it over" mean two different things in American English. (1) means we are talking loud enough to be heard despite the sound of it, and (2) means we are discussing it. I think it's clear that the intended translation was synonymous with (2). However, I do not know any colloquial or idiomatic German translation for (1). Maybe it would be said the same way?
Could a native German speaker provide a translation for (1) and clear this matter up?
Agreed. I consider myself fluent in German, and this was the first translation that came to mind.
Worüber is only used in questions, as it is a shortened form of "was + über", where "was" became "wo-" and the "-r-" is interposed when the preposition starts with a vowel. Darüber is used is answers ("da" comes from "das"). Worüber sprechen wir? Wir sprechen darüber.
To be a little more precise, "worueber" is not only used in questions. I believe wo-compounds can be used as subordinating conjunctions as well: "Es gibt nichts hier, wofuer ich mich interessiere."
You're absolutely right. When I posted the original comment I was a beginner at German and I tried to keep things as simple as possible. But thanks for building on it.
Why would "we'll talk about it" not be acceptable? Do I need an extra word to give it the future sense (like noch, for instance)?
We will talk about it is future. They are asking for a present tense here, so "we are talking about it"
But in German sometimes present tense is used for future events, is it not? It seems to me that this sentence COULD mean "We will talk about it" in the right context.
Don't know if it answers your question, but DL accepts both 'about that' and 'about it'.
Prepare for a long explanation! "Da" as a word by itself does mean "there." But "da-" + preposition is a construction in German that is used to indicate that the preposition is acting on an implicit object, which is often another clause. To put it simply, "da-" really means something like the word "that" in English when it's combined with a preposition. So: "darueber" means "about that" and "dazu" means "to that" and so on. HOWEVER, sometimes the English language, which evolved largely from German, has analogous expressions, like "therefore" and "therewith." More often than not (with the exception of "therefore"), these expressions are archaic, and the use of preposition + "that" is more appropriate. That said, the BEST translation can sometimes depart from this explanation if it appears in an idiomatic expression or colloquialism. For example, "noch dazu" can mean something like "to boot," "at that," or "for good measure." Those sorts of idiomatic expressions can often times be inferred by reason ("noch dazu" for example can be roughly thought of as "yet to that [point]"), but more often than not, idiomatic expressions just need to be learned on a case by case basis.
Finally, I believe the construction of "da-" + preposition comes from a contraction of two words that evolved in the German language over some long period of time, but I'm not sure.
