"Dieser Berg ist höher als dein Haus."
Translation:This mountain is higher than your house.
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It has always been one of my favorite words to. I learned it from context in Germany, though, and still have to think twice to translate it. I learned a lot of German from breaking down their compound words. It made learning easier, but translation somehow more difficult.
Selbst means self and verständlich is related to the verb verstanden and means understandable or intelligible. In other words it's understandable in and of itself. This word itself was selbstverständlich without me ever having to look for the appropriate English translation.
Does this mean that all cities that have -berg in their names make a reference to a mountain? So cities like Nürnberg would translate to something like the mountain of Nürn? Or is this completely off...
The name »Nürnberg« comes from Old High German »nuorenberc«, meaning “rocky mountain”.
However, a modern folk etymology derives the name from »nur ein Berg« “only one mountain”, because the mountain on which the fortress is built (known today as »Ölberg«) is the only one in the area.
"Dieser" means "this" in the vast majority of cases. If it's ever used to mean "that", it should be really obvious.
Berg is masculine, so dies is declined to dieser (nominative masculine) just like other der words- all, jed, jen, solch, welch, manch etc
Does this mean the mountain is larger than the house, or the mountain is in a higher location?
It means the top of the mountain is at a higher elevation than the top of the house, which could be for either reason.
I'd be shocked to find a house that's taller than a mountain, since a mountain generally has to be at least 600 meters tall.
That definition was devised by the British and the US later followed suit. But both dropped it back in the 70s. They made a whole movie about it.
https://www.thoughtco.com/difference-between-hill-and-mountain-4071583
Does the "B" in the word Berg sounds like a "V" ? At least that's waht I heard, maybe my ears are deceiving me
The b in the German noun Berg sounds just like the b in the English iceberg – not the rest of it, though. Duolingo's sentence sounds fine to me in that regard. You can listen to some examples of the word spoken by humans at forvo: http://www.forvo.com/word/berg/
Just to be clear... Can the word "Berg" be also used for a hill that's NOT "höher als dein Haus"?
Say you're the owner of a »Hochhaus« “skyscraper” …
Or say »dieser Berg« is Villingili in the Maldives, or a toy mountain in a train set …
That's exactly what makes it a good example to teach a comparison of inequality.
