[Course Forum] Advanced German Vocabulary by Carlykal

Community-Created Courses German
41

Almost 500 people @amanda-norrsken? Wow!
I can almost feel them staring at me :blush:

Good idea about adding a forum link to the course description. Done!

1 Like
42

UPDATE 5

It’s Friday, which can only mean one thing… yes, it’s time for another fun-filled Advanced German Vocabulary update! :rofl:

CHANGES TO ENGLISH

Level 46

mir fiel ein Stein vom Herzen: ‘a weight was lifted from my chest’ becomes ‘it was a weight off my shoulders’

Level 47

das Murmeltier: ‘woodchuck’ becomes 'marmot’
die Behaarung: ‘fur’ becomes ‘coat, fur or wool (animal); pubescence’

Level 48

der Stachel: ‘barb, sticker’ becomes ‘barb, quill, stinger’
:der Zweig ‘twig’ becomes 'branch, twig’
die Blütezeit: ‘blossoming’ becomes 'blossom time, heyday’
die Vollreife: ‘ripeness’ becomes 'full ripeness’
der Kolben: ‘cob (of corn)’ becomes 'cob (of corn), piston’
die Stärke: ‘starch’ becomes ‘starch, strength’

Level 49

fossile Energiequellen: ‘fossil fuels’ becomes 'fossil fuel sources’
vorwegnehmen: ‘to anticipate, to foreclose’ becomes 'to anticipate, to forestall’
lokalisieren: ‘localize’ becomes 'to pinpoint, localise’
weshalb: ‘why, for which, which is why (por lo cual)’ becomes 'why, for which, which is why’
huschen: ‘to flurry, scamper’ becomes ‘to dart, flit, scamper’

CHANGES TO GERMAN

Level 46

der Infarkt: ‘heart attack’ becomes der Herzinfarkt: ‘heart attack’

CHANGES TO ENGLISH AND GERMAN

Level 46

das Herz rutscht mir in die Hose: ‘my heart jumped out of my chest’ becomes das Herz rutschte mir in die Hose: ‘my heart was in my mouth’

1 Like
43

Another good week’s work, Simon!

All looks good to me!

44

UPDATE 6

CHANGES TO ENGLISH

Level 49

das Windrad: ‘wind mill’ becomes 'wind turbine’
taumeln: ‘to wobble, to rock’ becomes ‘to lurch, tumble, wobble’

Level 51

die Verwerfung: ‘fault’ becomes 'geological fault, distortion, rejection’
der Reif: ‘frost’ becomes 'hoarfrost, rime’
der Ölausfluss: ‘oil spill’ becomes ‘oil outflow’

Level 52

der Proviant: ‘supplies (like Versorgung)’ becomes ‘provisions, victuals’

CHANGES TO GERMAN

Level 50

freisetzten becomes freisetzen

Level 51

das Sedimentgesteine becomes das Sedimentgestein
das metamorphe Gesteine becomes das metamorphe Gestein
das Eruptivgesteine becomes das Eruptivgestein

1 Like
45

Looks good, as usual!

An idea for a mem for “Proviant” might be “Reiseproviant”, which just means “food for the journey” - and obviously provisions, too.

46

Thanks @amanda-norrsken. :smiley:

Is there a way to add default mems to a course, do you know?

47

UPDATE 7

Only a day since I last posted an update but I discovered so many hideous errors on Level 53 this morning that I had to correct them there and then! So here’s Update 7, for your delight and delectation:

CHANGES TO ENGLISH

Level 53

die Fachkraft: ‘der Experte, skilled laborer’ becomes 'professional, specialist, skilled employee’
abweisend: ‘unfreundlich, Haltung haben’ becomes 'dismissive, repellant, unwelcoming’
sich entziehen: ‘to avoid, etw nicht mehr tun oder mitmachen’ becomes ‘to elude, escape, evade’

Level 54

ein Instrument begleiten: ‘ein Instrument spielen’ becomes ‘to accompany someone (e.g. on the piano)’

CHANGES TO GERMAN

Level 53

Vergleiche ziehen becomes Vergleiche ziehen / anstellen / vornehmen

CHANGES TO ENGLISH AND GERMAN

Level 53

sich begegnen: ‘come across, encounter (meist. zufällig)’ becomes begegnen: ‘to come across, encounter’

DUPLICATES REMOVED

The following are just alternatives for “Vergleiche ziehen”:
Vergleiche anstellen
Vergleiche vornehmen

1 Like
48

UPDATE 8

It’s Friday and therefore time for the 3rd (yes, 3rd!) update of the week.

CHANGES TO ENGLISH

Level 54

musizieren: ‘Musik machen’ becomes 'to make music’
wiedergeben: ‘1. to play back; 2. restore’ becomes 'to recite, translate, play back’
bevorstehen (stand bevor, bevorgestanden): ‘something is about to happen, stands before’ becomes ‘to pend, be imminent’

Level 55

die Aussage: ‘statement, claim, conclusion’ becomes 'statement, assertion, testimony’
die Äußerung: ‘comment, statement’ becomes 'utterance, remark, statement’
vollständig: ‘komplett’ becomes 'complete, entire’
der Anspruch: ‘claim’ becomes 'a claim, demand, requirement’
verbreiten: ‘to become bigger’ becomes 'to spread, disseminate, broadcast’
sich verbreiten: ‘to publish’ becomes 'to gain currency, get about (word, news)'
sich festigen: ‘etw. stärker, sicherer, intensiver machen’ becomes 'to consolidate, solidify’
befestigen: ‘fest machen (mit einem Nagel, z.B.)’ becomes 'to stick, fix, mount’
sich begeistern für: ‘to be crazy about something, to live for’ becomes 'to become enthusiastic about’
sich ergeben (aus): ‘(1) to give up; (2) to result (in)’ becomes '(1) to surrender; (2) to result (from sth.)'
benachteiligen: ‘to put s.t. or s.o. at a disadvantage’ becomes 'to handicap, disadvantage, discriminate against’
abgemagert: ‘starving’ becomes ‘emaciated’

CHANGES TO GERMAN

Level 55

die BegrĂźndung (mit etw; -en) becomes die BegrĂźndung

INVALID ENTRIES REMOVED

Level 55

(jdn) begeistern zu - no such colocation
ein Beispiel erläutern - no such colocation

1 Like
49

not quite correct: wiedergeben - LEO: Übersetzung im Englisch ⇔ Deutsch Wörterbuch

also “sich verbreiten” is rather wrong, it means above all “to spread itself”

I rather disagree with sich festigen; festigen is ok, but maybe the original creator was thinking about and did not know well “befestigen”?

50

Wow, editing this course has been a somewhat demoralising experience this week. Whilst I can appreciate the incredible effort by the course creator in putting this 5000-word monster together, there is no excuse for putting something out there without verifying the quality first.
But I’m not targeting my criticism entirely at the course creator: the Memrise platform could do a lot more to facilitate things. Thus, some thoughts:

@Lien (and all the good citizens of Memrise Towers), please consider the following changes to the platform:

  • Add a facility for kind volunteers to validate courses prior to public release. This could be done in lots of ways, e.g. every course would have both a creator and one or more “validators” and the course would only go public with their say-so. Poor-quality courses should never be published.
  • Incentivise people to help. Personally, I’m happy to help for free but if you gave e.g. a month’s PRO membership for people who achieve a certain reputation score (hey, there’s another idea - a reputation score), the quality of the courses - and hence the quality and reputation of the platform - would surely improve even further.
  • Add a way to rate a course, e.g. from 1-5 stars, so that users can easily find good-quality courses.

There are so many other things I would like to see happen with Memrise but don’t get me started. Oh to be the Product Manager :wink:

1 Like
51

I’m a little confused by your objections. I have rechecked my proposals and they seem to express pretty well the sense of the words in question, I think.

Are you perhaps missing the fact that in the list, I stated both the before and after translations? If not then please let me know and I’ll try to understand better what your concerns are (and happily correct them as necessary).

Cheers.

1 Like
52

i am also a bit confused about your reply: some of the translations are not right, that’s all

53

@Hydroptere: I was just trying to ascertain whether you’d followed the style of my report or not. Never mind.

Ok, let’s go through them one at a time:

wiedergeben:
I translated as "recite, translate, play back"
Please could you explain your concerns? Thanks.

sich verbreiten:
I translated as: "to spread, disseminate, broadcast"
You suggested “to spread (itself)”.
At least to my mind, my translations are akin to what you suggest, with an emphasis on real-world use. Please explain if you feel otherwise.

sich festigen:
What is your concern with this? I translated as: “to consolidate.”

54

I would not pay much attention to Hydro. Only thing I would add, ‘‘to solidify’’ under ‘‘sich festigen’’. Otherwise looks sharp. Her course by the way does not even have 3000 words, so I’m not sure where 5k came from. To add pictures to the course, go to the data base, and click add column, modify it to pictures, and you’re done. I don’t agree that courses should go under peer review, but a 5 star voting system is not a bad idea.

2 Likes
55

Hi @Geil. As per your suggestion, I’ve added “solidify” under “sich festigen.” I wondered if “cement” might also be a good translation, but we’ll leave it at that for now.

56

Sure, figuratively speaking, festigen also works for that. But that is kinda what solidify is anyway…

57

UPDATE 9

Another update, still steaming and fresh from the oven. Mmm! Delicious!

You people don’t know how lucky you are. :rofl:

CHANGES TO ENGLISH

Level 56

eine Grenze ziehen: ‘to set a boundary’ becomes 'to draw the line’
anhalten: ‘(1) to continue, go on; (2) to stop’ becomes ‘(1) to stop; (2) to continue (as in: to last, hold on)’

Level 57

an der Rand drängen: ‘to be pushed to the fringe (society)’ becomes 'to marginalise’
die Erkrankung: ‘the process of beoming sick’ becomes 'the ailment, disease, sickness’
die Vorbeugung: ‘prevention, prophalyxis’ becomes ‘prevention, prophylaxis’ [SPELLING MISTAKE]

Level 58

Argwohn erregen: ‘to raise suspicion’ becomes 'to arouse suspicion’
einleuchten: ‘to be clear, to make sense’ becomes 'to be evident, apparent’
enträtseln: ‘to unravel’ becomes ‘to solve (a puzzle), decipher’

Level 59

weltweit agieren: ‘to go global’ becomes 'to operate globally’
kränkeln: ‘to be sick (blowing it out of proportion)’ becomes 'to ail, be in frail health’
die Liege: ‘divan, couch’ becomes ‘day bed, (sun) lounger’

CHANGES TO GERMAN

Level 58

mitsamt (GEN) becomes mitsamt (DAT)

CHANGES TO ENGLISH AND GERMAN

Level 58

sich einer Sache erledigen: ‘to rid oneself of something, to dispose of a matter’ becomes die Sache erledigen: ‘to settle the matter’

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58

an DEN Rand drängen, just in case this wasn’t a typo.

59

The way I know this word is primarily through the phrase “Das leuchtet (mir) ein”, which you would say if someone explained something to you that you hadn’t really understood before.

And, I guess I would translate that with something like “That makes sense”, so I am not sure if your correction is totally OK in this case (which is most definitely the exception, I hasten to add).

https://www.dict.cc/?s=das+leuchtet+mir+ein

60

“eine Sache erledigen” - usually means - in everyday German here in the south-west at least - just means “having to take care of something” or “do an errand / chore/ task”

You might hear an exchange like this:

“Kannst du mir kurz helfen?”

  • Was, jetzt? Kann es warten? Ich muss nur noch eine Sache erledigen und dann kann ich kommen."

(this exchange was invented by me just now, imagining me and my fella talking. He is German, but his German has become a bit anglicized, so the “kann es warten?” might not be 100% German).

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