[Course Forum] German 1-7 by Memrise

Official Memrise Courses German
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164

Moin! Und guten Rutsch, redux2!

I think DW is geared towards international audiences just as they advertise, so I don’t really have too much of an opinion on them… The problem I have with english words being used here is that people subscribed to learning German already know the english words. Imagine someone going to Germany and hearing ‘‘Institution’’ without ever learning that word here. 99% chance that person already knows what that word means. Now same person hears ‘‘Einrichtung’’. More than likely will have no clue. If the object of the courses is to make them easier to learn, then they are falling for the same trap Duolingo has. If you by chance have taken a look over there, half the verbs are the latin versions. It is embarrassing. Perhaps someone should be a course for giggles here called ‘‘EngliSCH for English speakers’’. :stuck_out_tongue:

but for sure there are a lot of signs of demise in Germany. Language is just one of many casualties of it. The more multi culture they are becoming, the more their own culture is eroding. Multi Culti is just code for anti culture.

EDIT: So I’m going thru all the books I bought during my stay in Austria and Germany, and there is very little ‘‘engliSCH’’. Even the comic books and manga’s I bought. Which those are geared for teenagers really. You would think the invasion would be more prevalent there. If I had to wager a suspicion on the matter, the majority of the english words one will encounter in Germany could probably be isolated to News, advertisements, and tourist…

165

Lass uns gehen

I learned this phrase here some time ago. Since then I’ve learned how to put verbs into the imperative. This is in the “du” form of the imperative.

Is it appropriate to say this to a group of people or do you need to say lasst?

166

@Geil, your post is off topic, so my post is off topic as well

that is maybe because 25% of the German vocabulary is Latin at origin (which is normal, given the history…) also, because English is full with Latin words… Denglish is spoken in “international legalese” - what the US wanted to be the language of international trade - therefore see the language of this branch of law (but take into account the major influence of Roman and French codes of law and vocabulary, all over the legalese on the globe), in the IT, in the hi-tech branches of medicine (see neurosurgery etc), in robotics (“robot” being a Russian word :smile: )), turism, and also… there are some British and US words that came with the occupation areas/forces after the War (Party, Baby etc), also many jokes claim that “Kevin” and “Mandy” are not given names in DE, but “sentences/condemnations” (teacher tend to note down such children, because they sound … “Proll”/RTL-like)

etctetctect

and, please, leave political considerations aside would you? Close to Berlin, Wien/Vienna was for centuries multi-culti… you probaly mean lack of culture of some/ of many - with this I would fully agree

China was never a national state, I mean, the whole Asia (except somehow Japan - but: Buddhism, Ainu, Koreans, Chinese culture - and Korea - but for ex its Buddhism is not of Korean origin, or?) has been since time immemorial multi-culti …many a Thai or a Malay or an “Indian” or or or or would never get your idea of national state…, most of Europe as well was always multi-culti in fact, and what to say about the Americas… … as if the UK was ever some pure culture (what about the Hadrian wall and the Latin/French/Norse vocabulary??? Indian richess to keep the Albion going? slaves? what about the religion of Europe? of Semitic/Asia Minor origin??? Sricptures written in Aramaic and Greek under the rule of the Roman Empire??? well???) maybe “little Britain” is “pure”…

(and, sorry, but Korea and Japan are not the best places to experience openess and respect, as a foreigner)

now you dare to tell me that most of the globe has no culture because is from inception multi-culti…

as many people say, “a national language is a dialect with an army”…

167

@mario2189
German 6 Level 17: for the English “to miss (someone)” we are given “vermissen” as the audio translation but the totally unexpected “Ich werde dich vermissen” (!) as the written equivalent.
Since “Ich werde dich vermissen” gives a usable model and context, I think that should be maintained and the other two elements corrected.

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168

If you are speaking to several people, you should use the plural form of the imperative, yes – so, Lasst uns gehen.

169

Thank you for letting us know! I’ve actually corrected “ich werde dich vermissen” to “vermissen”, since this is what the audio says and it is therefore easier for now to fix it. It is also the more general word/phrase and can be applied to different contexts, so overall very useful!
Best, Mario

170

A post was merged into an existing topic: [Course Forum] Duits 1-7 by Memrise

171

Hello,

in the old German A2, there is a sentence “ich bin mir sicher dass du sehr erfolgreich sein wirst”. Can it be just “ich bin mir sicher dass du sehr erfolgreich wirst”? And if no, why not? (It is not accepted ATM.)

172

= I am sure that you will be very successful.

= I am sure that you will become very successful.

They don’t mean quite the same thing – one of them has wirst as helping verb to form the future and sein as the main verb, so “will be” (sein wirst), while the other has wirst as a full verb meaning “you become” or, since German sometimes uses present-tense verbs for future events, “you will become”.

In order to be successful in the future, you have to become successful first, so the two are related - but not quite the same.

3 Likes
173

I am coping with a few anomalies in the translation but this one really gets me :

Level 29
die Beweise deuten darauf hin, dass du schuldig bist
should be
Les preuves indiquent que tu es coupable.
and not
la preuve indique que vous êtes coupable :rage:

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175

Oh that would annoy me, too!

176

Thanks, not sure how I didn’t get that myself! But thanks all the more, then. :slight_smile:

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177

When I was reviewing what I had learned in the German 1 course I had to identify the formal: “you’re” out of three audio clips. Two of the audio clips was “sie sind” and when I chose one it was counted as incorrect.

178

First post on this forum. In German 2, level 1, Nichts zu danken is translated as “You’re welcome.” My in-laws in Bavaria would beg to differ with this translation. I have understood this to mean, more or less, that “your thanks are not necessary”, or “no need to thank me”. “You’re welcome” would be more along the lines of “Bitteschön” or “Gern Geschehen”. My challenge is to learn the language “Hochdeutsch” but also be able to engage my family, who speak more “Bayerische sprache”. Thank you in advance for your comments.

179

That’s the literal translation, yes.

A more idiomatic English translation might be “Don’t mention it”, which is what some people use in reply to thanks, which also literally means, “Please do not thank me” – but people don’t mean that literally! I think they do appreciate it when someone says “thank you”, just as someone who says, “Nichts zu danken” oder “Nicht der Rede wert” still appreciates the thought.

These are conventional phrases, and I don’t think any one of them can be translated 1:1 to an English conventional response-to-thanks conventional phrase.

In my experience, “Nichts zu danken”, “Bitte schön” (two words!), “Gern geschehen” are all possible. But not every speaker may use all of those.

180

It is good to remember that Memrise choice of teaching is to give the most recurrent expression in the spoken language for an expression.

So it very often can be away from an existing translation that would be more accurate. The aim is not accuracy of translation but recurrence of usage in the expression.
By the way, Memrise gives you a literal translation (as a note under the expression) in their courses now.

I don’t agree with this approach, but you need to keep it in mind when reviewing the courses. I would suggest you create your mem when in such cases. Not ideal but it is an option.

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181

Agreed! Thanks for the reply.

Gruße,
John Wolfe
Wasilla, Alaska

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182

German 3 - Level 4
"ich hätte gern etwas zu frühstücken" → "I would like some breakfast please"
There is an extra “please” in the english version.
Best regards,
Alex

184

do you mean “I would like some breakfast please please”?

185

German 2 - Level 6
"Gibt es dort einen Geldautomaten?"

Shouldn’t be “Gibt es dort einen Geldautomat?” ?