[Course Forum] Intermediate German by Blo

Community-Created Courses German
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Ask your questions here.

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Great. I will try it

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Can @Blo (or another admin, if possible?) please edit this course and the 1000 Words of Elementary German course so that English words with several German synonyms either a) have a different English translation or b) accept each other? I’ve been stuck on der Raum/das Zimmer, die Ahnung/der Verdacht, weit/fern, and a couple other things for over a week now because both words in the pair happened to come up for review at the same time, and there isn’t any way to tell which one the review wants until I try one.

Thanks!

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This course is quite big, so to edit all translation I need a lot of time, so please ask about specific words. I can add words as synonyms to each other, just ask. There is no Raum or Zimmer words in this course. There is only der Verdacht in this course and die Ahnung is not there. These words are not synonyms. der Verdacht = suspicion, die Ahnung = anticipation. There is no fern and weit words as well. Please ask about words that you meet in this course.

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Hello, me again. I’ve found yet more non-accepted synonyms and similar words - see below. Thanks again for working to improve the course.

freilich and sicherlich - certainly

das Team ; die Mannschaft - team

sowieso and ohnehin - anyway (can’t remember if I mentioned this one before)

der Bund and der Verband - association

die Tabelle for table - need to clarify it’s a table as in a diagram as Tisch is dinner/coffee etc. table

die Position; die Stellung - position

offensichtlich and eindeutig - clear (these are both in the same level - 15!). offensichtlich could be translated as obvious instead? eindeutig means clear / clearly

die Figur and die Gestalt - figure (level 19 and 20)
pretty similar. Gestalt can’t be used for someone’s body figure, but otherwise they are similar

Also a request:

for languages, e.g.
das Italienisch (noun) for Italian - please could it clarify it is the language - Italiener would be an Italian (man) but this is marked as wrong
same for russisch I think

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And another pair of synonyms

verstecken and verbergen - to hide

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only one example from this list: Bund and Verband are only (rather) partial synonyms. Think about Bundestag, Bundesland…

at this stage one needs a better dictionary… http://dict.leo.org/ende/index_de.html#/search=Bund&searchLoc=0&resultOrder=basic&multiwordShowSingle=on&pos=0.

PONS is also quite ok

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I’m just highlighting the frustrating duplicates. I’m sure there are nuances but for the purposes of this course it’s probably better to mark them as synonyms rather than for students to be marked wrong for just making the wrong selection on a 50/50 decision.

However, if you want to propose a specific, simple translation for the purpose of the course (which you can’t get on Leo as it lists every possible meaning in minute detail) I’m sure that would be helpful.

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freilich and sicherlich - certainly

marked as synonyms

das Team ; die Mannschaft - team

marked as synonyms

der Bund and der Verband - association

marked as synonyms and also added alternative translation to der Verband - bandage

die Tabelle for table - need to clarify it’s a table as in a diagram as Tisch is dinner/coffee etc. table

added clarification (grid of data in rows and columns)

die Position; die Stellung - position

marked as synonyms

offensichtlich and eindeutig - clear (these are both in the same level - 15!). offensichtlich could be translated as obvious instead? eindeutig means clear / clearly

offensichtlich - changed to obvious, eindeutich added definite translation

die Figur and die Gestalt - figure (level 19 and 20)
pretty similar. Gestalt can’t be used for someone’s body figure, but otherwise they are similar

added 2 clarifications Figur - shape, Gestalt - character. Also added as synonyms.

Also a request:

for languages, e.g.
das Italienisch (noun) for Italian - please could it clarify it is the language - Italiener would be an Italian (man) but this is marked as wrong
same for russisch I think

added clarification to both Italian and Russian - (language)

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There is only der Verdacht in this course and die Ahnung is not there. These words are not synonyms. der Verdacht = suspicion, die Ahnung = anticipation.

I had the same problem as @Adsartha for Ahnung and Verdacht.
Ahnung is in this course with translation : suspicion. (Level 39 / 2nd word)
Could you change it to anticipation then please ?

Thank you for clearing up those bugbears in the course @papersaltserver.

I will redownload the course to be up-to-date. And will try to bring here some comments on this course I am just about to finish.

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One more English synonym:

Wettbewerb - Competition, Contest
Konkurrenz - Competition , Rivalry

Both just marked as ‘Competition’ on the course.

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Added as synonyms.

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Another one…
Level 1 - geraten
Level 19 - erweisen
both listed as ‘to turn out’, but not accepted as synonyms.

From discussion with the wife:
Erweisen is better translated as ‘to prove / show’ but then prove will be a duplicate with beweisen unfortunately
Geraten appears to have too many meanings to translate simply but often means ‘to take after someone’ e.g. child or ‘to turn out’ as in a meal turned out well - ‘gut geraten’.

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Oh, very difficult words.
I’ve made following:
geraten - still "to turn out"
erweisen, beweisen, nachweisen - all changed to “to prove” and marked as synonyms. If someone can explain short way to translate it, I’ll change translations. Long explanation from italki:
erweisen: Etwas zeigt eine Eigenschaft, die Dir vorher unbekannt war.
“Mein Freund hat sich als hinterhältig erwiesen.”
“Die Forschungsergebnisse haben sich als falsch erwiesen.”
“Die Entscheidung hat sich als richtig erwiesen.”

beweisen: Du belegst eine Eigenschaft, die Du vorher behauptet hast.
“Ich beweise dem Richter meine Unschuld.”
“Die Indizien beweisen, daß der Angeklagte zum Tatzeitpunkt nicht anwesend war.”
“Du kannst mir beweisen, daß du mein Freund bist, wenn Du den Mund hältst.”

nachweisen: Du belegst eine Eigenschaft, die Du (oder andere) vorher nur vermutet oder angenommen hast. (oft in der Forschung)
“Wir konnten nachweisen, daß der Boden hier viele Schadstoffe enthält.”
“Die Forscher wollen nachweisen, daß der Mensch vom Rhinozeros, und nicht vom Affen abstammt.”
“Ich mußte nachweisen, daß ich 18 Jahre alt war, bevor ich das Auto mieten durfte.”

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Another one - the well known three versions of ‘why’ in German - warum, wieso and weshalb.

I’m can’t remember if warum is in the course but wieso and weshalb both definitely are, and they are not accepted as synonyms!

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fßgen and ergänzen

Beschäftigte and Arbeitnehmer

gewaltig and riesig

eintreten and eintragen

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My course shows up as 1 missing word when I have completed it. Could @papersaltserver you please find the deleted word causing this problem?

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fßgen and ergänzen - add

offiziell and der Beamte - doesn’t clarify that it’s looking for a noun with Beamte - official

Arbeitnehmer and Beschäftigte - employee

der Start and starten - again I don’t think noun is clarified - start

gewaltig and riesig - enormous

eintreten and eintragen - to enter

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regrettably all the nouns of this course are missing the article it is confusing too many times

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Not quite true - some of them have the (n) below. But I agree, particularly later in the course it creates problems with the many, many duplicates the original course creator put in.

papersaltserver is gradually helping to correct them when discovered, but it’s a slow process as I keep finding more every time I get to a new level!