Close but false friends

[feuervogel]

There are a lot of similarities between German and English, enough that it can lull you into a false sense of security. It leads to things like Berlin finally becoming a world-class airport (bekommen=receive) and ich bin sensibel (sensibel=sensitive).

There's a list of false cognates here, if you're curious.

I'm studying/reviewing for a language test right now, and one of the things I know always screws me up is verbs with fixed prepositions, so I'm spending some time with that. (There's a helpful list in Dreyer & Schmitt.)

So, German prepositions aren't always 1-to-1 translateable for English ones. I'd say most are, but not all. Über, for example, means over or above, but also about, as in talking about something. Nach means after, but also toward (ich reise nach Athen) or in accordance with (gebraut nach dem Reinheitsgebot).

Which means you get set phrases like

jdn. danken für
jdn. ärgern mit
herrschen über

which are easy to remember because they're just like the English thank someone for, anger someone with, rule over.

But then you get

fragen nach

which means literally ask after, which is technically sensical English, but it's not the first thing I choose (ask about). It may be more common in British English, I'm not sure.

Then there's the ones that are like English in that they use a different preposition depending on context:

kämpfen mit den Freunden
kämpfen gegen die Feinde
kämpfen für den Freund
kämpfen um die Freiheit

English collapses the last two into "fight for," and German may have the same ambiguity of fighting with (ie alongside vs against) (native speakers, help me out).

And I'm only on p 100 out of 300. -_-

Comments

[feuervogel]

German prepositions are fun! Just remember that bei doesn't mean by for passive voice; that's durch or von. If you can manage a German-language textbook, Dreyer & Schmitt is really useful. There are copies on Amazon.

[annathepiper]

I'll see how ambitious I get after doing the lessons in SuperMemo and eventually finishing up my Tri-lingual Hobbit Re-read! I've scarfed a couple other novels in German as well.

[feuervogel]

It's basically a grammar text, like Warriner's or something. With tables and conjugations and declinations, and lists of paired words (achten auf, Bescheid geben). My copy is from a 1991 printing, but there's a revised edition with the current spelling reform.

(Man, this is the exact book we used in my high school.)

[annathepiper]

I've got a couple of German dictionaries, but also a German verb book. What I don't have is more involved grammar!

It'll be amusing to see what German lessons SuperMemo has available. A lot of it is straight up vocab but there are grammar exercises it can do as well.

[feuervogel]

Ooh, do you have 501 German Verbs, too? I found a copy in a used book store, and I bought it.

The fun thing about teaching Ben German is his outraged reactions to cases and "recycling" the der-words.

[annathepiper]

I don't have that one--I have the French equivalent--but I do have a different verb book. I'll get you the title when I get home tonight!