These two adjectives: alkoholfrei and jugendfrei confuse me a little.

alkoholfrei means without alcohol (free of alcohol, alcohol-free) so deducing logically I would think that jugendfrei mean without the young (people), so not allowed for them. It is, however, quite the contrary.

jugendfrei means suitable for children and the youth, allowed for them, so in that case it is not free OF the young people, but free FOR them.

Now I somehow have the feeling that I made it sound even more confusing than it really is… Well, anyway, have a great weekend! And if you’re not an adult yet, remember to keep it alkoholfrei and jugendfrei!

I was inspired to write about today’s topic by a (very frequent recently) TV commercial of a German insurance company. Words versichern, verunsichern and Versicherung(en) come up quite often in it (what a surprise!) and that reminded me how tricky they can be.

Take those three sentences for example:

1. Ich versichere dich gegen Diebstahl. (I insure you against theft)

2. Ich versichere dir, dass ich keine bösen Absichten habe. (I assure you that I have no evil intentions)

3. Ich versichere dich meiner Treue und Hochachtung. (I assure you of my loyalty and deep respect)

Sentence No. 1 could be uttered by an insurance agent to his client. The 2. is used to assure somebody that something is (not) the case. I used to get it all wrong and say * Ich versichere dich, dass das stimmt! And my loyal German friend and flatmate whom I asked to always correct my mistakes used to say: You’re no insurance company, use dative!
Sentence No. 3 is written in a pretty elevated style and sophisticatedly mixes accusative with the oh, so difficult and rare genitive. If you always know how to correctly apply this case you have made it in the world (of German speakers).

One little verb, so many tricky options! And then there’s this little brother – verunsichern – in which this tiny un in the middle causes a complete change in meaning. At least this one only goes with accusative!

Today’s post is inspired by stories I read and experiences I made myself with people who cannot properly use the cc: and bcc: functions when sending emails. However, I don’t really want to write about how irresponsible and embarrassing it is to send one email (usually promotional or with wishes) to DISCLOSED recipients.

I’d rather have a look at the linguistic background of the abbreviation cc itself. As you probably know it stands for carbon copy and the term actually comes from the times long (well not so long) before emails or photocopiers when one used to make copies by putting carbon paper between the sheets and typing or writing real hard.

I find it really funny that ‘old’ terminology enters the world of new technologies. On a side note: can you possibly imagine a world without copy machines or emails anymore? When I was still a student we often thought about how hard it must have been even for our parents to study without those blessings. I mean, seriously! How did they copy the notes taken during a boring lecture at 8 am by the only conscientious student who actually showed up and made them?

According to my Duden Calendar (under the Title Trends) it becomes more and more common for Germans to use Technologie as a translation for technology in context where it should be Technik, Methode or Verfahren.

Langenscheidt German dictionary explains the term die Technologie as follows:

1. die Lehre, wie naturwissenschaftliche Erkenntnisse in der Produktion genutzt werden
2. alle technischen Kenntnisse

And die Technik:

1. alle Mittel und Methoden, mit denen der Mensch die Kräfte der Natur und die Erkenntnisse der Naturwissenschaften für sich praktisch (aus)nutzt

which is a close equivalent of Macmillan’s definition of technology: advanced scientific knowledge used for practical purposes, especially in industry

2. die Maschinen und Geräte (eines Betriebs)

which could be a twin brother of Longman’s explanation: new machines, equipment, and ways of doing things that are based on modern knowledge about science and computers

Fazit: the German word Technologie (in its original meaning) applies mostly to the practical application of knowledge especially in a particular area : engineering.

My Duden calendar specialist thinks that it’s been used more and more in the meaning of Technik because it just sounds better. My guess is that it’s a classical instance of a false friend and a tricky one because they really sound and look alike and the differences in meanings of Technik and Technologie are rather subtle…

I love German word formation creativity! Urlaubsreif is another example from my log list of words that are somehow German-only i.e. usually cannot be translated into other languages with just one word. Urlaubsreif means in desperate need of a holiday and because I consider myself a person in such a state all the linguistic topics that come to my mind right now are somehow holiday-related.

Take the word wellness for example. Another wonderful instance of German importing English words and adapting them for their own needs. All English dictionaries I consulted (Oxford, Longman, Cambridge and Macmillan) barely define this word as health or the state of being healthy. The Langenscheidt German dictionary on the other hand says that die Wellness is the state of being physically healthy, happy and fit and also describes massages, baths and physical exercises offered at the so-called wellness centers.

As I’m dreaming of holidays in such a Wellnessoase at the seaside I came to think about the peculiarity of the name of the Baltic Sea. The Germans pragmatically call their seas according to their geographical location: die Nordsee (the North Sea of course) and die Ostsee (the Baltic Sea, literally: the East Sea). And whereas the North Sea is called the North Sea in most languages, the Baltic Sea changes its name depending on the country. I was trying to find some kind of a pattern behind it but failed disastrously (see: Urlaubsreif). So if you happen to know more about the origins of and tidbits about the name Baltic Sea, do let me know!

I learned a new word today and I want to share it with you: TMESIS.
Tmesis (from Greek) is separation of two parts of a word that belong together. In German it’s common with prefixed verbs; the simple verb gets separated from the prefix:

Ich lade dich ein.
Er räumt den Tisch auf.
Sie wacht jeden Tag um 7 Uhr auf.

But what’s more important: tmesis also often appears in (highly) colloquial German. Thus my warning for today is that you should NEVER use sentences like in the following examples on the left in written German.

Wo gehst du hin? – Wohin gehst du?
Da hab ich nix von gehört! – Davon habe ich nichts gehört!
Da hab ich nix mit zu tun! – Damit habe ich nichts zu tun!
Da kann sie nix für! – Dafür kann sie nichts!

My flatmate has asked me recently if I knew that the Germans tend to use the verb realisieren in a wrong way as he was told (off) by a friend who’s (allegedly) into language matters. He claimed that in German it only has the meaning of verwirklichen and the Germans also use it to convey the meaning of erkennen, bemerken.

First I (admittedly negligently and a bit absent-mindedly) agreed as such cases are known to the public where similar words in two languages that used to mean something completely different (so false friends) have adopted the other meaning from the other language in one of the languages.

But today I decided to have a closer look at the matter and both Duden and Langenscheidt say that the verb realisieren has both those meanings in German. I think I’ve got to talk to my flatmate about that again, because it might be true that realisieren is now overused in situations where a simple erkennen or bemerken would do but still it’s not a mistake as such.

So, it happened, the Sommermärchen is over. It’s a pity but it’s high time I started writing about other stuff again and being among 4 best football teams in the world is (or at least should be) still a big thing for this young guys.

My today’s topic is a kind of a bridge between football and language. I’ve had a discussion with my friends recently about the term Public Viewing (which I also used in my post in English). They said they read that it’s another one of those Scheinanglizismen (fake anglicisms) in German like handy or beamer.

I decided to pursue the issue and indeed found out that especially in American English the term public viewing is most commonly used for the viewing of a body of a deceased person at a funeral or things that are shown to the public. The new football-related meaning, however, seems to set foot gradually also in the English language, British being the fore worker here probably just because of the British football craze being much bigger than the American. Alternative terms I found include: public screening, (outdoor) viewing party and watching the match in the pub/on a big screen.

The Germans themselves tried to come up with a good German-origin equivalent. The success of Rudelgucken wasn’t overwhelming, though…

I just can’t leave it. Simply can’t stray far from the football topic, I hope you can forgive that. It’s just this football fever! I’m infected, I guess.

But today I want to tell you about something that actually falls neatly into the out of home/cultural category. I went to see the game Germany vs. England on the so-called FAN FEST in Hamburg. It’s a public viewing for 70,000 people in front of a huge screen. I have to admit I’m not a big fan of human masses (apart from at a rock concert) but I was told one has to experience this at least once. And well, we really chose the best possible game to watch (so far). 5 (actually 6) goals and pure drama!

We prepared at home listening to football songs and then armed with mini German flags we entered the cheering crowd (and the sun was scorching that day!). Every time Germany scored dust rose from the earth as thousands of feet kept jumping up in endless joy. I totally embraced the experience, it was awesome to see those typically so reserved Germans scream and sing and cheer together. Remember I mentioned that watching football is all about being together? Well, public viewing is something of a peak to such collective watching. I had a sore throat and my head and feet were aching afterwards, but it was totally worth it to see dieses wahre Sommermärchen! The Germans have called the World Cup a ‘summer fairy tale’ since 2006 when they were hosts and truly rediscovered their national pride and its symbols such as the flag for the first (!) time since the war time. I hope their fairy tale goes until the final and…

Nothing is going as planned so far… in this World Cup! Well, almost nothing at least. Argentina seems to be doing fine under the loving care of the grand (but not tall) Diego Maradona but most of the other favorites disappoint bitterly.

What is going on with the French? It was probably the worst World Cup in the French history, going home after the first round without having won a single game! A shame! One scandal after another. Abuses, offenses, very poor performance, refusing to train… are they on strike? Well, they’re French, it wouldn’t be surprising…

Portugal seems to have regained strengths and beat the poor North Koreans 7:0 and that on a day when the North Korean TV broadcast a football game live for the first time in history! What a pity… Brazil won both matches but the performance was far from brilliant, similar situation with Spain, I bet they’d win 3:0 against Honduras in their second game (after losing (!) against Switzerland) but they disappointed my hopes and only won 2:0 after wasting so many good chances!

Germany started off excellently! And then there was last Friday, the game against Serbia. I was rather sure Germany was going to win and I wanted them to win but I had a dream two days before the game that they’d lose 0:2 so just out of spite I predicted this result in our little betting game. And they lost! My friends blamed for ‘cursing’ the match and I was just curious why the heck if I already dream of a (bad) result it cannot be really precise?

So tonight’s the night! The deciding game Germany vs. Ghana. Very exciting and everyone’s here really nervous. Fortunately I didn’t have any dream predictions that could curse the game so I hope they’ll just win easily!

By the way, sorry for writing so much about football recently instead of other language and culture issues but it’s just really big here (part of the culture, if you want). If you miss the language part I can recommend another Football (soccer) vocabulary quiz! Enjoy waka waka!