More Tricky German Words
German Dictionary Dangers
German Vocabulary Confusion
In previous lessons (Doch... and Other Tricky Words, Wennschon, dennschon!, and False Friends) we discussed why a dictionary can be a dangerous thing and how German vocabulary can present certain pitfalls and dangers to English-speaking students of German. In this article we'll look at another source of vocabulary confusion: mistaking one German word for another because the two are so close in sound and appearance, or because an English word can have more than one meaning in German.
Sometimes this type of vocabulary problem is a fairly obvious one. Take for example a noun that means one thing when it's one gender, and something else when it's another. For instance, der See is a lake, while die See is a sea. The German noun Band can be feminine, masculine or neuter — with each gender having a very different meaning.
But some similar-word pitfalls can be more subtle. A single, tiny Umlaut is all that separates the verb drücken (press, push) from drucken (print). If you confuse the adjective geistig (mental) with geistlich (spiritual), you may be saying the wrong thing without knowing it. German delikat can mean "delicate" — but only in limited situations. Until you know just which situations, you probably should avoid trying to use delikat in a German sentence.
The third danger area is even more subtle and tricky (delikat!). It results from the fact that words — in English, German or any language — rarely mean only one thing. (The study of this phenomenon is called semiotics, but we're sticking to the practical aspects of word meanings.) A good example would be "blue" or blau. (I already talked about this in Farbenfroh: Colorful Expressions.) The obvious meaning is a color, but even your "blue" is not always the same as someone else's "blue." And being "blue" (sad) in English is not at all the same as being blau (drunk) in German. A supposedly simple word such as "anyway" does not have just one meaning. That's why it can't be translated by just one word into German.
If you want to say something like "It's raining, but we're going anyway," that requires a different German word than "I can't afford it anyway." Can you tell why? It's because one "anyway" means "regardless" or "in spite of" and the other "anyway" means "in any case." English "useless" can mean "in vain" or "hopeless." But the same word can also mean that something is out of order or can't be used: "The phone is useless" versus "It's useless to even try."
For the details on this and other types of word confusion, see the links below for our annotated glossary on confusing words, plus an expanded False Cognates glossary.
NEXT > Confusing Words and Expressions in German
Related Pages
Confusing Words and Expressions
An annotated glossary of confusing words and phrases in German.
False Friends
A glossary of words that appear to be something they're not!
False-Friend Flashcards
Vocabulary practice for some German false cognates.
Doch... and Other Tricky Words
German "particles" are small words that can present big problems.
Wennschon, dennschon! - A look at schon
More on "particles" and their use in German.
When the Plural is Singular
German and English nouns don't always follow the same rules when it comes to singular and plural forms.
False Friends/falsche Freunde
An article about these tricky little devils.
Farbenfroh: Colorful Expressions
German color expressions and their meanings.