Added: 4 years ago
From: AericWinter
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  • Ich bin mir sicher, dass ich mit 80%iger Trefferqoute die korrekte Rechtschreibung für ein Wort erraten kann, wenn ich es höre. Das kommt einfach mit dem Sprachgefühl, das man bekommt wenn man viel Englisch hört und liesst.

  • @TheLlawlliet Inklusive Eigennamen wie Thames und Worchester?

  • @AericWinter Worcester können nichtmal Amerikaner richtig aussprechen^^

    Aber um deine frage zu beantworten : Jein. Also da ich das Wort Worcester kenne könnte ich jetzt auch raten, dass andere Ortschaften in der nähe wie Gloucester

    ähnlich geschreiben werden. Natürlich würde ich meilenweit vorbeischiessen wenn ich noch nie von der Soße gehört hätte^^

  • @TheLlawlliet Ist in der Tat recht speziell.

  • This makes me think of an episode of 'I Love Lucy' when Lucy wants to learn proper English and Ricky is going through the words, rough, through, etc. He says, "why do you have to have such a comlicated language?" haha

  • The Germans write "Kasse" but the Austrians tend to use the word "Kassa". Strange...

  • ab + spast = abspasten

  • english is just a random combination of other languages. i agree, it makes no sense to me either (i'm american by the way, so my native language is english)

  • I can't believe that you didn't give "people" as an example for an annoying English word. that word is messed up in any way you look at it

  • @candykittie Huh, I guess I was so used to that word I overlooked its messeduppedness.

  • Oh no... You don't know how to spell the words in German cause you will most likely not get the grammar right anyway! =) And don't we all have those words that you combine there anyway? Perhaps the German spelling is easy to begin with but the grammar makes it 10 times more impossible than any other language! :S

  • Oh sure, German grammar can be a bitch. But believe me, French is much much worse.

  • Haha.. of course German is easier for YOU being German.. ;)

  • Okay, so I might have a sliiiight advantage.

  • I've tried learning both german and french, and french is 10 times harder

  • @candykittie LMAO!!! Really? ;-D

  • Hallo Aeric,

    Was es bedeutet "aufzugeben" ?

    Alexandre.

  • Mostly, it has the same meaning as the English verb "to give up". It means abandon, capitulate. For some odd reason, it also means to mail a letter or to assign homework. Don't ask me why, though. LoL

  • Dafür hat man in der deutschen Sprache so seine Probleme mit d und t oder ph, pf und f. :-)

  • Besonders erschreckend ist das bei Kommentaren hier auf YouTube. Vor allem v und f scheinen im Internet als beliebig austauschbar zu gelten.

  • Das ist ja vurchtbar! *scnr*

  • That's why I love learning German. If I can remember how it sounds, there's a 99% chance I can remember how it's spelt :)

  • There have got to be some perks to this otherwise pretty difficult language. Much respect to anyone trying to learn it.

  • Ich liebe dieses Ende. ^^

    Aber was du da erklärt hast ist auch für mich noch informativ gewesen, auch wenn ich schon genug mit Präfixen in der Schule zu tun hatte. Jedenfalls finde ich persönlich die englische Sprache ein Bisschen besser als die Deutsche, auch wenn ich Vokabular und Aussprache noch ein bisschen perfektionieren muss ;) (Nur ein kleines Bisschen xD)

    Sehr gutes Video :)

  • Vielen Dank.

    Ist für uns schwerer vorzustellen, dass andere genau das Gleiche über deutsch denken, oder?

    Dabei ist Deutsch die dritt meist gelehrte Fremdsprache der Welt.

  • Ich denke für uns als Deutsche schon, nur denke ich, dass Leute, die die Sprache erst lernen, sich mehr für sie interessieren so wie wir zum Beispiel für Englisch weil sie einfach ihre eigene Sprache leid sind. Übrigens würde ich dir empfehlen, mal ein Video darüber zu machen, wie Deutsch von Anglizismen aufgefressen wird, denn genau das passiert. In Polen zum Beispiel sind Anglizismen in Werbespots sogar verboten wenn ich mich nicht täusche.

  • Stimmt, auch die Franzosen haben versucht, Anglizismen zu begrenzen.

    Ich hatte dem Kanal missverstaendnis101 den Vorschlag unterbreitet, eine Videokollaboration über Anglizismen zu machen, weil ich dachte dass es zu ihrem Stil passen würde. Leider sind wir nie dazu gekommen. Hmmm, vielleicht sollte ich die Idee einmal alleine durchziehen.

  • Würde ziemlich gut ankommen, denke ich mal, auch als Solo-Video.

  • Okay, kommt auf die To Do Liste. ^^

  • Yay, ich freu mich schon. :)

  • Die To Do Liste ist allerdings nicht ganz kurz. Es könnte ein wenig dauern, bis genau dieses Video kommt.

  • Dann solltest du aber auch erwähnen, dass die deutsche Sprache allgemein sehr international ist, was wieder eine Besonderheit ist. Denk an die vielen Latinismen.

  • Da ist was dran.

    Wobei derzeit die Verbreitung von Anglizismen das Thema ist, über das aktuell vorwiegend diskutiert wird.

  • Sogar für mich als Deutschen informativ. Hab mir darüber speziell noch nie Gedanken gemacht. Sprachen wie Englisch find ich persönlich aber zum Beispiel sanfter als Deutsch...bin aber proud auf my Deutsch ;)

    danke fürs video. sehr ansprechend und informativ

  • Keine Ursache.

    Auf solche Zusammenhänge kommt man auch erst wenn man von Nichtmuttersprachlern darauf angesprochen wird. Wir selber sprechen's halt irgendwie.

    Du ahnst nicht, was ich schon an Fragen bzgl. Genus bekommen habe: "Aber Aeric, warum heißt es DIE Hose und DER Rock? Das ist doch total unlogisch."

    Tja...

  • Ja da ist auch was dran :D

    finde übrigens super, dass du dir die Mühe machst uns feedback-postern (...ja Englisch hat einfluss auf meinen Sprachgebrauch^^) zu antworten. Erlebt man nicht häufig hier bei youtube. Weiter so. Ich Unterschreibe dann mal ne ;)

  • So kann man das Wesen der deutschen Sprache gut beschreiben. Aber Präfixe und Wortzusammensetzungen gibt es auch in anderen Sprachen, deutsch ist in dieser Hinsicht offensichtlich sehr vielfältig.

    Etwas ist mir aufgefallen: übergeben hat eigentlich zwei Bedeutungen (erbrechen bzw. überreichen). Und vielleicht ist bei Wörtern wie knee das k eine Art Überbleibsel, im Deutschen spricht man es mit, merke Knie!

    Das ist keine Klugscheißerei, nur eine Anmerkung, du machst das schon sehr ansprechend!

  • Leider bin ich kein etymologisches Schwergewicht, aber mit der "K"-Sache liegst Du wahrscheinlich richtig. Auch das Wort "knight" stammt vom germanischen Wort "Knecht" ab. Warum man das "k" nicht mitspricht, bleibt mir allerdings ein Rätsel.

    Außer "übergeben" haben andere meiner Beispiele mehr als eine Bedeutung, aber ein YouTube-Video sollte man nicht verkomplizieren.

    Das habe ich übrigens gar nicht als Klugscheißerei empfunden. Bin immer dankbar für Feedback. ^^

  • I speake spanish, and every letter tend to has a unique pronunciation and I totally agree with you in that part of the end of the video...you have to look to all those lenguages that are spoken in eastern europe....in ukrain for example...let me write, for you to have an example, the name of the place where Andryi schevchenko (the, Ukranian, ex ac milan player) born..

    Dvirkivshchyna

    notices the SHCH or the DV there you got an extreme case of what you said XD.

    ...nice and fun video touGH XD

  • OMG, slavic languages are pandora's box to me. They are awesome, but so versatile it confuses the hell out of me.

    Not to mention that words of those cultures using the kyrillic alphabet mean that the same words are written differently in German or English, for exmple. Just like Andryi Schevchenko. In my country, he is written "Andrei Schewtschenko". Same guy, different spelling. We can't win, can we? (c;

  • Ok, not be be TOO crude, but say I'm strolling down the streets of Hamburg and some jerk's giving me a hard time. Could I just say "Fick ab!"

  • No, we don't use it that way.

    German swearing tends to be more fecal than sexual. So in that case, you'd use "Verpiss Dich!" (piss off).

    Glad to be of service. *g*

  • Enlightening, thank you!

  • I think your video is extremely interesting ( since I study German at the university ), not only it's helped me pass my German exam, it also was funny :). And I agree that German is far superior!

  • Good job on passing the exam, though I doubt I can take credit.

    So do you plan on visiting Germany anytime soon?

  • I like the word 'ausnehmen'. It sounds mean and cruel once you know what it means. Also 'ausweiden' :)

  • Indeed it does. *muahahaha*

  • Genial!

  • Although I've studied a couple dead languages, a little German, and French, English is my only fluent language...I know...pathetic. That being said, I still couldn't spell in English for a very long time because I was stubborn about words looking like they sound.  I spelled the word "they" "thay" until I was eleven although I knew it was wrong. Only recently have I come to see the beauty of English spelling.

  • English has an inner beauty as well as a versatile way of allowing you to express yourself. I think it's the perfect language for poets, singers, and writers.

    As for your version of "they", I am still not sure whether the colour is spelled grey or gray.

  • du kannst echt gut englisch, bis du zweisprachig aufgewachsen?

  • Nein, aber ich habe drei Jahre in den USA gelebt und eines in England studiert.

    P.S. Geiler Username! LoL

  • (cont)

    As someone who studied French for five years, I can appreciate another language and English. One thing I'm glad I don't have to worry about with English is whether a noun is masculine or feminine.

  • OMW, you studied French for five years? I was never able to get the hang of that language. Just too many things you have to keep in mind. How did you cope, Kriste?

  • If I had more time, I would read all these comments because I love linguistic type things.

    Well, see, apparently these archaic spellings of using a "k" in words like "knife" or "knee" or the "gh" for an "f" sound came from Olde English. I really think sometimes our language and rules need to be revamped, especially when there is an exception to nearly every rule.

    (cont.)

  • Oh sure, English 2.0! We should totally do it.

  • Of course, the English have recognized the value of some German words, like Zeitgeist, which they just incorporate into their own language. Kaputt is another one. I was going to make a video response, but when I started thinking about what to say, it got me too flustered.

  • Why too flustered?

  • Because I work as a translator so there's a lot of head scratching going on. But maybe I'll try to gather my thoughts.

  • I like head scratching. A scratched head is a cute sight.

  • In that case I'll dive right into it.

  • And the German language with its 'modular' structure is very efficient if you stick with German, but sometimes it's very annoying when you're trying to translate it. The most recent word I came across was "Weltzugewandtheit", which as a German you can understand even though you've never heard it before. In English you need an entire sentence to express this thought, which you then have to integrate into the rest of the sentence you were translating. Grumble.

  • My personal favourite are heteronyms, you know, words that are spelled the same, but pronounced differently, like: live - I live in England, live music; or lead: I will lead you out of here, this door is made of lead. She is Polish and will polish your windows...

  • Oh sure, those are great! I remember the first time I switched trains in Reading and was surprised it wasn't spelled "Redding".

  • What about Gloucester? Not a heteronym of course, but the pronunciation is totally whack too.

  • Oh boy, we really should get started on the spelling of English towns. I remember the first time I saw a Worcester sauce label, I was like "WTF?"

  • Uber+cool :)

  • Cool! Thanks for that. I'm just back from my second trip to Germany (9 weeks there in 6 months) and the compound words are a lifesaver to a non-German speaker. You can't make them up, but you can figure them out.

    It makes me laugh when you type 5 words into an online translator & it spits one back at you!

    I'm off to sub. I thought you only made German videos, but Honigmäulchen set me straight.

  • She did, huh? And here I thought the honigmaeulchen channel lay dormant. That is good news!

    Actually, the majority of my stuff is in English. German videos are the exception.

  • It pretty much does, but I sub in hope.

    I play comment tag with Anna a bit, but it's usually just me shouting at her to make more videos. She doesn't understand how much people like her stuff & how cool she is.

    I see the error of my ways and have been checking out your back catalog. Expect some random overdue comments!

  • schön erklärt (-:P

  • Ich bin lesbisch ..... ja genau, lesbisch ist wunderbar.

    tchuess bis spater!

  • This is a different but I remember my Grandmother reading me a joke from a German Reader's Digest:

    A little girl and her Mother are walking down the street on a rainy day. The little girl notices a little boy jumping up and down in a puddle. The little girl asks her Mother, "Darf das?". The Mother replies, "Ja das darf". The little girl looks at the boy in amazement and says, "Das das das darf".

    "Das das das darf" is a sentence that I always found interesting.

  • it's "dass das das darf", which makes no difference, really.

    i was always fascinated by following sentence: "die, die die... kinder hat", whatever. german's the only language i know where such strange things are possibile... but that makes it kinda cool ;)

  • wellwellwell, lots to tell you now :)

    first: greatgreat video. love it! quick (well not short but... zügig) and very funny (especially because of the editing, really well done)

    second: i handed in my facharbeit last friday, let's hope my teacher'll like it!

    and third: as somebody in my class had a presentation on "the great vowel shift" the week before last, i can tell you something about the english language now, my friend ;)

  • before 1300 (i think it was) english was more or less easy to pronounce because the english really spoke everything that they wrote, for example "knight" (you complained about the k and the gh, right?) was pronounced "knicht" (also deutsche aussprache jetzt). and "knicht" is related to "knecht" in german -> "knight" and "knecht" are both the same thing: people who have something to do with horses (that's how he told us it was)

  • and the thing with the vowels: you can categorize vowels when you describe the position of your tongue when you speak the vowel. for example the "ee" in "to see": you've got your tongue near your teeth and very high in your mouth. well and before the great vowel shift, everybody said "see" like in "seh" -> tongue high in your mouth but a bit more away from your teeth.

  • nobody knows why, but some day the english have decided that they'd rather use the position of the tongue of the vowel exactly one step higher in the position-table instead of the normal pronunciation. very mysterious. but i think it's interesting! perhaps they know a bit more on wikipedia...

    hm well, sorry for that looong post... just something i wanted to tell you, now that i know it :)

  • Some day they just totally changed it for no apparent reason?

    If I were your teacher I'd give that presenter of the "great vowel shift" a 4. How can you start a story and then leave out the best part?

  • uhm i thought that WAS the best part, people not knowing why it happened *blush*

    and my teacher was pretty happy about the presentation, so i think really nobody knows for sure... well. that was a long comment for a boring story and i'm really sorry.

  • The best guess is that it occurred due to mass migration during the Great Plague, as it was about that time. Oddly, German went through a similar process, but not as severe. And of course, German spelling is more logical because spelling reforms have kept it in line with changes in pronunciation -- a fact which doesn't stop Germans complaining whenever spelling reform takes place.

  • when i think about the ss/ß-problem i think it's no wonder everyone's complaining! they'd be happier, though, if they knew what would have happened if the spelling didn't change with the pronunciation, like in english, where it doesn't, obviously.

    i read that plague-thing on wikipedia too, i'm just wondering how that could have influenced the language so much?

  • And yet the new ss/ß rules actually make sense. What people actually complained about most was the treatment of certain compound verbs.

    The plague theory makes sense if you think of people speaking different dialects, and the dialects all getting mixed up together as people migrate.

  • Interesting theory, rewboss. I hadn't considered the migratory influence of the great plague. That may indeed play a key role, though it still seems speculative to me.

    As for the ss/ß reform, I am with on you on that. Finally, the sharp sounds make sense! The compound verb rules are a total mystery now, though. They seemed much more intuitive before the reform.

  • well I'm none the wiser and I'm sorry, but you can't just invent verbs! ;)

  • Ah, but I can. And not only that, but I can use them and others will understand me, too.

  • I'm teaching English in Korea, and I am realizing more and more how little sense the rules and spelling make!! lol

  • It's perfectly alright so long as you just speak and not think about it.

    But when you start teaching and students start asking, you've got some explaining to do! LoL

  • very nice video, especially for us who study german:) in my language prefixes hardly exist. so you say there is no untermachen, but whats the case with übermachen oder ausspringen?;)

  • I lost the case for "übermachen" with honigmäulchen earlier (see above) and there is no ausspringen. There is a "rausspringen", though, meaning to jump off (say, a train).

    OMW, you're Finnish? I love that language! I mean, I'm intimidated by the multitude of successive vowels. But I think your words look gorgeous! Though the only song I do know is Koskenkorva.

    Näkemiin!

  • Thanks, I think its a pretty cool language too. What you also shuold learn is yksi olut, kiitos. ;) By the way, your engineer-kind of way to handle a language is kinda fascinating. Ever thought of making it your second job? ;))))

  • Aeric, you love Finnish and the only song you know is Koskenkorva? Don't tell me you haven't seen any Leva's Polka vids here on YouTube, have you?? (I suggest natharuk's original live Loituma, ChiliStrauch's funny version and junichirokoizumi's chiptune!)

  • Embarrassingly, yes. But I'll promise to do some catching up. Thanks for the starting tips.

  • Ahh...you should post more videos like this!

    They're great! Ich studiere Deutsch an der Schule und finde, dass Deustch eine sehr schwere Sprache ist :( Especially with the articles and having to memorize them all :( Anyways, keep up the great work! I look forward to your next video

  • More of this sort? Well, I still have a few more English/German video ideas in the pipeline, but I don't want to bore people by posting the same kind of stuff repeatedly.

    As for articles, that is a common complaint from non-Germans. And a valid one, at that. I'm afraid there's no getting around memorising the gender.

    P.S. Your German sentence was flawless, to such a point that you even made a typical German typo. (c;

  • Of course, German does not have a monopoly on assigning a gender to nouns. Spanish has that too, and like you say, you just sigh and memorize it!! But, at least Spanish doesn't have all three (masculine, feminine, AND neuter) like German does! And of course there is no cross-comparison. A German moon is masculine (der Mond), and a Spanish moon is feminine (la luna)! Same for the sun thinking about it! Is German the only language that adds that "neuter" third gender??

  • Oh no. There are several other germanic languages that use three genders, like Norwegian and Dutch. Also, most slavic languages do. As does Greek, AFAIK.

    So yeah, Germans are not the only perpertators.

  • And this gender thing reminds me... isn't it DAS Auto but DER Wagen (both for "car")?? Screaming, "WHAT'S UP WITH THAT???" (like you did about some English things in your video!! **G** Actually I may have that backwards about Wagen and Auto up above (??) but I know they are opposite genders! If you refer to a car by a brand name (like BMI) what happens? Does it get a gender?

  • Frak, that was supposed to be "BMW" up there. I of course should have used MERCEDES as an example, anyway, *G*!!

  • Oy, the gender of brand names? Now you're stirring up a hornet's nest.

    Of course, they must have a gender, but how that is derived is beyond me. Car brands are masculinum, probably from "-wagen": Der BMW, der Mercedes, der VW.

    Others, like, Uhu (a brand of glue) and the ever famous Nutella are actually open for debate. So yeah, best just to go with "nice car!"

  • Aw crap.What's the typo? :(

    I dont think it would be boring to post these kinds of videos up seeing as they're so educational. The guy who posted below me is wrong though.I believe Spanish does have a method of determinating gender according to the last letters, either "o" or "a", with perhaps a few exceptions here and there.

  • You are completely right in one aspect, that there are a lot of nouns [in Spanish] that are indicative of gender with ending "o" (usually masculine like el científico) or ending in "a" (feminine like la casa). And there are exceptions like you say (like el gorila (gorilla) and el dia (day).

  • But there are likely more exceptions to the o and a than you realize. An even bigger issue: a VERY significant number of nouns do NOT end in a or o; example: el coche, el nombre, la flor, la estación. Actually there are rules that help with some of these; example: nouns ending in -cion are [usually!] feminine. So I agree so far as to say there are some guidelines in Spanish that DO help with genders. But exceptions & rules so numerous & complex that many times you just give up and memorize!

  • I feel like I'm learning something >:-(

  • I'm afraid the threat's always imminent when starting an AericWinter video.

    I don't mean to do it... it just happens by itself.

  • To further make things interesting, English (American) is further complicated by big regional differences. You mentioned above... if I (southern, Texas exactly) said Aeric Winter it would sound EXACTLY like "Aeric Winner". You would hear -no- T sound whatsoever. But if someone 'more Yankee' said it (e.g. New York or Maine), you would definitely hear 'winTer' with distinct T sound. Someone from midwest would be sorta in-between.

  • Same goes for PEN and PIN. Technically there is a difference. I make absolutely -NO- distinction in pronouncing the two words (they both sound like pin). Someone from up North, though, (or British for that matter), you could probably tell the difference!

  • It depends on what area in Texas, or any other state, as well. I'm from Texas too, but my pronounciation of "winter" has the definite "t" sound. For "pen" and "pin", I pronounce them differently as well. Individual parts of states of regions have different preferences!

  • *ROFL* I was so laughing, oh yes ??"laffin"??

    anway, a very good German lesson for my hostbrothers *lol*

  • Okay, I'm German and using the English language for quite some time now made me forget about what's nice about German. Thanks for reminding me ;) and by the way: love your vids.

  • Man dankt.

    Well, each language has its strengths and weaknesses. They develop, grow, and often die. In that aspect, a language is almost like a living thing.

    If you usually employ the English language, does that mean you're an "Aussteiger"? *g*

  • Well, I still speak German, but thinking for myself and especially when I'm angry, I tend to use English (I do almost all my swearing in English).

  • Modular language. I love the analogy. Very efficient, and quite handy. Especially, for those of us who are language challenged.

  • Well, there's probably a proper linguistic term, but to an engineer like me, "modular" is what came to mind.

    And meh, people speak at least one language pretty decently. So we can't have all that many challenged among them, can we?

  • I know the exception doesn't prove the rule, but I pretty sure you've heard of George W. Bush. (AND he went to Yale!)

  • And gave a very inspirational speech at Yale later on, I heard.

    "To those of you who received honors, awards and distinctions, I say, well done.

    And to the C students, I say, you too can be president of the United States."

  • Nothing like inspiring mediocrity. Oh, well. 20.1.2009 is less than a year away.

    Cheers!

  • Should two Swiss-Germans converse with one another without any regard for me as the listener, I have no chance of understanding them. Neither would Southern Germans, though they might recognise more words than I would. It truly is a language of its own.

  • This is the reason why I'm taking German over French....haha, I'm sticking with the phonetic language...

  • Right on, dood!

    And a good choice, too. I can see by your username that you're no fan of vowels, and we certainly use them in moderation in the German language.

  • I find german the most interesting language don't you squawk?

  • That's pretty dandy, Aeric. On the one hand, I speak no German, save for a smattering of words and whatever I feel like learning from the Zompist Phrasebook (which you should look up). On the other hand, I, being a writer, have an intrinsic zest for words, and definitely cool ways to use them in conjunction, so that's shooting fish in a barrel of awesome.

    -PASB

  • Zompist Phrasebook, eh? My curiosity is piqued, I'll have a look for it when I have time.

    I am glad you liked it, PASB.

    Obviously, I am going to ask for you to take some of those thoughts and sentiments on language that you put so well into words and turn them into a wonderful video. It's certainly one I'd like to see.

  • I thoroughly enjoyed this! You should do more language stuff.  One thing that I always liked are the combinations "ie" and "ei" in German. You ALWAYS knew know how to pronounce it (at least I think that's true). BUT my VERY favorite was your "aufgehen"... I'll never see another sunrise in the same way again, ever, LoL!!!

  • Ooops extra verb "knew" in there. Sorry. Think I must be stressing my brain trying to remember German!

  • You're right, the difference between the pronounciation of "ie" and "ei" is very clear.

    However, we also have "ih", which sounds like "ie" and "ai", which sounds like "ei".

    So yeah, it's not all that simple, unfortunately. But then, what in life is?

  • A bit off the subject somewhat, but I really -loved- (not really) were the verbs had separable prefixes, where it gets separated from the verb and then you have to "wait forever" to the very end of the sentence to pick up the other part of the verb. Along those lines, was it the perfect tenses, where you stick the "ge" in there and then the "whole verb" goes to the very end of the sentence? I always found that rather... uh, ummm, interesting! (c:

  • Oh yeah, the fact that a verb's prefix often goes to the very end of the sentence, which in German can be a considerable length, is an absolute fan favourite among those learning German. *g*

    Even Germans have to concentrate at times. Often enough, when you finally arrive at the end of a sentence, you've already forgotten which prefix you were using when you started.

  • Ok, remembering a few things that confused me... if hören is "to hear" then what is "aufhören"?

  • "Aufhören" means to stop or to finish^^

  • Trying to remember some things back when I took (and spoke some) German! [Long LONG ago, *g*] I always liked kaufen and verkaufen (isn't that 'to buy' becomes 'to sell'?) Talk about a change! But seems like ver- did some rather obscure things to some verbs, not as predictable as some of the prefixes.

  • Yep, "buy and sell" is right.

    "Ver" is one of those sneaky prefixes endowed the power to turn a word into its opposite, somewhat like your "de" or "anti" (to hydrate and dehydrate, for example).

    You have to be on your toes with these little bastards.

  • Nice video. I've always found languages to be fascinating.

    Another irregularity in the English language?

    "Ghoti" which is pronounced like "fish". haha

  • Gho...what? Let me see if I can piece this together.

    You took the f-sound from "rough", the i-sound from "women", and the sh-sound from "nation"?

    Et voila! "Fish" becomes "Ghoti".

    That's ingenious, Lillian! ROFL

  • Hehe, so habe ich die Sprachen ja gar nicht gesehen... ^^ Deutsch jedenfalls nicht. Nungut, dann können wir uns ja hiermit privilegiert fühlen beide Sprachen zu kennen *muahahaha*

    Mach weiter so mit den Videos :-)

    Ei wisch ju a gut neit

  • Sänk ju wärrie matsch!

    Und ja, wenn man es so betrachtet, sind wir linguistisch privilegiert. Statt einer, kann ich mich in zwei Sprachen unklar ausdrücken. (c;

  • danke. danke. ja, danke! ich weiß dir fällt noch viel mehr ein als das was du hier zum besten gegeben hast, aber DANKE verdammt noch mal, daß du die dinge genauso siehst wie ich! :)

    sinn-loooos! psyyyy-choooo!

  • LoL, welchen Teil denn? Die Einfachheit der deutschen Verben oder die Merkwürdigkeit der englischen Aussprache?

  • das zweite

  • Oh klar, das ist nur die Spitze des Eisbergs. Haha, der Teil war gar nicht geplant; es überkam mich nur so plötzlich.

    Aber wenn Dir noch viel mehr einfällt, mach doch ein Video dazu. Würde mich auch interessieren. (=

  • Erstens ist für so ein Video mein englisch nicht gut genug und zweitens könnte ich mich genauso über die deutsche Sprache aufregen, haha! Eigentlich könnte ich mich generell über fast alle aufregen, aber das tu ich wenn ich 50 bin ;D

    ...na mal sehen. Ich behalt' das im Auge o_O

  • Warte nicht so lange.

    "Rants" sind einige meiner liebsten Videos auf YouTube, z.B. wenn the WineKone sich über etwas aufregt. Und Du könntest das auf deutsch genauso wie auf englisch machen... (=

  • Ok, so I'll be a smartass.

    What about "mitlegen", then? Yes, I know it's used as a contraction by some people, but we're talking 'real' words, aren't we?

    *ducks and runs*

  • There are honestly colloquial tendencies to use "mitlegen" as a synonym to "beilegen".

    No joke.

  • Das hab ich ja noch nie gehört. Wer macht denn sowas?

  • Wer das im Einzelnen ist, weiß ich nicht.

    Aber für das Wort spuckt einem Google fast 350 Einträge aus. WTF?

  • ...und dann landet das irgendwann im Duden und in 50 Jahren bettet sich das Wort "beilegen" neben dem Konjunktiv zur ewigen Ruhe... TOL

  • On another subject, I am currently trying to teach myself german, from the internetz. Sadly, the sites I found have good written lessons, but not much oral ones, except for the alphabet.

    Do you know a good site to learn German??

  • That was such an entertaining video! I really enjoy these reflexions/lessons:)

    You must hate french grammar, I think writing in english is really easy compared to writing in french. Not only do we have a ton of silent letters, but all the verbs have a zillion rules and exceptions. It's truly horrible. French is a bad trip when it comes to writing.

    I am a writing tutor, and even explaining the rules is hard, yo!

  • I think most of those funny sound combinations in English come from the French influence on the English language. Normans! haha! French sounds great though, really.

  • Oh yes, I enjoy a personal love/hate relationship with the French language.

    I think it's a language that has a very nice sound to it. So far though, I find myself unable to have a proper conversation in French without stepping repeatedly into those grammatical pitfalls the language has an endless supply of! Argh, so frustrating!

  • ok mr. winter~

  • Oh, you're not alone in that.

    We find it quite tricky ourselves. There are newspaper columns dedicated to the subject. Not to mention bestselling books ("Der Dativ ist dem Genitiv sein Tod") naming and making fun of examples of bad spelling and grammar in German public life.

  • Learning German's no easier.

    I'm so glad I a German. I wouldn't want to have to brave the pitfalls of German grammar if I immigrated to the country.

  • LOL, sb. get da geek, faaaaaast !! :-), but i like it, hmm... :-/. okok, what is untermachen and unterspringen, man?!?! later, m.

  • Okay, fair enough. You know they don't work in this form, you smartass. (c;

    However "runtermachen" and "runterspringen" work just fine. It's because "unter" usually describes a state while herunter is employed for an action. So there, system still works. *g*

  • hahaha, great job !! you should have become a lawyer, man... :-)) ... have a nice week, cheerio...

  • Ha, I thought about that when I read Vickies and Annas comments about übermachen=rübermachen(!) up there. But I was too slow. Because I'm soo busy playing around with Leopard.

    Miau ;-)

  • You did it? You got Leopard? OMG, how is it?

    I am so hot for you right now. LoL

  • Haha, so I guess I'll have to plan a little Leo-introduction for you ;-)

    It works like a charm, but the differences are not soo big.

    And I'm not sure if I really like the Dock, but there's already some manipulation software out...

  • OMG, as if I weren't looking forward to that weekend enough already... *g*

    See you in Berlin.

  • You scare me. Especially when you let suns rise and go ab.

    Btw. what exactly is the meaning of unterspringen? And why is it gucken and not kucken?

    =)

  • It's a local thing.

    Some parts of Germany actually pronounce gucken with a g and some pronounce it with a k. Yeah, I know, weird.

    As for "unterspringen", see below.

  • the "devoicing" of the g-->k (& d-->t, etc.) is a pretty common phenomenon among languages. american's don't walk around sounding like the british when they say "water" (wah-Ter)... US folks say it closer to "wah-der." americans pronounce "rider" and "writer" pretty much the same way for the same reason

  • Yeah, when U.S. Americans pronounce my name, it often sounds like "Eric Winner". The British pronounciation with an explicit "t" is much closer to the German version.

    It's interesting how the English language develops into different directions in different cultures, isn't it? Even if they started the same (as when the British colonised North America).

  • You know, it took me AGES to figure out that the word I thought was spelled majure and the written word mature (that I always pronounced exactly like it's spelled)where actually the same. When I finally got it right I felt really extremely stupid because it's so perspicuous... DUH!

  • And I think I already posted the same comment under (?) another video of yours, but: The strangest german word of all times is "Eierschalensollbruchstellenve­rursacher"

    => 'producer of predetermined breaking points in eggshells'

    One word vs. seven! German rules!

  • or simply: "messer" :P

  • Well, no. There actually is a machine that is called Eierschalensollbruchstellenver­ursacher and has no similarities to a plain knife. You can google it and look at the pictures. Basically, it's a stick with a little metal ball that crashes the eggshell at a specific place.

  • "Eierschalensollbruchstellenve­rursacher" pwn! Even though they're overly expensive for something that you could do with a simple knife. That totally trumps my old "Terrorbekämpfungsergänzungsge­setz"

    P.S. I know, right? It's so perspicuous since the word is almost ubiquitous.

  • ubiquitous actually is a word that I have to use all the time for university. You wouldn't belive how many toxins are ubiquitous! You could say for nutritionists the word ubiquitous is ubiquitous.

  • Hell, then I guess for nutritionists ubiquitous is so ubiquitous that's it's pretty much pervasive.

  • Hey Aeric that was really good.

  • About the English pronunciation: google for ghoti and enjoy the read! :)

  • I seriously think that you don't speak German at all.

    You are bluffing.

  • I am.

    I was raised only speaking esperanto and a bit of klingon.