Der, die, or das?

[beige_alert]

“Test: Der, die, or das? Choose the correct article.”

*runs screaming into the night* Gah!

Also, is it OK that I tend to giggle when I see words like die Lebensmittellieferung? A “sesquipedalian” word is a long one, a foot-and-a-half long, to take the meaning literally. I guess in German one-and-a-half feet long is just getting started.

Comments

[jrittenhouse.livejournal.com]

That's probably the one thing I hate about German and the Romance Languages that we thank-god got rid of.

[legoline.livejournal.com]

OOooooh a friend of mine once almost peed her pants when she saw the word "Sommerschlussverkauf" ... :p she couldn't imagine how we squeeze these words into the shop windows :o)

[beige-alert.livejournal.com]

You must have big windows... Small letters?

[aryana-filker.livejournal.com]

I think the articles are the most annoying things for foreigners when trying to learn German.
And the long words... I think, we love them. German Authors like Thomas Mann liked to use long words to form even longer sentences.
*thinks of a long word*
"Rotationsviskosimeter"... that was the thing in my lab that sends the samples flying around! :)

BTW, #Filkhaven was fun yesterday night!

[beige-alert.livejournal.com]

Ein Ärgernis...

(Huh, is it really "ein?" Gah!)

#filkhaven was fun, yes.

[aryana-filker.livejournal.com]

Yep, it's "ein Ärgernis", if you think about just some annoying thing. If it's to be a special annoying thing, it's "das Ärgernis".
:)

[tigertoy.livejournal.com]

I had a few weeks of private German lessons, when I was in maybe 6th grade. One of the few things I remember from that is the word for speed limit: die Geschwindigkeitsbegrenzung. One of the longest real words (as opposed to deliberate affectations like antidisestablishmentarianism, or cool chemical names like paradimethylaminobenzaldehyde) I can recall coming across in any language.

It's kind of interesting that when faced with a need to explain a new concept, French strings together a long phrase with all the little connecting words to make it totally grammatical, English strings together a short phrase by making nouns function as adjectives and such, and German runs all the needed words together into one blob.

[beige-alert.livejournal.com]

We also have the option, in English, of taking the French acronym and using that, even though the letters might not make a lot of sense in English.... I've never seen that sort of thing done in Spanish, I've only seen acronyms from the Spanish in Spanish, though maybe I just not seen enough Spanish yet to know.


Tee-hee, from LEO:
to break a speed limit: eine Geschwindigkeitsbegrenzung überschreiten

[lisande.livejournal.com]

Oh yes, the articles...
There's a nice song (from the TV-Show "Sesamstraße" - I think that one's nicked from US tv) which starts:

"Der, die, das,
wer, wie, was,
wieso, weshalb, warum?
Wer nicht fragt bleibt dumm!"

I always think of it when articles are mentioned...

[beige-alert.livejournal.com]

You had Sesame Street in Germany? Cool! And here I thought all you got were our police car chase and shootout shows. That last line is something like "anyone who doesn't ask will remain dumb," right?

[lisande.livejournal.com]

That last line is something like "anyone who doesn't ask will remain dumb," right?

Yes, it is. :)

And we get a lot from you (if not the actual shows than at least the concepts). The best thing we ever got was "Remmington Steel", I guess... *swoons*

[lastalda.livejournal.com]

I'll never know how anyone who isn't a native speaker of German can possibly get the articles right. It really doesn't make sense.