Subtle Differences

Grammar: Spoken - Dativ, Written - Genitiv

Wegen und Während

Our teacher was saying that genitiv is used less and less in spoken German. She told us that some linguist did a through research on the two Kasus and wrote a thesis that all genitiv can actually be replaced by dativ. Maybe this is the reason why in constructs using wegen (means because of) or während (means during), we use genitiv in written form, but dativ in colloquial usage or umgangsprache. Example:

• Formal: Wegen des Regens kann ich nicht draußen spielen.
  Colloq.: Wegen dem Regen kann ich nicht draußen spielen.
• Formal: Während Arbeit des Mannes, konnte er nicht rauchen.
  Colloq.: Während dem Arbeit, konnte der Mann nicht rauchen.

Articles

In German, like in English, it is important to use articles. Consider the following sentences. They all need articles.

• I have a dog = Ich habe einen Hund.
• I have the dog with green collar = Ich habe den Hund mit dem grünen Halzband.

However, with some words, we don't use articles.

• Ich buy milk = Ich kaufe Milch.

Mindestens, Höchstens und Wenigstens

Lots of people are confused between the three words: mindestens, höchstens and wenigstens. The difference between mindestens and höchstens is quite obvious whereas wenigstens is a bit tricky.

• mindestens means at least. It is used for numbers only. Example: if you say mindestens 10, it means 10, 11, 12, ..., ∞. When we want to say "Every person has at least a couple of weaknesses," we would say "Jede Person hat mindestens ein Paar kleine Schwächen."
• höchstens means at most. It is also used for numbers only. Example: if you say höchstens 10, it means 0, 1, ..., 7, 8, 9, 10.
• wenigstens means at least similar to mindestens. However, wenigstens is not used with numbers. Example: if you say Heute gibt es ein schlectes Wetter, aber wenigstens es regnet nicht. Here, wenigstens also mean 'at least', but the sentence says that the weather is bad, but it could be worse. Here, we could not have used mindestens although in English they have the same meaning, i.e. 'at least'.

Wieder und Wider

I have seen a lot of non-native English speakers get confused between 'than' and 'then', often writing 'If you are at home, than I will come.' Although the meanings of wieder and wider don't have anything in common with those of than or then, the main point here is that one vowel can change a lot of things. The two words 'wider' and 'wieder' sound the same but the distinction is in the meanings of the words in which they are used. If the word has some sort of repetition, then it is wiEder, otherwise it is wider. For example note the spelling of the following:

• wiederholen: to repeat
• wiedersehen: to see again
• widerstehen: to resist

Nationalsozialsmus und Narzismus

During the lecture, we were discussing about Sophie Scholl and the resistance against Nazism. Most of us were saying Nazismus in German. Our teacher was confused because it sounds like Narzismus (note the 'R'), which means Narcissism. Hence, when referring to Nazism, you are better of saying Nationalsozialsmus instead.

Mein Freund UND Ein Freund von mir

When someone says, Er ist mein Freund. It means that the person and his friend is a couple. It is almost certain. When you want to say he's my friend (as in just friend), you would say Er ist ein Freund von mir.

Herzlich UND Herzhaft

Someone said during the lecture Das war eines herzlich Essen. This is wrong. Herzlich means heartfelt. If you want to say hearty, then you should use herzhaft, eg. herzhaft Essen.

Sentence of the Day

Der Täter hat dem Betroffenen schwere Leiden zugefügt

During the lecture, one of the students mentioned a sentence: Der Täter hat dem Betroffenen schwere Leiden zugefügt. It means the culprit had brought great suffering on to the victim, with der Täter meaning the culprit and der Betroffene meaning the victim.

Digression - Der Dativ ist dem Genitiv sein Tod

In addition to the research done by someone in LMU that genitive can be replaced by datives, there is a book by Bastian Sick which captures this idea in an interesting fashion in his book "Der Dativ ist dem Genitiv sein Tod". Although I have not read it myself, the teacher was recommending that we read it.
The title itself is supposed to be 'funny'. Here is an excerpt from Wikipedia
"The book’s title is actually a reference to a linguistic phenomenon in certain dialects of German in forming noun phrases showing possession. In these dialects, the qualifying noun, which would be in the genitive case in standard German, is replaced by a noun in the dative case and the qualified noun is preceded by a possessive adjective. For example, instead of saying das Buch des Mannes (the man’s book), one says dem Mann(e) sein Buch ([to] the man his book) or das Buch vom Mann (the book of the man). This is similar to the his genitive phenomenon that once occurred in English, which nonetheless arose from a misunderstanding of the etymological origin of possessive /-s/ in English and is therefore linguistically unrelated to the German phenomenon discussed here. Thus, the book’s title, Der Dativ ist dem Genitiv sein Tod (literally ‘the dative is [to] the genitive its death’) is a dialectal manner of saying Der Dativ ist der Tod des Genitivs (or Der Dativ ist des Genitivs Tod), which can be translated into English as ‘the dative is the genitive’s death’ (or ‘the dative is the death of the genitive’)."

Vocabulary

• das Aussehen: appearance
• die Aussicht: view; pl. Aussichten: expectations or prospects (always pl.)
• die Ansicht: opinion
• der Lohn: salary
• die Einkommen: salary
• die Bezahlung: salary
• der Kaugummi: chewing gum
• der Blutdruck: blood pressure
• die Bibel: the bible
• der Widerstand: resistance
• das Gutachten: expert opinion
• das Gefängnis: prison
• geschehen: to happen (syn. passieren)
• lächerlich: absurd, ludicrous