If you subscribe to Yabla, technology and computers likely play a significant role in your life. To augment a previous lesson on verbs related to computers, today we'll cover nouns related to computers and internet technology.
First, let's look at the words for the various parts of a computer, such as the hard drive, the keyboard, and the screen. The noun der Rechner can mean both "the processor" and "the computer" depending on the context. Although many words have been adopted from English (such as der Computer or der Laptop), there's still a lot of vocabulary to learn:
Die Rechner könnten anschließend von Kriminellen zu einem Botnetz verbunden und ferngesteuert werden.
The processors could, consequently, be connected to a botnet by criminals and operated remotely.
Captions 28-29, Apple-Trojaner: Wie man ihn beseitigt
Play Caption
Aber ist ja nicht schlimm, weil das Originalmaterial insgesamt gerettet wird, und das können die immer noch auf der Festplatte mal irgendwann ...
But that is not so bad, because the entire original material is saved and they can still, on the hard drive at some point...
Captions 30-31, RT Radiotonteam: Erinnerungen retten
Play Caption
Wenn du auf deiner Tastatur keine Taste für die Umlaute hast, kannst du stattdessen notfalls auch Ae für Ä, Oe für Ö und Ue für Ü schreiben.
If you don't have an umlaut key on your keyboard, you can also, if need be, write Ae for Ä, Oe for Ö, and Ue for Ü.
Captions 20-21, Deutsch mit Donna Blitz: Das Alphabet
Play Caption
Sieht man das dann auf einem kleinen Bildschirm oder hat man einen Riesenbildschirm?
Do you see it on a small screen then or do you have a giant screen?
Caption 4, Rhein-Main-TV: Interview mit Edmund Stössel
Play Caption
In diesem Grid können tausende Forschungsinstitute und Universitäten ihre Datenspeicher und Rechner gemeinsam nutzen.
In this grid thousands of research institutes and universities can use their data storage devices and computers jointly.
Captions 38-39, Die Weltmaschine: Der LHC-Teilchenbeschleuniger
Play Caption
Ich geh nicht eher, bevor du mir die Speicherkarte gegeben hast.
I'm not leaving until you've given me the memory card.
Caption 45, Die Pfefferkörner: Alles auf Anfang
Play Caption
Sie müssen die Möglichkeit haben zu posten, mit dem Smartphone, Tablet, Laptop, immer und überall.
They have to be able to post with a smartphone, tablet, laptop — anytime and anywhere.
Captions 13-15, Nicos Weg: Das Internet
Play Caption
Next, there is specific vocabulary related to the internet. Here, there is quite a lot of vocabulary adopted from English, so it's a matter of knowing the article and exactly how it's pronounced.
Wenn ich das melde, dann stellt der Erpresser den Film ins Netz.
If I report it, then the blackmailer will put the video on the internet.
Caption 15, Die Pfefferkörner: Cybermobbing
Play Caption
Sie will über das WLAN des ICEs im Internet surfen.
She wants to surf the internet via the ICE's WLAN.
Caption 66, Galileo - Zug vs. Flugzeug: Von München nach Berlin
Play Caption
Wie die Internetseite National Geographic News berichtet, hat Cameron vor ein paar Tagen nahe Papua-Neuguinea eine Testfahrt unternommen.
As the internet site National Geographic News reports, Cameron performed a trial run a few days ago near Papua, New Guinea.
Captions 19-20, Expedition Marianengraben: Zum tiefsten Punkt der Erde
Play Caption
An welche E-Mail-Adresse soll ich Ihnen die Unterlagen schicken?
What email address should I send the documents to?
Caption 30, Berufsleben: das Vorstellungsgespräch
Play Caption
Further Learning
For help with pronunciation, go to Yabla German and listen to the examples. Also, can you guess the meaning of der Router, die Maus, and das Lokalnetz?
If you're studying German, you're learning about the accusative and dative cases. You've likely looked at many sentences with a direct and indirect object that look similar to this one:
Also: Ich schenke ihm ein Ticket fürs Theater.
So, I give him a ticket to the theater.
Caption 15, Nicos Weg: Herzlichen Glückwunsch!
Play Caption
In the sentence above, the ticket is the direct object and the pronoun "him" is the indirect object in the dative case, which is why it is ihm and not ihn. Generally in German, the direct object is associated with the accusative case. Here's a classic example, with the accusative personal pronoun dich as the direct object:
Weil ich dich liebe, noch immer und mehr.
Because I love you, still and more.
Caption 9, Marius Müller-Westernhagen Weil Ich Dich Liebe
Play Caption
However, there are a number of common verbs that normally take an object in the dative case, even when there is no object with the accusative case in the sentence. You may already be familiar with this sort of structure from these common phrases:
Wir lassen jetzt die Sabine unser Gericht probieren und hoffen, dass es ihr schmeckt.
We'll now let Sabine taste our dish and hope that she likes it.
Captions 74-75, Bundesländer und ihre Rezepte Rheinland-Pfalz
Play Caption
Ich habe den ersten Teil schon gesehen und der hat mir sehr gut gefallen.
I saw the first part already and I liked it a lot.
Caption 43, Diane erklärt: Fragewörter
Play Caption
Das braune Portemonnaie gehört dir, oder?
The brown wallet belongs to you, right?
Caption 18, Nicos Weg: Meine Familie
Play Caption
Here are some other verbs that follow this pattern, each with a dative personal pronoun:
Du kannst mir vertrauen. Ich will dir helfen.
You can trust me. I want to help you.
Caption 7, Die Pfefferkörner: Cybermobbing
Play Caption
Und ich hätte wirklich stundenlang dir zuhören können.
And I really could have listened to you for hours.
Caption 42, The Voice of German: Isabel Nolte singt „Als ich fortging“
Play Caption
Lisa, ich gratuliere dir.
Lisa, I congratulate you.
Caption 7, Nicos Weg: Das ist mir wichtig!
Play Caption
Bleib bei mir, verzeih mir.
Stay with me, forgive me.
Caption 16, Clueso: Weil ich dich liebe
Play Caption
Further Learning
Try to create sentences with other common verbs that follow this pattern: danken, dienen, einfallen, fehlen, folgen, gelingen, passieren, schwer fallen, wehtun, and widersprechen. You can find an extensive list on this website and will also find examples with these verbs on Yabla German.
In the last lesson, we discussed the uses of das Unglück, often translated as "misfortune" or "bad luck" in English. Let's take a happier approach this week and look at some of the uses of das Glück and some words related to it. Das Glück is often translated as "lucky," especially when combined with the verb haben:
Mann, Mann, Mann, da hab' ich noch mal Glück gehabt, hä!
Man, man, man, I was lucky again, right!
Caption 32, Die Pfefferkörner - Cybermobbing
Play Caption
Das Glück can also mean "happiness":
Und wie lange dauert überhaupt das Glück?
And how long does happiness last after all?
Caption 6, Die Toten Hosen - Ertrinken
Play Caption
Glücklich is an adjectival variant of das Glück:
Glücklich und zufrieden legten sie sich anschließend zur Ruhe.
Happy and satisfied, they afterwards lay down to rest.
Caption 62, Märchen - Sagenhaft - Die Bremer Stadtmusikanten
Play Caption
Der Glückwunsch can be translated as "congratulations" or "best wishes":
Herzlichen Glückwunsch zum Geburtstag!
Heartfelt best wishes on your birthday!
Caption 22, Mama arbeitet wieder - Kapitel 3: Papa ist weg
Play Caption
Further Learning
There are dozens of German compound words that are formed with the noun das Glück, among them der Glücksbringer, die Glückseligkeit, der Glücksgriff, das Glücksspiel, and die Glückszahl. See if you can guess what these words mean without using a dictionary, and then go to Yabla German and see how they are used in a real world context.
A caption in this weeks' latest installment of the Pfefferkörner kid detectives series uses the slang phrase von wegen. Directly translated ("from because of"?), this phrase makes very little sense. Used on its own (Von wegen!), it is a negation to a statement made by somebody else, and means "that is wrong," "not at all," "just the opposite," or just simply "no way!" The Duden dictionary defines von wegen! as auf keinen Fall! Despite some rather crude translations of the phrase on some less than dependable crowd-sourced translation sites, the phrase itself is not vulgar at all, and will only cause offense if the contradiction of a statement is inherently offensive to the person who made it. It's all about context.
It's a bit trickier to translate von wegen when it is used in a sentence and references something specific. Here too, we have to look at the context in which the phrase is used.
Von wegen [umgangssprachlich] Kunstunterricht.
It's not true about art class.
Caption 44, Die Pfefferkörner - Cybermobbing
Play Caption
In the above scenario, a girl's parents just found out she was lying when she said that her brother was with friends in an art class. Her father confronts her about her lie using von wegen.
But von wegen can also be used in a dismissive sense:
Von wegen körperloser Sport,
So much for non-contact sports,
hätt' ich meinen Helm doch gebraucht.
I still could've made use of my helmet after all.
Caption 46, Ultimate Frisbee - Oli erklärt das Spiel
Play Caption
The speaker above is talking about the fact that frisbee is generally considered to be a non-contact sport, so he is dismissing this belief as being untrue. And here again as an expression casting doubt on a supposition:
Von wegen Öl geht aus. Die lügen doch, die Ölstaaten.
As if the oil will run out. But they're lying, the oil states.
Caption 29, Culcha Candela - Schöne neue Welt
Play Caption
There is also, of course, a standard, non-slang use of the phrase von wegen in a sentence: von [genitive noun] wegen means "for [noun] reasons" or "for reasons of [noun]." Some examples: von Amts wegen (for official reasons), von Rechts wegen (for legal reasons), or von Berufs wegen (for professional reasons).
Further Learning
Read this lively StackExchange article about von wegen and keep your eyes out for examples used in a real world scenario on Yabla German.
Spanish
French
Italian
Chinese
English
English 
Español
Français
Italiano
Português
Deutsch
