In Part I of this series, we went through a lot of animals whose names end with -tier. In Part II, we'll continue to look at the root words of German animal names and see how they may—or may not—relate directly to descriptions of the animals. So let's further explore the wild and woolly world of odd German animal names!
Die Schildkröte steckt noch vollständig im Ölschiefer fest.
The turtle is still entirely stuck in the oil shale.
Caption 51, Ausgrabungen: Auf den Spuren der Dinosaurier
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Die Schildkröte combines the noun der Schild with the noun die Kröte, and literally means "shield toad." Imagine seeing a turtle for the first time: Its shell looks like a shield, and its face, with a bit of imagination, might resemble a toad—albeit a very large one!
Normalerweise gelten Waschbären als aggressive Wildtiere.
Normally, raccoons are considered aggressive wild animals.
Caption 2, Die Top Ten: Die unglaublichsten Tiererlebnisse
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You probably noticed already that der Waschbär, the German word for "raccoon," breaks down into "wash bear." That seems a pretty far-fetched description of the animal, which is known for washing food, but does not look much like a bear. In fact, it's possible that the raccoon shares ancestors with those of today's bears, although this is just one theory of several. An 18th century Swedish botanist was the first to make this connection, and since then a number of European languages contain the word "bear" as part of the raccoon's name. The French, however, were less kind—and less accurate—in naming the raccoon le raton laveur ("the washing rat")!
Wenn Fledermäuse so schlafen, dann bin ich froh, dass ich keine bin.
If bats sleep like this, then I am glad that I am not one.
Caption 41, Meine Freundin Conni: Conni schläft im Kindergarten
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Die Fledermaus seems to consist of the noun fledern ("to hurl something vigorously") and the noun die Maus. Thus you have a sort of "throw mouse" or "hurl mouse." But that's not where the word came from! Rather, it comes from the Old High German term Flattermaus, which is derived from the verb flattern, or "to flutter." Thus our root words search reveals the bat to be a "flutter mouse."
Etwa 20.000 Seehunde haben das Wattenmeer zu ihrer Heimat gemacht.
About 20,000 seals have made the Wadden Sea their home.
Caption 11, Abenteuer Nordsee: Unter Riesenhaien und Tintenfischen
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Der Seehund, clearly a "sea dog" by its root words, is of course a seal. Funny that in English, "sea dog" is an old slang term for a sailor! The more proper German name for the seal is die Robbe.
Selbst ausgewachsen werden diese Tintenfische gerade mal 20 Zentimeter groß.
Even fully grown, these squid will only become 20 centimeters long.
Caption 28, Abenteuer Nordsee: Unter Riesenhaien und Tintenfischen
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From the German word for "squid" we can derive, from die Tinte and der Fisch, an "ink fish." The term is slightly confusing, since many varieties of octopus also, like squid, are able to release a dark "ink" to help escape from potential predators. Octopus, in German, is der Oktopus, although the more scientific name is der Krake.
Further Learning
In an upcoming lesson, we'll discuss a number of animals whose names derive from das Schwein, but who are not actually related to the pig family. In the meantime, you can go to Yabla German and watch the videos listed above to find out more about these animals in context.
Like in English, there is more than one way to construct sentences about the future in German. This week, we’ll take a look at the two options for this.
Sometimes, you may notice that what at first glance looks like the present tense in German is translated with either the present continuous, a "going to" + infinitive construction, or the "will"-future in English. When you see this, it’s best to look at the whole sentence, where you will likely find clues that tell you that the action isn't actually occurring yet and will take place momentarily or in the near or distant future. Even though there are sentences that use the present tense with future meaning in English (an example would be "They arrive this evening"), it is much less common. Have a look at the following examples:
Und jetzt gehen wir in die Werbung.
And now we'll go to commercial.
Caption 22, Bundesländer und ihre Rezepte: Bayern
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Wenn es so weitergeht, dann können wir bald Schlitten fahren.
If it continues like this, we'll soon be able to go sledding.
Caption 28, Deutsch mit Eylin: Das Wetter
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Im Zoo waren wir gestern, heute gehen wir ins Schwimmbad.
We were at the zoo yesterday. Today we're going to the swimming pool.
Caption 14, Sabine erzählt Witze: Die Pinguine
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Heute lernen wir die Zahlen von eins bis tausend.
Today we're going to learn the numbers from one to a thousand.
Caption 5, Deutsch mit Eylin: Zahlen und die Grundrechenarten
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You may be thinking, "What about the verb werden?" Indeed, the construction werden + infinitive is also used to express something that has yet to happen, especially to emphasize the fact that it will happen in the future or express that it's still not 100% certain.
Ich werde mir etwas zu essen und zu trinken aussuchen.
I'm going to choose something to eat and drink.
Caption 9, Abendessen: mit Marko
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Und keine Sorge, du wirst mich hier nie wieder sehen!
And don't worry, you'll never see me here again!
Caption 51, Heidi: Ladenverbot
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Sie wird sich Sorgen machen, wenn sie nichts von mir hört.
She will worry if she doesn't hear anything from me.
Caption 29, Die Wohngemeinschaft: Besuch
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Auf die Suppe werden wir jetzt noch die Croutons und die angebratenen Zwiebeln draufmachen.
Now we're going to add the croutons and the fried onions to the soup.
Caption 69, Bundesländer und ihre Rezepte: Hessen
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Oh, ihr werdet in einer halben Stunde noch besser verstehen.
Oh, you will understand even better in half an hour.
Caption 19, Deutschkurs in Tübingen: Verben mit Akkusativ
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Hier werden sie Tieren begegnen, die sonst nirgendwo in der Deutschen Bucht leben.
Here they will encounter animals that live nowhere else in the German Bight.
Caption 20, Abenteuer Nordsee: Unter Riesenhaien und Tintenfischen
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Further Learning
You will find many similar examples on Yabla to learn from. Be sure to also check out our past lesson on werden, and review how it's used in its meaning "to become" or as part of the passive voice.
The adverbs ansonsten and sonst in German are most often found in contexts where they can be translated as "else" or "otherwise." You will find that they are generally quite interchangeable, though sonst has a wider range of applications and is used more often in casual conversation.
Ich kann zwar ein wenig Eislaufen,
I can ice-skate a little bit,
aber ansonsten bin ich auch da eher Zuschauer
but otherwise I'm also more likely the viewer
vorm Fernseher ...
in front of the television...
Caption 46, Deutsche Sporthilfe - Ball des Sports
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Ansonsten finde ich Schauspielerei wahnsinnig interessant.
Otherwise, I find acting incredibly interesting.
Caption 56, Bürger Lars Dietrich - Schlecht Englisch kann ich gut
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Hier werden sie Tieren begegnen,
Here they will encounter animals
die sonst nirgendwo in der Deutschen Bucht leben.
that live nowhere else in the German Bight.
Caption 20, Abenteuer Nordsee - Unter Riesenhaien und Tintenfischen
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Brauchst du sonst noch irgendwas? Duschgel oder so?
Do you need anything else? Shower gel or something?
Caption 33, Die Wohngemeinschaft - Besuch
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Und sonst so? Was geht heute Abend?
And otherwise? What's going on tonight?
Caption 22, AnnenMayKantereit - Es geht mir gut
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The last sentence is an example in which ansonsten would sound quite odd due to the colloquial nature of the sentence.
More importantly, you don't want to confuse ansonsten and sonst with the adjective umsonst, which can mean "for free," "for nothing," or "without reason," depending on the context. Take a look:
Dass Sie nicht denken, dass in Berlin dann alles umsonst ist.
So that you don't think that in Berlin then everything is free.
Caption 41, Jonathan Johnson - Nahöstliches Essen in Berlin
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Der Freizeitpark heißt nicht umsonst Europa-Park.
The theme park is not called Europa-Park without reason.
Caption 19, Deutsche Welle - Hin und weg - Best of Europa-Park!
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Du bist für mich geboren, ich lebe nicht umsonst
You were born for me, I'm not living for nothing
Caption 4, Marius Müller-Westernhagen - Weil Ich Dich Liebe
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Further Learning
Along with umsonst, you can learn about other adjectives that are used to describe how expensive or cheap something is in this previous newsletter. There are many more examples of ansonsten and sonst used in sentences on Yabla German — just do a search on the homepage!
The way to say "apart from" something, an expression that is helpful when you want to make a specific point about a topic in a conversation, is the phrase abgesehen von (etwas).
The problem for English speakers with learning this is that the phrase is based upon a verb, absehen, which is confusing when used in the "apart from" context, since it is usually translated as "to foresee" or sometimes as "to predict":
Ja, man konnte es absehen.
Yes, you could foresee it.
Caption 57, Rhein-Main-TV - Interview mit Edmund Stössel
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Even the adverbial form, absehbar, is usually translated as "foreseeable" or sometimes "predictable":
...dass es sich in absehbarer Zeit ins Gegenteil verkehrt.
...that in the foreseeable future, it will move in the opposite direction.
Caption 26, Olympiade in Deutschland - Nicht um jeden Preis
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Deswegen war absehbar: Das wird nicht auf ewig so sein, diese Doppelbelastung.
Therefore, it was foreseeable that it wouldn't last forever, this double load.
Caption 54, Rhein-Main-TV - Interview mit Edmund Stössel
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The phrase abgesehen von (etwas), however, does not mean that something can be foreseen, but rather:
Abgesehen von neugierigen Bootstouristen sind sie dort relativ ungestört.
Apart from the curious tourists on boats, they are relatively undisturbed there.
Caption 12, Abenteuer Nordsee - Unter Riesenhaien und Tintenfischen
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Schlüters Entscheidungsunfähigkeit passt perfekt zur Merkel,
Schlüter's inability to make decisions fits perfectly with Merkel,
von kleineren Problemen abgesehen.
apart from a few small problems.
Captions 14-15, Der Merkelpilot - der kleine Mann, der es macht
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Aber abgesehen von kleinen Anlaufschwierigkeiten schienen die Tiere schon sehr zufrieden.
But apart from minor initial difficulties, the animals seemed to be quite content.
Caption 16, Für Tierfreunde - Przewalski-Wildpferde
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If the subject of your point has already been mentioned, you can also say abgesehen davon:
Abgesehen davon ist Vielfalt bei der Ernährung immer eine gute Sache.
Apart from this, variety in [one's] diet is always a good thing.
Caption 46, Kochhaus Berlin - Kochen mit Kindern
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Mal ganz abgesehen davon, dass wir natürlich kleine Schülerzahlen haben.
Quite apart from that, the fact that we have, of course, a small number of students.
Caption 65, Strothoff International School - Interview mit dem Rektor
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Mal abgesehen davon, dass wir dann gar nicht da wären,
Apart from that, we then wouldn't be here at all
wäre es dunkel auf der Erde... dunkel und kalt.
if it were dark on Earth... dark and cold.
Captions 2-3, Unser Universum - Die Sonne
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Further Learning
Apart from abgesehen von, can you think of any other ways to express "besides" or "other than?" Hint: search on Yabla German for similar expressions that use the prepositions außer, sonst, neben, außerdem, and the expression darüber hinaus.
I still sometimes find it difficult, despite speaking German for decades, to distinguish between the two nouns die Gelegenheit and die Angelegenheit. In all fairness, though, the fact that prefixes like an-, be-, ver-, ent-, etc. radically alter the meanings of German words is part of what makes German difficult for English speakers.
Let's start by stripping Gelegenheit of its -heit suffix, leaving us with the adverb/adjective gelegen:
...eine Kleinstadt für sich, gelegen entlang der schweiz-französischen Grenze.
...a small town on its own, located along the Swiss-French border.
Caption 2, Die Weltmaschine - Der LHC-Teilchenbeschleuniger
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Vor der abseits gelegenen Düne gelang ihm eine sensationelle Entdeckung:
In front of this remotely situated dune, he managed to make a sensational discovery:
Captions 22-23, Abenteuer Nordsee - Unter Riesenhaien und Tintenfischen
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Thus gelegen is usually translated as "located" or situated," though it also can mean "desired" (erwünscht) or "opportune" (günstig). When we add the suffix -heit and make it a noun, it becomes:
Die Gelegenheit lässt sich Florian nicht entgehen.
Florian doesn't let this opportunity slip by.
Caption 18, Abenteuer Nordsee - Unter Riesenhaien und Tintenfischen
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Dann lernst du ihn auch gleich kennen bei der Gelegenheit.
Then you'll also get to know him right away on this occasion.
Caption 28, Fine - sucht einen Hammer
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Die Gelegenheit is almost always translated as "opportunity," except when preceded with the preposition bei, when it's usually translated as "occasion." On a more humorous note, just as "the facilities" are used in English as a polite euphemism for the toilet, so too is die Gelegenheit an old-fashioned euphemism in German for das WC. A perhaps overly polite way to ask where the toilet is would be Wo ist hier die Gelegenheit, bitte?
Die Angelegenheit is, on the other hand, literally a different matter altogether:
Die Königin war fuchsteufelswild und beschloss, die Angelegenheit jetzt selbst in die Hand zu nehmen.
The Queen was "fox devil wild" [slang: angry] and decided to take the matter into her own hands now.
Captions 55-56, Märchen - Sagenhaft - Schneewittchen
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Musste zufällig jemand den Kaiser in kaiserlichen Angelegenheiten sprechen, gaben seine Diener stets dieselbe Antwort.
Should someone need to speak to the emperor about imperial affairs, his servants always gave the same answer.
Captions 20-21, Märchen - Sagenhaft - Des Kaisers neue Kleider
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I use this mnemonic device to remember the difference between Gelegenheit and Angelegenheit:
–An "opportunity" should be easy and is thus the shorter of the two words, Gelegenheit.
–A political affair or business matter tends to suggest difficult bureaucratic procedures and is thus the longer word Angelegenheit.
Further Learning
Go to Yabla German to find other examples of gelegen, Gelegenheit and Angelegenheit as used in real-world context.
You are already familiar with adjectival possessive pronouns: instead of saying "the man's black hat" you may say "his black hat," etc. The main German singular possessive pronouns are ihr and sein, usually translated as "his" and "her."
In German, der Mann is a grammatically masculine noun, but in any language, a man is naturally masculine too: he is the male of the species. The same rule applies to die Frau: grammatically feminine in German, but naturally female. Thus, the possessive pronoun for der Mann is sein (his) and the possessive pronoun for die Frau is ihr (her), and it follows that the grammatical genders and natural genders are matching in these cases:
Michael Jackson hielt im Übermut sein Baby aus einem Hotelfenster.
Michael Jackson held his baby boisterously out of a hotel window.
Captions 24-25, Berlin - Hotel Adlon feiert 15 Jahre Neueröffnung
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Astrid North hat ihr neues Album in Eigenregie produziert.
Astrid North has self-produced her new album.
Caption 28, Astrid North - Solo-Debüt
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The possessive pronoun of any grammatically masculine German noun is also masculine, just as any feminine noun takes a feminine pronoun. However, English does not translate the gender-specific sein and ihr respectively to "his" and "her" when referring to non-animate objects and many animals, but uses the gender-neutral "its" instead:
… anhand eines massiven Sterns, der sein Leben aushauchte.
… based on a massive star which exhaled its last breath.
Captions 23-24, Unser Universum - Sternengeburt - Das Leben nach dem stellaren Tod
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Die Nordsee. Sieben Länder teilen sich ihre Küsten.
The North Sea: Seven countries share its coastlines.
Caption 10, Abenteuer Nordsee - Unter Riesenhaien und Tintenfischen
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As you see above, non-animate nouns follow their gender equivalents in German, but in English both are translated as "its" rather than "his" or "her." But how does German deal with pronouns of neuter nouns?
Für jeden von uns bringt das neue Jahr seine ganz eigenen Herausforderungen mit sich.
For each one of us, the New Year brings its own very [unique] challenges with it.
Caption 2, Angela Merkel - Neujahrsansprache
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Im Wechsel der Gezeiten verändert das Watt ständig sein Gesicht.
With changing tides, the intertidal zone is continuously altering its appearance.
Caption 10, Abenteuer Nordsee - Unter Riesenhaien und Tintenfischen
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As you see in the examples above, German does not have a unique possessive pronoun for neuter nouns, but instead reverts to the masculine pronoun sein. This can lead to the rather odd situation of a grammatically neuter pronoun such as das Mädchen—which is naturally feminine in that "the girl" is a female of the species—taking the masculine pronoun sein:
Schnell nahm das Mädchen ein neues Streichholz in seine zitternden Hände.
The girl quickly took a new match in her trembling hands.
Caption 37, Märchen - Sagenhaft - Das kleine Mädchen mit den Schwefelhölzern
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As you see, seine was translated to "her"—not "his"—in this case, because only "her" is correct in English. Although it is formally correct to use sein for das Mädchen, it is very common to see feminine pronouns such as ihr used for grammatically neuter but naturally feminine figures. In fact, in the video quoted above, every single pronoun reference to das Mädchen actually used grammatically incorrect feminine pronouns! So while it is good to be conscious of this rule, it won't sound unnatural if the occasional Mädchen winds up as ihr in your German!
Further Learning
Look on Yabla German for the possessive pronouns sein and ihr being used in a real-world context, and take a look at this previous Yabla lesson about possessive pronouns.
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