When you read about legal issues in the German news, you may come across the noun das Urteil, which you may already know as "judgment," "verdict," or "ruling." But did you know that there are several verbs containing urteil- as their word stems that have broader meanings in everyday life? Let's take a look today at how these different words are used for a variety of meanings and contexts.
The verb urteilen is used in the more formal sense of passing a judgment or, as in the last two examples, a way of showing the impression somebody has of something or someone:
Das Gericht hat geurteilt, dass seine Taten illegal seien.
The court ruled that his actions were illegal.
Je weniger man weiß, umso schneller urteilt man.
The less you know, the faster you judge.
Dem Brief nach zu urteilen muss es dir sehr gut gehen.
Judging by the letter, you must be doing very well.
The verb beurteilen, however, is the less formal expression of an opinion of someone or something's qualities:
Ich habe das Gefühl, dass ich so das fast besser beurteilen kann,
I have the feeling that this way, I can almost judge better
wenn ich näher dran bin.
what's needed when I am closer to it.
Captions 42-43, Hell - Science-Fiction-Kinotipp
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Dann ist es immer so schwierig,
Then it is always so difficult,
und hinterher wird man nur nach dem Foto beurteilt.
and afterwards you are only judged based on the photo.
Caption 25, Barbara Schöneberger - Das Roter-Teppich-Einmaleins
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The verb verurteilen is usually translated as "to sentence," although in other contexts you may see it translated as "to condemn," "to convict," or even "to doom."
Ein französisches Gericht hat den TÜV Rheinland zu insgesamt 60 Millionen Euro Schadenersatz verurteilt.
A French court of law sentenced TÜV Rheinland to provide a total of 60 million euros compensation.
Captions 34-36, Tagesschau - Amtseinführung von Donald Trump
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Für seine Witze gegen das Regime wurde Zarganar
For his jokes against the regime, Zarganar was
zu 35 Jahren Gefängnis verurteilt.
sentenced to 35 years in prison.
Captions 8-9, Michael Mittermeier - mit Witzen gegen das Regime
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Eigentlich von seinem Grafen bereits zum Tode verurteilt,
Actually sentenced to death already by the count,
gab dieser ihm noch eine letzte Chance.
he was given one last chance.
Captions 12-13, Bundesländer und ihre Rezepte - Bayern
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To summarize: verurteilen is in some ways the easiest to learn, as it is usually translated as "to sentence." Both urteilen and beurteilen may be translated as "to judge," but the main difference between the two is that urteilen is usually used in a more formal sense (such as the judgment of a court), or to express an impression you have of something or somebody. The verb beurteilen, however, is more often used to express an opinion about the the qualities of somebody or something.
Further Learning
Write some sentences in English using the verb "to judge," and then translate them into German using either urteilen or beurteilen. Check your work online or have your teacher take a look at it with you. You can also try searching for urteilen, beurteilen, and verurteilen on Yabla German to see other ways the words are used in different contexts.
This past week, temperatures in Germany rose to 102° F / 39° C, even in Berlin and the northern Bundesländer. For a place where air conditioning is the exception rather than the norm, this is extreme!
In German, the noun for "heat" or "hot temperatures" is die Hitze.
Ich mag zwar Wärme, aber keine Hitze.
I like the warmth indeed, but not the heat.
Caption 38, Jenny - Reiseziele
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Die Hitze war so groß,
The heat was so great
dass schon bald die Farben seiner Soldatenuniform verblassten.
that the colors of his soldier's uniform soon faded.
Captions 79-80, Märchen - Sagenhaft - Der standhafte Zinnsoldat
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Die Mischung aus Staub und Sonnenstrahlen
The mixture of dust and sunbeams
ließ das gleißende Licht entstehen,
gave rise to the glistening light,
das die tödliche Hitze im Film so glaubhaft macht.
that makes the deadly heat in the film so believable.
Captions 28-30, Hell - Science-Fiction-Kinotipp
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Just as we say "heat wave" in English, Germany combines die Hitze and die Welle into a compound noun:
Eine Hitzewelle rollt an.
A heatwave is coming through.
Caption 6, Unterwegs mit Cettina - Sommer am Baggersee
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Sometimes when a heat wave is too intense and no air conditioning is available (which is the case in many offices and classrooms), cancellations may even occur. There is a special phrase in German for getting the day off due to a heat wave: hitzefrei haben.
Die Müllmänner ham [haben] hitzefrei
The garbage men have time off due to the heat
Caption 4, Culcha Candela - Sommer im Kiez
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Further Learning
Search for more examples of the word die Hitze on Yabla German and see our past newsletter on summer living. You can also read a short text in German about the Berlin government's stance on school cancellations here.
Have you come across the phrase “strong verbs” or “weak verbs” in your studies and wondered what exactly is meant?
Strong verbs have a stem-vowel change in one or more tenses, for example in the simple past or present tense. In other words, they are irregular. The sign of a strong verb is that its participle will end with -en.
For example, with genießen ("to enjoy") the present tense conjugations do not have a vowel change, but the past tense does (genoss). The participle accordingly ends with
-en:
Genießt euren Kaffee, wie auch immer ihr den zubereitet.
Enjoy your coffee, regardless of how you make it.
Caption 39, Eva zeigt uns - wie man Kaffee kocht
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Und ich habe an einer sehr renommierten Universität ein sehr umfangreiches Marketingstudium genossen.
And I enjoyed a very comprehensive marketing program at a very renowned university.
Captions 26-27, Berufsleben - das Vorstellungsgespräch - Part 2
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In the case of the verb empfehlen (“to recommend”), the present and simple past tenses both have a different stem vowel change. Once again, the participle ends with -en:
Neben dem Stadtrad empfiehlt sich vor allem die Innsbruck Card für die Erkundung.
In addition to the city bike, above all, the Innsbruck card can be recommended for the exploration.
Captions 26-27, 48 h in Innsbruck - Sehenswürdigkeiten & Tipps
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Schafft das keine Linderung, wird empfohlen, die Höhe des Computerbildschirms zu überprüfen.
[If] that doesn't bring relief, it's recommended [that you] check the height of the computer screen.
Captions 19-20, Nackenverspannungen - Entspannungstipps für den Büroalltag
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Weak verbs are more “regular” in the sense that all tenses resemble the infinitive. The participle ends with -t. Let’s look at the verb reisen:
Wenn man gemeinsam reist, ist es immer besser.
It's always better if you travel together.
Caption 20, Traumberuf - Windsurfer
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Dafür reiste das Filmteam bis nach Korsika.
For this the film team traveled as far away as Corsica.
Caption 35, Hell - Science-Fiction-Kinotipp
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Für zwei Wochen bin ich durchs Land gereist.
For two weeks, I traveled across the country.
Caption 20, Grete - eine Freiwillige in Israel
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Now, of course, because German is never easy, there are exceptions in the form of irregular weak verbs. These have a participle with -t rather than -en, but also have a stem vowel change. Many common verbs, such as bringen and wissen, fall into this category.
Ein Benefiz-Fußballspiel brachte sie jedoch alle zusammen auf den Rasen.
A benefit football match nevertheless brought them all together on the turf.
Caption 2, Fußball - Prominente beim Benefizspiel
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Aschenputtel wurde in den Palast gebracht.
Cinderella was brought to the palace.
Caption 105, Märchen - Sagenhaft - Aschenputtel
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Further Learning
When you learn a new verb on Yabla German, always find out immediately whether it's strong or weak and memorize this as well as its definition. Here is an extensive list of strong and irregular verbs. Look up the participles of niesen versus genießen and of the verbs winken and stinken, which are particularly tricky.
The title of this week's mini-lesson is from an American depression-era novel of the same title by John Fante, and is an allusion that can be taken both literally and figuratively. In most contexts, however, words take on their literal original meaning, as in the use of the word "dust" (German: der Staub) here:
Die Mischung aus Staub und Sonnenstrahlen
The mixture of dust and sunbeams
ließ das gleißende Licht entstehen,
gave rise to the glistening light,
das die tödliche Hitze im Film so glaubhaft macht.
that makes the deadly heat in the film so believable.
Captions 28-30, Hell - Science-Fiction-Kinotipp
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This week’s video release, Alpenseen, however, uses the word “dust” in an idiomatic sense meaning “to leave.” The English idiom “to dust out” and the 1920s-era slang "to take a powder" have similar meanings.
...und macht sich aus dem Staub.
...and makes herself out of the dust [idiom, absconds].
Caption 45, Alpenseen - Kühle Schönheiten
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Further Learning
Take a look at this German Wikipedia list of German sayings and do a search on German Yabla to see if you can find some of the sayings used in context in a video.
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