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German Modifier Nouns That Don't Need Prepositions

In English, you'd say "a bottle of cola" or "a teaspoon of sugar," but in German, you don't generally use the preposition von ("of") when describing units of something. Nor do you use von when describing containers of something, such as a bottle, a case, a stack, or a package. It may be grammatically correct to say eine Flasche von Cola, but a native speaker would say eine Flasche Cola—and you should too!

 

Here are some examples of nouns modifying die Flasche. Note that the English translation always uses the preposition "of," whereas in German, the nouns modify each other directly, with no preposition:

 

Ich könnte natürlich auch eine Flasche Wasser trinken.

I could, of course, drink a bottle of water instead.

Caption 16, Jenny beim Frühstück - Teil 2

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Das ist schlecht, deshalb brauchen wir eine zweite Flasche Tomatensauce.

This is bad, that's why we need a second bottle of tomato sauce.

Caption 16, Cannelloni - mit Jenny

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And here with der Kasten and die Kiste, the most common German terms for a case or box used for carrying bottles. Note that eine Kiste is also a German idiom for a shabby car, just as "crate" is used in American slang.

 

Als Preis ibt es einen Kasten Bier!

For a prize there is a case of beer!

Caption 57, Frisbee - Karlsruher Weihnachtsturnier - Part 1

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Also, wir haben einen Kasten Sekt bekommen,

Well, we got a box of sparkling wine,

eine Kiste Sekt das letzte Mal.

the last time a case of sparkling wine.

Caption 56, Frisbee - Karlsruher Weihnachtsturnier - Part 2

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And for a stack (der Packen) of cash:

 

Er hat Arne einen dicken Packen Geldscheine gegeben.

He gave Arne a thick stack of bills.

Caption 53, Die Pfefferkörner - Eigentor

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And here a small packet (das Päckchen), along with some quantities from a recipe: 

 

Wir brauchen 75 Gramm Zucker,

We need 75 grams of sugar,

ein Päckchen Vanillezucker,

a small packet of vanilla sugar,

einen Teelöffel Backpulver,

one teaspoon of baking powder,

75 Gramm Butter...

75 grams of butter...

Captions 5-8, Weihnachtsplätzchen backen - mit Diane und vielen kleinen Helfern

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Further Learning
Take a look at some cooking recipes on Yabla German and try to find the noun modifiers that don't require a preposition in German. 

Du armes Schwein: Disdain or Empathy?

In the English language, I can't think of any way of calling somebody a pig (das Schwein) without it sounding pretty insulting. It's also usually the case in German that labeling someone a Schwein is meant to express disdain or to be purposefully offensive:

 

Du bist so ein Schwein geworden. Und wir waren mal Freunde?

You have become such a pig. And we were once friends?

Caption 17, Die Pfefferkörner - Eigentor

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BANNER PLACEHOLDER

 

Und damit kann das Ziel

And with this, the objective

des Attentats doch noch erreicht werden.

of the assassination attempt can still be reached.

Wenn das Schwein wenigstens tot wäre.

If the swine was at least dead.

Captions 27-28, Die Stunde der Offiziere - Dokudrama über den 20. Juli 1944 

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Du Schwein! Raus hier, du Lügner!

You pig! Out of here, you liar!

Caption 31, Filmwettbewerb "filmreif" - Mama mach die Augen auf

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Unser Chef ist ein mieses Schwein.

Our boss is a mean pig.

Caption 41, Weihnachtsfilm - Ein Sack voll Geld

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In German, however there is at least one slang context where Schwein is used together with the adjective arm ("poor") to express sympathy for somebody's situation:

 

Der Mann ist obdachlos.

The man is homeless.

-Das arme Schwein! Vielleicht sollten wir ihm eine Spende geben.

-The poor swine! Maybe we should give him a donation.
 

In English, this is the equivalent of saying "poor bastard," or the rather old-fashioned "poor devil." It's still common in British English to hear the similarly inclined "poor sod." None of these words are very nice, but they're used nevertheless to express sympathy!

 

Schwein haben is also used as an expression for having had good luck: 

 

Und permanent stand ich mit einem Bein

And I stood permanently on one leg

im Knast, doch meistens hatt ich großes Schwein.

in jail, but mostly I was very lucky.

Captions 23-24, Frank Zander - Tu doch meine Asche in die Eieruhr

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If you didn't know this expression, you might wonder about him having had "a large pig" in prison!

 

Another nice idiomatic use of Schwein is when you don't know anybody at a place or event: 

 

Hier kenne ich kein Schwein.

I don't know anyone here.

 

In this context, kein Schwein essentially means "no one" or "nobody":

 

Kein Schwein war da.

Nobody was there.

Wenn man sagt: „Kein Schwein war da“,

When you say, "No pig was there,"

dann möchte man ausdrücken,

then you would like to express

dass man zu einer bestimmten Zeit an einem bestimmten Ort war

that you were at a certain time at a certain place

und dort überraschenderweise niemanden angetroffen hat.

and, surprisingly, met no one there.

Captions 42-46, Eva erklärt - Sprichwörter

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Further Learning
Go to Yabla German and see some other uses of das Schwein in a real-world context.

German Interjections

According to the third edition of the Shorter Oxford Dictionary, an interjection is a grammatical term "expressing emotion, viewed as a Part of Speech." Wikipedia describes an interjection as "a word or expression that occurs as an utterance on its own and expresses a spontaneous feeling or reaction" that furthermore "partly overlaps with categories like profanities, discourse markers and fillers."

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In German too, some interjections are also standard nouns, but most are basically sounds that express emotion. Here are some examples of German interjections that are nearly identical to English: 

 

Ach, jetzt weiß ich, warum wir verschlafen haben. -Aha, warum denn?

Oh, now I know why we overslept. -Uh-huh, why then?

Caption 55, Die Pfefferkörner - Cybermobbing

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The next one is pretty easy, because even though it's spelled differently, it sounds the same:

 

Sonst gibt es keine Krone. -Autsch!

Otherwise there won't be any crown. -Ouch!

Caption 8, JoNaLu - Prinz Dreckspatz

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The more common expression of pain in German, however, is aua, which is similar in sound to the English "ow."

 

Bingo, wir sind im Geschäft!

Bingo, we are in business!

Caption 61, Rücksicht im Verkehr - Christophorus - Die Mission

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„Es ist schön, dass wir in Deutschland sind." -Bravo.

"It is nice that we are in Germany." -Bravo.

Caption 29, Deutschkurs in Tübingen - Die Konjunktion „dass“

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There are also many German interjections that sound entirely different from their English counterparts: 

 

Ich bin... was, "short"? -Ach, ich bin klein!

I am... what, short? -Oh, I am small!

Caption 15, Deutschkurs in Tübingen - Obwohl

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Na ja, wer's glaubt, wird selig.

Well, he who has faith shall be blessed.

Caption 12, Großstadtrevier - Von Monstern und Mördern

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Mensch, wo bleibt sie denn?

Man, where is she then?

Caption 25, Die Pfefferkörner - Eigentor

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BANNER PLACEHOLDER

Further Learning
See this list of German interjections and find some of them used in a real-world context on Yabla German.