Observations At Six Months



8 thoughts on “Observations At Six Months

  1. Congratulations on hitting the half-year mark!

    A note or two, if I may, on the language points you mentioned. Maybe they’ll help you or some future surfer.

    “entschuldigen” — the verb — may shed more light if you break it into parts. “ent” as a prefix usually conveys a “removal” meaning. “Schuld” is a (feminine) noun meaning “guilt” or “debt” or “culpability.” “-igen” verbifies the whole thing. Add it together, and you get “to remove-the-guilt” as a verb, or a noun version of that in the form of “Entschuldigung” (think “guilt removal”). Now, how can that verb “entschuldigen” mean both “apologize” and “forgive” (the noun)? The secret lies in the disinction between the reflexive and non-reflexive usages. When you forgive someone, you’re removing their guilt. When you ask for forgiveness (i.e., apologize), you’re removing your own guilt. “I would like to apologize” → “Ich möchte mich entschuldigen.

    Regarding the sharp-s: the spelling reforms over the years seem to approve “ß” when the preceding vowel sound is long — as in “groß” and not short, as in “kross” or “krass“. I think that even applies to the convention of “-sst”: It’s “zusammengefasst” and “isst” (now) and not “zusammengefaßt” or “ißt” (anymore), though I’m pretty sure those forms used to be preferred. It’s not a hard and fast rule, or maybe it depends on pronunication distinctions that are so fine as to be practically imperceptible (for natives, let alone foreign speakers). Consider “Straße” and “Wasser.” I try not to worry too much about it, given that the Swiss (“the Swiß?”) don’t bother with “ß” at all, and those spelling reformers have made plenty of native speakers look like Klowns.

  2. You can’t randomly exchange ß and ss. It’s OK when you have to like for a web address or to fill in forms in capital letters. But otherwise it’s wrong. Also, in the East of Germany, people don’t call it “scharfes s” but “S Z” and they replace it not by ss but by – obviously, duh! – sz.

    Generelly, the ß follows a long vowel (like in Fuß or Straße), whereas ss is used after short vowels (as in Kuss or Tasse)

    • I stand corrected. I just know that computer stuff doesn’t generally like the ß in a typed address, so I leapt to an incorrect assumption.

  3. Congratulations on your half year anniversary! Buggy boards are now pervading all of Europe if not the world. They are perfect for nice tall Germans but if you are a 5’4″ Scot you kind of have to walk with a constant bend so you don’t catch your ankles. Grr..

    I LOVE those stacked garages! I would love to have a space in one for our car even though they slightly terrify me.

    Anyway, here’s to your next 6 months and beyond! Enjoy!

  4. 1) I want someone to push me around on one of those stroller boards all day.
    2) My friend was trying to explain the thumb pressing thing to me the other week and it took a good 5 minutes for me to figure out what the hell she was going on about.
    3) Ever since you talked about it, I have had a crap-ton of people say “mahlzeit” to me. I think it’s a conspiracy because it did NOT happen before you were talking about it. They know…

    • I find that things often show up a lot after you learn about them. That, or I have a secret squad of Heather Vexers in Nürnberg…

      • I agree that things tend to turn up everywhere like that, but I am 99% sure that prior to that conversation people did not continually walk past me saying “mahlzeit.” Servus/severus I’ve heard, but mahlzeit not. Conspiracy!

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