Do some Germans use synonyms unnecesarily?

[BethAnnBitt 3,018]

Call me befuddled, but I arrived as an infant to a home containing a dictionary and a thesaurus, and I suspect that most of my German friends did too.  How can a language have “too many” synonyms and how might they be “unnecessarily” employed?  Doesn’t the fun just multiply with more arrows in one’s quiver?  🤷‍♀️ 😂  

[LukeSkywalker 7,662]

2 hours ago, karin_brenig said:

interesting discussion... first of all, I find it remarkable that OP here is quoting ARD Teletext - a tool that I personally last used in 1998.

I use that daily. I can quickly see the sport results, basically because it‘s just plain text without any advertising. I use it also to see details of a tv program or the program in general when I don‘t have a tv guide.

[alexunterwegs 549]

7 hours ago, jeba said:

Official communication has to be able to stand in court. Therefore, I can see why they use legalese German.

Ah. The power of the lawyers. You can understand why there are so many of them. Job for life. 

[Fietsrad 432]

I just read in the newspaper about Charles III, he is visiting "Europe" next week.

 

It is feared that people protesting about changes to pension law might try to "behinder" or "verhinder" his train ride from Paris to Bordeaux.

 

What is the difference between "behindern" and "verhindern"? Could the protesters do both?

..

In Germany he is visiting Berlin,.. Finowfurt and Brodowin!

[Krieg 15,107]

Hindern: to stop something

Verhindern: to prevent something, normally used in an impersonal way (it is not towards an specific person)

Behindern: to make something difficult to happen

[snowingagain 5,466]

I read today that Charles visit has had so much behindering that his his visit is well and  truly verhindert.

[Fietsrad 432]

The Schroeder-Regime introduced Hartz IV, to "forder" and "foerder" people without employment. The words are so similar but have different meanings, I was not sure which was which

 

Forden: to demand, require

 

Foerdern: to help, support

[LukeSkywalker 7,662]

33 minutes ago, Fietsrad said:

The Schroeder-Regime introduced Hartz IV, to "fordern" and "foerdern” people without employment. The words are so similar but have different meanings, I was not sure which was which

 

Fordern: to demand, require

 

Foerdern: to help, support

Corrections in bold.

[Fietsrad 432]

"Zug" is a useful word, it has at least fourteen meanings:

 

Train

Draught

Pull

Procession

Move (in chess)

What are the other meanings?

..

But not all trains are "Zuege". A single vehicle is not a procession. I guess you call it a "Bahn".

 

The single vehicles that used to run on secondary lines were called Ferkeltaxen, piglet taxis. I guess farmers used to take their beasts to market in Ferkeltaxen🐖

[Fietsrad 432]

The Germans seem to have trouble with English words. Just saw a van of a catering company delivering school meals: "cool cooking".

Hope the food is thoroughly heated before serving!🤔

 

Alternatively you could have lunch at the drive-in: "crispy Chicken", whatever that is in German.

[Fietsrad 432]

I was a bit confused by the word for Tax Adviser: Steuerberater

Looks very like Sterbeberater, death adviser 😕

[PandaMunich 16,910]

You've never heard of death&taxes?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_and_taxes_(idiom)

[Fietsrad 432]

I was in the food store, heard a staff member talking about the "Stückzahl"

Number Number?🙃

[bramble 9,647]

Stück = piece or item
Zahl = number
Stückzahl = quantitiy / number of pieces / number of items

[Fietsrad 432]

What really gets me: place names!

The Guardian mentions "Hanover", spelt wrong and pronounced wrong, grrr! And in Nederland the capital of Brexitum is "Londen"!

Mind, the BBC does have a Pronunciation Unit, the Staatsfunk over here apparently does not, presenters talk about Präsident Ronald "Reggan"!🤔

[snowingagain 5,466]

Hanover is the way the British wrote it. England had Hanoverian monarchs. Obviously Munich is very wrong. I naturally insist on pronouncing Paris "Paree", Moscow "Moskva" Barcelona "Barthelona", etc just to show how clever I am.. Stupid Englisch plebs.

[BethAnnBitt 3,018]

And thus we have Hanover, New Hampshire! I must confess I’ve finally given up on getting too upset by these things. In Louisiana we pronounce the city name of Lafayette our way, and in Indiana they say it their way. Same with El Dorado, TX vs. CA. Likewise we natives pronounce New Orleans our way, obviously correctly 😄, and everyone else, everywhere, even in the bloody US, says it differently. Who cares? I always say it the native way cuz you can take me out of NO but you can’t take NO out of me. I confess that I semi-cringe inside when people say Merry-land or Floor-er-duh, but how, pray tell, are they to know? I try, but I make lots of mistakes myself. 🤣

[BethAnnBitt 3,018]

Fietsrad: Reagan is a challenging one since it’s an exception. I kinda get it. Our long German last name, ending in “mayer” is pronounced the correct German way. So in the US we must always says “my-er with an ay”, or in some cases we just say “……..mayor” to make it easier. 😃 Get lots of mail for “……..meyer”. In Michigan all the Dutch “Meijer”s have it tough too. 😀 Such is life.

P.S. When we lived in Michigan we it was always fun being asked which version of “my-er” one is. 🤩

[fraufruit 42,673]

The one German mis-pronunciation that still gets in my craw is Washingun.

[keith2011 2,703]

Most people here only know me by my nickname which I have used pretty much since I arrived as most Germans have a real problem with the th in Keith and I don't like being called "kite".😒