How do you end an angry letter to a Beamter in German? Why is the German noun for peach masculine? And what is the German equivalent for the French "de rien"? Expatica's resident German teacher Renate Grasstat answers your questions.

Andy writes:

How do you write a angry letter (a common occurrence with beamters (sic)) and not have to use the phrase 'mit freundlichen Grüßen'?

Also, does this mean 'yours sincerely' or 'with friendly greetings'?

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You may occasionally feel the need to vent your displeasure in correspondence

Literally it means "with friendly greetings", but the function is just the "correct" standard form of ending a formal letter, which can be "sincerely" in English. It does not make a difference if you use the name of the person in the address or not.

To avoid being friendly is easy. Just leave it out! Sign with your name without any form of standard phrase at the end. If you are very angry you can also write "Mit unfreundlichen Grüßen", but you should be aware that this would be a "declaration of war"...

Good luck!

Renate

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Graeme Miller writes:

Dear Renate,

In your June 2005 article you write "One rule that never fails is: the ending '-ung' is always feminine."

It fails in Sprung and Ursprung.

Sorry.

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Dear Graeme,

"Sprung" and "Ursprung" have no "endings"; "ending" means that a syllable is attached to the stem of a word (mostly verbs) at the end, like with "wohnen": "Wohnung" etc.

"Sprung" is a certain form of what we call the stem (here: deriving from the participle) and "Ursprung" is the same with a kind of prefix added to it.

Best regards

Renate Grasstat

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P. D. Matthew writes:

A Pfirsich by any other gender would surely taste as sweet

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Dear P.D. Matthew,

Thank you for your question - it gives me the opportunity again to say that there are absolutely no rules for the articles of most words of everyday life. Exceptions are words deriving from verbs or adjectives or foreign (Latin and Greek) words with certain endings. So there is no need (and no use...) to rack your brain about it!

Renate

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Dave writes:

Sorry for the simple question, but...

What is the German equivalent for the French "de rien" or the Spanish "de nada"? Or does it depend on the noun/pronoun to which the reply refers?

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Dear Dave,

If someone apologises, the answer is: "Das macht nichts" or just: "Macht nichts." Of course you can also say: "Kein Problem".

This is a situation which is sometimes mixed up with "Gern geschehen", "Nichts zu danken" or "Keine Ursache" - all three of which mean "You're welcome."

Renate

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Cristi Jones writes:

My name is Cristi Jones and my husband and I moved to Germany about nine months ago.  We live in Offenbach just outside the Frankfurt city border.  I am feeling the frustration of the language barrier.

Although I have made some effort to learn some basics, it is not even close to being sufficient to converse with a fellow German.  How and where can I go to learn German?  So far, I have been quite intimidated to take an instructor-led course with others because I feel my German is so poor that I will be completely lost.  Please help!!!  I appreciate your time!

Thank you.

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Dear Cristi,

Thank you very much for your question. First of all, I think there are a lot of people in your situation and therefore this is a very important point. Thanks for being so open!

In my view, there are two possible ways of overcoming these difficulties:

1. Try to find a private teacher who agrees that your first priority is communicating, not handling all the situations used in a text book and all the grammar points in an accurate and native-speaker-like way. Put him to the test and ask him / her if he / she is flexible and ready to do some language work that really helps you with talking to others in authentic situations. (I admit it might be hard to find somebody, because German teachers are usually trained to put the emphasis on building the grammar..)

But be aware that some grammar is really indispensable for understanding the language structure and therefore the meaning!

2. Overcome your inhibitions and find a course with other students. Usually there is a lot of fun in these mixed classes, and being in a group forces you to communicate and makes it easier to feel relaxed, maybe first only during the breaks, but soon also in class.

Perhaps start a beginners' course, even though I understand you already know some German. It will make you feel more self-secure and will help you to feel at ease with others "in German".

I wish you all the best!
Renate Grasstat

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Bill writes:

Gruess Gut u. Hello Renate! 

I am Bill, a retired American soldier that has spent 11 years in Germany, all but eight months within an hour of downtown Munich.  I have also had four years of German language studies during my high school days, so I believe that I have fairly passable and functional German.

I do understand the great affection for Germans to use English words and English-speaking peoples to use German words.  After all, isn't English 'Anglo', a Germanic tribe and dialect to begin with? This is why I believe that a lot of my non-German speaking friends get confused by the Toiletten: men should use the room for "Da Men, while their wives/girlfriends should use the 'Her ren' room!

But my real all-time favorite is related to you "downgeloaded" vs. "gedownloaded":  I had a very dear, non-German speaking friend that always just tried to make himself understood by putting that "ge" prefix in the middle of half his English words and phrases (looked like it usually worked for him), consequently his (and it became mine) favorite farewell expression was "Auf Wieder geBye-bye"!

Regards and thanks for e-writing!

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Dear Bill,

Thanks a lot for your mail - it was very funny to read about your example of "geBye-bye", and it reminded me of another word I have heard from students learning German: "gebeispielt". As you probably know, "zum Beispiel" is a very common expression, and now and then students think it might also be a verb and form the present perfect...

Your "toilet example" is indeed a very confusing one for English speakers and perhaps could be placed in the wide category of "false friends" (?). By the way, do you know the Marx Brothers film where Harpo stands in front of a ladies' room with the sign "women", concealing the "wo"?

Keep being creative with the language!

Best regards and thanks again for your examples,

Renate

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An Expatica reader writes:

Re: Fire and passion

I always thought it was:
 
"Eifersucht ist eine Leidenschaft, die mit Eifer sucht, was Leiden schafft."
 
An even more intricate pun!

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Dear reader,

Thank you for your email!

The sentence you are quoting is perfectly correct, and even more intricate, as you say!  As far as I know it was said by the philosopher Friedrich Schleiermacher.

However, the saying about Leidenschaft is today very often used alone - in fact it is more about "Leidenschaft", whereas the longer sentence is actually more about "Eifersucht".... It was a reader who had written to me about the "Leidenschaft" thing, and I was wondering if this negative attitude towards "passion" appeared to be "typically German".

If you like, please let me know what else you find interesting in the language - it might be worth looking at it more closely!

Kind regards,

Renate Grasstat

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To read more about Renate Graßtat, you can click on Language Instruction under Expatica's business directory. Do you have questions about the German language? Write to Expatica. Renate Graßtat may use your question in a future column. Renate is currently offering new classes on "Survival German", Business Language, Understanding the Media, German Literature and Exam Preparation 2006. Visit http://www.learn-german.de or call +49 (0)30 615 26 35 for more information.

4 July 2006

Copyright Expatica 2006

Subject: Ask our German teacher, learning German in Berlin, German language, German teacher in Berlin, German instruction, German lessons, German classes