About time: Nie zeitig, aber immer zeitgemäß

My student Isabella shot this photo in Friedrichshain, Berlin. Someone is offering time (Du brauchst Zeit?) and encourages with the imperative nimm (nehmen) to take some.

Zeit is important. It is relentless and forces us to wait until the break between the first and the second act when we arrive at the opera house only 5 minutes late.

Wir sind nicht pünktlich.

Wir haben nicht zeitig (early enough) das Haus verlassen, obwohl wir zeitgemäß (modern, up to date) gekleidet sind.

The word (adjektiv, adverb) rechtzeitig represents a bit more than zeitig does, something other than punctual at a scheduled time: just in time, timely.

Die Sopranistin fällt von der Bühne. Der Tenor kann sie noch rechtzeitig fangen.

We call a time period die Zeitperiode or der Zeitraum, “time-space.” If we refer to an event in a Zeitraum, we have to apply the dative as if it happens in an actual space:

Mozart schrieb die Zauberflöte in einem Zeitraum von drei Monaten.

There are countless temporal adverbs. Below you find adverbs that state the repetition of events.

nie = 0 %                                                                   immer = 100 %

Ich rauche nie.                             Ich singe immer beim Duschen.

Please put these words in the correct order between nie and immer:

oft, selten, manchmal, meistens

Die Zeit exists also as the old word die Weile.

We know die Langeweile, that sneaks up to us when we watch a movie where nothing really happens, or listen to a person who really says nothing. A minute seems to take for ever. Die Langeweile means boredom, and langweilig boring, while die Kurzweile means the opposite, something interesting, exciting. Please repeat the following sentence and practice its pronunciation: Dieser Artikel ist kurzweilig.

About time: Nie pünktlich, aber immer zeitgemäß

About time: Nie pünktlich, aber immer zeitgemäß

Komische Oper Berlin: Die Zauberflöte lightens up

On Friday night we went to Die Zauberflöte at the Komische Oper Berlin. The production, originated at this opera house together with the British theater group 1927, has been drawing attention internationally because of its elaborate video projections and lighting effects. Except for a white, wooden wall as screen there are no props on stage. The spectator has the feeling to watch a silent movie. The singers are dressed like silent movie heroes of the 1920s. As they sing, they interact with the projected symbols and creatures. The recitative, that is normally spoken, appears as subtitle on the screen, accompanied by piano music like in a silent movie show – excerpts from Mozart’s Fantasia in D-minor.

The youtube video above is a news clip from a performance of the same production in Duisburg in 2013.

Here is the vocabulary of the video’s commentary:

wird (Infinitiv: werden) als Vollverb (main verb) = der Prozess zu einer neuen Kondition.
Ich werde müde. Lisa wird Astronautin. Hier: Es wird dunkel.

dunkel = wenig oder kein Licht

ruhig = nicht laut, keine Nervösität

Musik setzt ein (Infinitiv: einsetzen) = Musik beginnt

der Vorhang = Textilien, Tuch vor dem Fenster, vor der Bühne

der Zuschauer = eine Person des Publikums, schauen = sehen

ähnelt (Infinitiv: ähneln) = nicht genau oder fast das Gleiche

das Bühnenbild = die Dekoration auf der Bühne

sich einer großen Aufgabe stellen = man will einen großen Plan realisieren

gestalten = designen

die Herausforderung = eine große Aufgabe, die schwer für uns ist

die Schwierigkeit = etwas, was nicht leicht ist

die Besonderheit = das Spezielle

agieren = aktiv sein, handeln

die Leinwand = die Projektionswand für Filme

die Alptraumwelt = eine Welt der schlechten Träume

Der? Die? Das? What gender does a Bagel have?

There is a good deal of discussion surrounding the question of what an e-mail is – is it das E-Mail or die E-Mail? Is Car-Sharing (or carpooling as English-speakers would say) masculine or neuter? Would the favorite food of a New Yorker be das Bagel or der Bagel? As a rule of thumb, we translate the word and apply the gender accordingly. Electronic mail means elektronische Post which is feminine. Car-Sharing is an English noun that ends with –ing. These nouns adapted into German are always neuter.

das Car-Sharing, das Shopping

Some foreign words resist translation. A bagel is a bagel. What can we do? Call it der Weißteigring? Foreign nouns get their gender as mysteriously as many German nouns. It is der Chip and das Date and der Blues. Germans are generous as they sometimes offer guests in the German language more than one gender. A cartoon is der and das as well as the bagel. Der Bagel, das Bagel – always with Streichkäse (cream cheese, masculine).

From: Ach ich fühl’s – German for Opera Singers in Three Acts: Studying, Speaking, Singing, Lulu Press, 373 pages, ISBN: 978-1-312-46345-5

   More information about the book: click here.

How to be brief in German

Außerhausverkauf = Verkauf aus dem Haus = zum Mitnehmen (maybe coffee? Food?). The construction site does not give any other option.

The German language is not famous for its brevity.

Ich wünsche dir (or Ihnen or euch – depend on your relationship with that person) ein frohes neues Jahr. These seven words mean: Happy new year.

You are invited to a birthday party of a friend. Flowers in your hand, you ring the bell. Your friend opens the door. You say, “Herzlichen Glückwunsch zum Geburtstag.” By the time you reach the end of this sentence, the party may be over. Birthday wishes need in German twice as many words as in English, altogether 34 letters, and you haven’t even mentioned the birthday child’s name.

Some of my students, eager to build more complex, more profound answers to my questions (Möchtest du Brünhilde singen? Magst du Regietheater? Gefällt dir Berlin in der Nacht?) ask at first, “Wie sagt man ‘It depends’?” Their eyes widen in disbelieve when they hear my response:

“Es kommt darauf an.” Or: “Es hängt davon ab.”

Some of them try it, others backtrack to flat answers (Brünhilde: Vielleicht. Regietheater: Nein. Berlin in der Nacht: Ja.)

However, there are short versions for most phrases, since the day has as many hours for a German as it has for English-speakers. Life – or the possibility to lose it – has shorten expressions, and formed the language in many regions. For example, the dialect in the Ruhrgebiet, the Ruhr Area, where for generations millions of immigrants worked in coal mines and steel factories, merges words and cuts off word endings. If a coal miner attempted to warn his co-worker of a falling bowlder with a long, formal, well-thought-out phrase, the mining industry would constantly suffer heavy labor shortage.

“Pass auf!” Watch out!

Hochdeutsch offers short versions of many phrases, too. It helps the language learner to listen to people and imitate them.

Long: Es kommt darauf an. Short: Je nachdem.

Long: Herzlichen Glückwunsch zum Geburtstag. Short: Alles Gute zum Geburtstag. Shorter: Gratuliere. The verb is gratulieren. Here it is conjugated for first person singular: Ich gratuliere.

The phrase Guten Tag is already a short version of Ich wünsche Ihnen/dir/euch einen guten Tag. Notice the adjective gut, and its ending -en. It implies the accusative of der Tag:

Ich wünsche den Tag. Ich wünsche einen Tag, einen guten Tag.

Wie geht’s? stands for Wie geht es Ihnen/dir/euch?

The first phrase I heard from a Berliner in the new year was a short one: Gras? He tried to sell me marijuana.

The first nice phrase in the new year I heard from the sales lady in the chocolate department at a Berlin department store. (I am a regular customer there.) She wished me a happy new year by nodding at me, smiling and saying a tiny but heartfelt “Frohes!”

In der Kürze liegt die Würze: Brevity is the soul of wit.