Friday, October 31, 2008

October 30, 2008

(The following have been deduced from Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney.)


"O-oh, oh... My behind is in danger if I do not find it..." (An idiomatic usage in German to say that one is in trouble, perhaps? Ja, I know it says "4" in Gef4hr, but I can assure you it's "133t" for Gefahr.)

October 29, 2008

(The following have been deduced from Final Fantasy VII.)


"No, if I had a choice, I would rather put it on science." (he probably means he would bet it on science; I just thought maybe lieber used here would mean "rather"--at least idiomatically in English.)


"Okay! We'll jump over Midgar with parachutes!" (Fallschirmen = parachutes; so I guess the singular is Fallschirm; it's just Fall + Schirm; the former is "fall", and the latter is an umbrella or screen. A "falling" screen.)

Thursday, October 23, 2008

October 22, 2008

(The following have been deduced from Final Fantasy VII.)


"He is a phenomenon. He knows all." (Phänomen = phenomenon)


"The spirits that return back to the planet meld with one another and roam the planet." (I guess vershmelzen = meld, and I have finally noticed this, but miteinander is simply mit + ein + ander; with, one, and other/another; similarly, there's einander. Not so sure about durchstreifen; it said "roam" in the English one.

Here is a puzzle:


"The cover of the chest with the most oxygen." (At least I think Sauerstoff is oxygen. But meisten = most.)


And there it is, on the back of that box. The oxygen is from the plants.


"Behind black and white without heaven." (Without heaven? I have no idea what that last part is all about.)


And there it is, behind the piano. Well, it is most obviously black and white.


"...on the floor at the chair on the second floor... then after five steps left, nine steps up, two steps left, and six steps up." (Yes, I don't quite know what Knarren is... Schritte = steps)


And there it is, on the floor. I think that was the only place on the second floor where you could make those steps anyways.


"The fourth target is written with invisible ink..." (unsichtbarer = invisible, Sicht = sight, Tinte = ink. I think.)


"...That the one that I love most, that I respect most..." (where I originally considered meisten = most)


"Shut your mouth! Plant your behind on the chair there and drink the damned TEA!" (Haha, this is one of his more quotable things. But I suppose pflanzen = to plant, and it seems it can be used this way, and not just for real plants. Out of interest, the English one says "Sit your ass down in that chair and drink
your goddamn TEA!")


"With much sugar and honey. And don't forget the lard." (Zucker = sugar, Schweineschmalz = lard; I noticed that Schwein for pig was in that word, so I took the time to look up lard, and yes, lard does contain pig parts. So I guess that's what it's doing there.)

October 21, 2008

(The following have been deduced from Final Fantasy VII.)


"At that time, I had lost something irreplaceable. I don't know what I have done wrong..." (Unersetzlich = irreplaceable; un- + ersetzen + -lich; ersetzen = to replace. I guess I didn't mention that I originally found ersetzen on the German version of Mac OSX while replacing a file.)

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

October 21, 2008

(The following have been deduced from Final Fantasy VII.)


"Our coal has been treasured since generations. Our fathers and their fathers have risked their lives for that." (Kohle = coal, Väter is plural for Vater; and another construction which confirms what I think of dafür.)

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

October 20, 2008

(The following have been deduced from Final Fantasy VII.)


"Good question. But difficult to answer. I am what you see." (schwer = difficult; seems I can use "zu" after an infinitive for some sort of [adjective] + infinitive verb construction. I shall have to pay more attention to things like these. I'm wondering if German has its own form of the supine, or if that's only specific to Latin.)


"'Ride' the motorcycle with the (direction buttons), and rescue your friends in the 'truck' from the pursuing Shinra troops." (Taste = button; not so sure about lenke or Lastwagen though. Verfolgertruppen = the pursuing troops; it's Verfolger + Truppen; so I guess this is a sort of participle usage. Ironically enough, Motorrad might appear on my vocabulary quiz. I never expected it to appear here.)
UPDATE: Motorrad DID appear on my quiz. Kein Zufall...


"My mother is Jenova... Jenova-Project...Is that a coincidence?" (Zufall = coincidence)


Verräter = traitor


"Ha, ha, ha...my sadness? About what (where) should I be sad about?" (Trauer = sadness (ie, the noun) I've noticed things like davon, dafür, daraus, darauf, daran, danach, damit, dahinter, etc. are all simply da + [preposition], and it seems that if the prepositions starts with a vowel, an "r" is added before the preposition. They probably mean "with that", "from that", etc. although they sometimes probably don't need to be translated idiomatically in English, but work much better in German. Worüber is no exception, except replace "that" with a question word.)

Monday, October 20, 2008

October 19, 2008

(The following have been deduced from Final Fantasy VII.)


Perverser = pervert

Sunday, October 19, 2008

October 18, 2008

(The following have been deduced from Phoenix Wright: Justice for All and Final Fantasy VII.)


"It seems as if you have found the real basis for the murder!" (the "sieht so aus, als..." construction means "seems as if..." I've seen it a lot, but I think that's what it amounts to.)

Unfall = "accident"

I've seen it enough times, so I suppose je- could be added to lots of words like the definite article der.

Schwanz = tail


"My leg is stuck." (I don't know what fest is. But Bein = leg)


"How the devil should I know that? Do I seem like a mind reader?" ("zum Teufel" is an expression for "how/what the devil..." although "zum" seems to indicate "to the devil" (I just used a more idiomatic expression) and Gedankenleser = mind reader; Gedanken (thoughts) + Leser (reader))


"psst...whisper...whisper...(The first reactor that we have blown up was in the north sector.)" ("Luft jagen" literally means to chase air, but I think it may be used idiomatically to mean to blow up.)


einschalten = to switch on; ein + schalten (this complements the ausschalten I've been seeing in the menu of my Mac in German; that's simply aus + schalten, to switch off. In English, we simply say "shut down".)

Saturday, October 18, 2008

October 18, 2008

(The following have been deduced from Phoenix Wright: Justice for All.)


Wie immer = "however"; a conjecture: was immer = whatever, mal/wann immer = whenever.


"She says that with the whip in her hand..." (Peitsche = whip; there he is, making a "dumme Gesichte", haha.)

October 17, 2008

(The following have been deduced from Grimms Märchen I and Phoenix Wright: Justice for All.)

(From Marienkind)
Im Herbst sammelte es die herabgefallenen Nüsse und Blätter und trug sie in die Höhle, ...

...She collected the fallen nuts and leaves and carried them in the cave... (Here, we see herabgefallenen used as a past participle. At least that's what I think. Blätter is the plural form of Blatt for a leaf. I don't quite know what the first part says though.)

Der König nahm es auf seinen Arm, trug es auf sein Pferd und ritt mit ihm heim, und als er auf das Königliche Schloß kam, ließ er ihm schöne Kleider anziehen und gab ihm alles im Überfluß.

The king took her by her arm, carried her on his horse and rode with her home, and as he came to the royal castle, he let her wear beautiful clothes and gave her all "he had." (Not so sure about that last bit there. But ritten = to ride; this would probably be related to Ritter for knight; or more literally, a horse rider.)

(From Märchen von einem, der auszog, das Fürchten zu lernen)
Darauf läufete er die Glocke, ging heim, legt sich, ohne ein Wort zusagen, ins Bett und fort schlief.

...He rang the bell, went home, "lay down", without saying a word, went to bed and slept. (I don't really know what "legt sich" and that first word are. But I think ging is some past tense form of gehen.)


"Foolish fool, who foolishly dreams foolish dreams..." (That's her famous "foolish fool..." line. I believe that's good practice for grammar. So traumen = to dream, and it's a vowel changing verb, and Träume is the plural of Traum, which works like it does with Baum, and kopf is masculine, since "Dummer" ends in -er; then "dumme" ends in -e, so it might be used with a plural noun.)


"Your honor. You can now swing your little gavel." (There were some words I didn't know in there... and Hämmerchen = little hammer or gavel; I believe my professor wanted one of those.)


"There is no reason for foolish cries from a foolish fool." (Haha... I have often seen Grund used to mean a basis in the sense of a reason.)


"Oh how a foolish fool makes foolish faces, while he dreams foolishly." (Gesichter is plural for Gesichte for face (now I can't remember if that e was supposed to be there or not), but it's preceded by "dumme"; it probably is because nouns that end in "er" are rarely ever feminine.)


"There is no such prosecutor. They are all the same." (Staatsanwalt is a prosecutor, but it's just Staats + Anwalt; I guess Staats is the opposite of Verteidigung for defense, and Anwalt is a lawyer. But solche = such.)

Thursday, October 16, 2008

October 15, 2008

(The following have been deduced from The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages.)


"A great library lies..." (Bücherei = library)


"Our sea is clean again and..." (rein = clean)


"Set course on (for) Holodrum, ..." (Kurs = course)

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

October 13, 2008

(The following have been deduced from SaGa Frontier II.)


Erwachsener = adult

Sunday, October 12, 2008

October 11, 2008

(The following have been deduced from SaGa Frontier 2.)


..."This way, she uses no steel knife, but also an entirely normal kitchen knife of stone." (Messer = knife; not so sure about that conjunction in the front. And also; schmieden = to smith, to forge)


Hieb = "slash"

Dolch = dagger (probably)


"Aunt, uncle, I'll be on my way then," (Tante = aunt, Onkel = uncle)

October 10, 2008

(The following have been deduced from Grimms Märchen I. Unfortunately, it was part of the non-circulating shelf in the library, so I wasn't allowed to take it home with me.)

(From that story about the Frog prince and Heinrich)
Brunnen = well (I probably should have remembered this from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. But I didn't quite remember it...)

(From Marienkind)
Holzhacker = woodcutter

Thursday, October 9, 2008

October 8, 2008

(The following have been deduced from The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages and Phoenix Wright: Trials and Tribulations.)


"For whom would you write now?" ("wem" is the relative clause used when the reference is the indirect object in the question.)


"...seeds and the owl statue." (Eulen = owl)


"What is your name, boy?" (or how are you called... but Knabe = boy; apparently, that's one of the root words for "knave". I noticed that similarity.)

sodass = "so that..." (but I have strangely only seen this once...I guess purpose clauses aren't nearly as popular as they are in Latin.)


"...that, after which Ambi longs (for)?" ("wonach" --> wo + nach, where + after; verlangen = to long (for))


"...the Crescent island! Search for the..." (Sichel = crescent; or I guess sickle. And spüre, in the previous part of the sentence I initially took to mean to fear, but it is probably to sense. Since you don't fear that an essence is in the southern sea; you can sense it, but fear is probably the wrong word in the given context.)


"...taste entirely terrible!" (I guess we use scheußlich to say something tastes bad.)


"...I know that sounds rather ridiculous, but that is no joke." (I don't quite know about that last one, but I guess lächerlich = ridiculous, as in laughable.)


"Is that not obvious? Find the evil doer that has done that!" (offensichtlich = obvious; I eventually find out what those words mean; always.)


"Oh! It's you, little girl!...Um , ahh..." (Kleine = little girl; Kleiner = little boy; -e is apparently a feminine ending on certain words. Perhaps it's the ones that have "ein" in them?)


"Okay! Great to see you again, Mr. Inspector Dick!" (wiederzusehen = to see again; a greeting, not the same as saying auf wiedersehen, a farewell.)


"Puuuuh! Man, you have scared me! I almost had a heart attack, you idiot!" (Well, I don't quite know if erschreckt means to scare, but Herzinfarkt = heart attack)