der die das Coca-Cola?
terry
the Leo online dictionary and it only has a reference to Diet Coke with
a circled R indicating a registered trade mark and the German equivalent
of Cola light. How do I use such nouns as far as determining gender
like Timex, Porche, Coca-Cola, Coke. Anyone's assistance would be much
appreciated. (Ich habe das/ein Coca-Cola.)
Terry
PS I just thought of something. Is it referenced like someone's name?
Even though I am referring to a watch, it is really like referring to
someone's name when I say Timex and so like David or Mary, it has no
gender?
jonas richter
terry wrote:
>
> In my learning German book it has Zwie Coca-Cola no gender. I looked in
> the Leo online dictionary and it only has a reference to Diet Coke with
> a circled R indicating a registered trade mark and the German equivalent
> of Cola light.
Cola light is the usual German term, if you ask me.
> How do I use such nouns as far as determining gender
> like Timex, Porche, Coca-Cola, Coke.
Timex? What's that?
Porsche: masc. (der Porsche, ein Porsche, ich habe einen
Porsche...)
BTW: What's the plural? Porsches?
> (Ich habe das/ein Coca-Cola.)
Coca-Cola is almost alway shortened to Cola, and Coke is hardly
ever used. Both are feminine: Die Cola, eine Coke.
jonas
--
lachen vor koennen :-)
Heiko Leberer
>
> Hi terry,
>
> terry wrote:
> >
> > In my learning German book it has Zwie Coca-Cola no gender. I looked in
> > the Leo online dictionary and it only has a reference to Diet Coke with
> > a circled R indicating a registered trade mark and the German equivalent
> > of Cola light.
>
> Cola light is the usual German term, if you ask me.
>
> > How do I use such nouns as far as determining gender
> > like Timex, Porche, Coca-Cola, Coke.
>
> Timex? What's that?
Probably a watch, therefore "die Timex" as in "die Uhr".
> Porsche: masc. (der Porsche, ein Porsche, ich habe einen
> Porsche...)
> BTW: What's the plural? Porsches?
Nope, der Porsche(sing.) and die Porsche(pl.).
Heiko
--
Kunst kommt von koennen, aber wenn man es kann ist es ja keine Kunst
mehr.
(Karl Valentin)
Richard Hulme
> In my learning German book it has Zwie Coca-Cola no gender. I looked in
> the Leo online dictionary and it only has a reference to Diet Coke with
> a circled R indicating a registered trade mark and the German equivalent
You normally ask for a cola rather than a coke as 'coke' is specific to
the Coca-Cola company. Unless of course, it's regional and people in
different regions actually ask for a coke or for Coca-Cola, but at least
here in Stuttgart I've never noticed anyone asking for anything but
'cola'.
Anyhoo, it's 'die Cola' (depending on who you ask, it may become 'das
Cola' but I'm almost certain that's dialect).
> of Cola light. How do I use such nouns as far as determining gender
> like Timex, Porche, Coca-Cola, Coke. Anyone's assistance would be much
> appreciated. (Ich habe das/ein Coca-Cola.)
Brand names usually take the gender associated with the generic word for
whatever it is. For example, cars associate with 'der Wagen' and so are
masculine (der Porsche, der Audi), aeroplanes associate with 'die
Maschine' and so are feminine (die Boeing, die Cessna).
There are some exceptions though. According to 'Hammer', some aeroplane
and ship names keep the grammatical geneder of the word 'der Airbus',
'der Storch' etc.
I would guess that clocks and watches associate with 'die Uhr' and so
are also feminine (so, 'die Timex').
How to know what words they associate with is maybe not so easy (why,
for example, do cars associate with 'der Wagen' and not 'das Auto' or
'das Kraftfahrzeug'?) and some don't seem to associate with the
gender you'd expect (motorbikes and ships are apparently feminine but
'Motorrad' and 'Schiff' are both neuter and I can't think of any other
terms for them off the top of my head, which are feminine).
I think it's like every other aspect of learning grammatical genders -
you just have to learn them. There are some tricks that can make life
a lot easier but there seem to be exceptions to most rules :)
> PS I just thought of something. Is it referenced like someone's name?
> Even though I am referring to a watch, it is really like referring to
> someone's name when I say Timex and so like David or Mary, it has no
> gender?
I would say that people's names do (or at least, can) have a gender.
It's not uncommon to hear people say 'der Klaus' or 'die Maria'
(although your probably not likely to see it written too often). Also,
if you wanted to translate:
"I knew a David Smith at school but I haven't heard from him for years"
you'd probably end up with something like
"Ich kannte mal einen David Smith in der Schule, aber ich habe seit
Jahren nichts mehr von ihm gehoert"
Ok, so it's not often you need sentences like that but they can occur.
A good grammar book will help you a lot to learn what rules there are.
I can thoroughly recommend the "Collins Gem German Grammar" book for
beginners (it's only small but it has loads of good stuff in it) and
for more advanced learners, "Hammer's German Grammar and Usage" which
is a lot bigger and goes into far more detail (which could be a bit
overwhelming if you're just getting started).
Also, a good dictionary is invaluable. Mine ("Collins German
Dictionary" - "Pons" in Germany) has rarely let me down - again,
it's pretty big but even their pocket version is the best of it's
kind that I've found.
Hope this helps a bit,
Richard.
Sebastian Koppehel
> terry wrote:
>>
>> (Ich habe das/ein Coca-Cola.)
>
> Coca-Cola is almost alway shortened to Cola, and Coke is hardly
> ever used. Both are feminine: Die Cola, eine Coke.
Im Grunde ja. So sagt man hier - in Norddeutschland -, aber nicht
überall.
| Heißt es "der Gummi" oder "das Gummi"?
|
| Beides ist richtig. Die Verwendung ist regional unterschiedlich.
| Genauso ist es bei "die Cola" und "das Cola".
http://www.schweinebildchen.de/SAHARA.html
Gibt noch ein paar mehr Beispiele.
- Sebastian
Peter Roth
regarding the cola both is definitely correct.
If you say: 'Die Cola' you are referring to a bottle of Coca Cola (Die
Flasche)
If you say: 'Das Cola' you are referring to a glass (Das Glas) or even
to a beverage in general (Das Getränk)
So in general when you use words from other languages (which have not
been used for many many years and then become german words) you should
think of a german word which could be used as a substitute and use the
gender of the substitute.
Talking about cars. The brands always seem to be masculine. Der
Porsche. Der
Mercedes. Der Audi Der Fiat Der BMW (!)
But it seems that bikes use the femine gender.
So Die BMW (is a motorbike) Der BMW (a car)
CU
Peter
Sebastian Koppehel
> regarding the cola both is definitely correct.
>
> If you say: 'Die Cola' you are referring to a bottle of Coca Cola (Die
> Flasche)
> If you say: 'Das Cola' you are referring to a glass (Das Glas) or even
> to a beverage in general (Das Getränk)
I'm repeating myself, but this is subject to regional differences.
Here in Hamburg, "das Cola" is never said.
> So in general when you use words from other languages (which have not
> been used for many many years and then become german words) you should
> think of a german word which could be used as a substitute and use the
> gender of the substitute.
First, this is not a reliable way to determine the gender of a German
loan-word, second, if you are implying - and it seems so - that the
gender varies depending on the best translation in a given situation,
I'd say you are wrong.
- Sebastian
Heiko Leberer
>
...
> Talking about cars. The brands always seem to be masculine. Der
> Porsche. Der
> Mercedes. Der Audi Der Fiat Der BMW (!)
Probably derived from "der Wagen".
>
> But it seems that bikes use the femine gender.
Probably because of "die Maschine", which afficionados use as a synonym
for "das Motorrad".
>
> So Die BMW (is a motorbike) Der BMW (a car)
>
Heiko
Markus Teubner
On Fri, 18 Jan 2002 03:29:28 +0100, ba...@bastisoft.de (Sebastian
Koppehel) wrote:
>I'm repeating myself, but this is subject to regional differences.
>Here in Hamburg, "das Cola" is never said.
Maybe - but "down under" in East Westphalia "das Cola" might also be
heard. But I must admit that that occurs quite rarely.
>First, this is not a reliable way to determine the gender of a German
>loan-word, second, if you are implying - and it seems so - that the
>gender varies depending on the best translation in a given situation,
>I'd say you are wrong.
Ack.
Markus
Richard Hulme
> I would say that people's names do (or at least, can) have a gender.
> It's not uncommon to hear people say 'der Klaus' or 'die Maria'
> (although your probably not likely to see it written too often). Also,
Ouch!
> it's pretty big but even their pocket version is the best of it's
^^^^
>kind that I've found.
Oooh the pain! :)
I put it down to spending too much time in Germany :)
Richard.
George Hardy
> Richard Hulme <rhulm...@yahoo.co.uk> wrote in message news:<3C45ACEB...@yahoo.co.uk>...
> > I would say that people's names do (or at least, can) have a gender.
> > It's not uncommon to hear people say 'der Klaus' or 'die Maria'
> > (although your probably not likely to see it written too often). Also,
> ^^^^
> Ouch!
Not so fast. "Die Maria" might be 'eine Frau' oder 'ein Mädchen'. But
no one would say "das Maria".
And, while common in southern Germany, the addition of the article
to a name is not really "correct".
GFH
Richard Hulme
> rhulm...@yahoo.co.uk (Richard Hulme) wrote in message news:<22acf597.02011...@posting.google.com>...
>> Richard Hulme <rhulm...@yahoo.co.uk> wrote in message news:<3C45ACEB...@yahoo.co.uk>...
>> > I would say that people's names do (or at least, can) have a gender.
>> > It's not uncommon to hear people say 'der Klaus' or 'die Maria'
>> > (although your probably not likely to see it written too often). Also,
>> ^^^^
>> Ouch!
>
> Not so fast. "Die Maria" might be 'eine Frau' oder 'ein Mädchen'. But
> no one would say "das Maria".
Of course they wouldn't. I didn't mean that names associate with words
like names of cars, motorbikes, boats etc. do. I meant they take the
the natural gender of the person spoken about.
> And, while common in southern Germany, the addition of the article
> to a name is not really "correct".
Which was why I wrote (this time with better grammar) "you're probably
not likely to see it written too often". Ok, I could/should have been
more explicit but I assumed that it would be obvious that something
which is heard but rarely encountered in writing is usually not regarded
as 'standard' or 'correct' German. I could/should also have made the
point about it being more common in southern Germany but I'll admit
I didn't even think about it.
The only time I would expect to see it written is either when the author
is trying to show what was actually said (or that a character was using
dialect) or perhaps also in very informal writing like emails (which
doesn't mean that everyone who would use an article in front of a name
automatically write it in emails.
The other example I wrote still holds true though and I can think of
several other examples where names have a 'gender' (whether through
the use of an article or word ending). For example, there are two
people called Klaus present and I'm talking to someone else and
refer to 'Klaus'
Other person :"Welchen Klaus meinst Du?"
Me (pointing):"*Dieser* Klaus"
Regards,
Richard.
Reinhard Hamann
> Not so fast. "Die Maria" might be 'eine Frau' oder 'ein Mädchen'. But
> no one would say "das Maria".
in some areas of Germany (e.g. Saarland) it is usual to say "das Maria"
or "das Hilde" (also if she is 50 years old), although it sounds strange
for people in other parts of the country. They also say "ich hab zum
Hilde gesagt..." (see http://www.heinz-becker.de/" for examples...)
But: if you use the "...chen" form, you would always say "das
Mariechen".
Reinhard
Kai Henningsen
> pr...@gmx.net (Peter Roth) writes:
>
> > regarding the cola both is definitely correct.
> >
> > If you say: 'Die Cola' you are referring to a bottle of Coca Cola (Die
> > Flasche)
> > If you say: 'Das Cola' you are referring to a glass (Das Glas) or even
> > to a beverage in general (Das Getränk)
>
> I'm repeating myself, but this is subject to regional differences.
> Here in Hamburg, "das Cola" is never said.
Nor have I ever heard it before.
Google finds 2870 examples of "die Cola" and 378 of "das Cola"; of course,
not all of those are nominative singular, and some are combinations like
"das Cola-Aroma" or "die Cola-Flasche".
Kai
--
http://www.westfalen.de/private/khms/
"... by God I *KNOW* what this network is for, and you can't have it."
- Russ Allbery (r...@stanford.edu)
Kai Henningsen
> On Fri, 18 Jan 2002 03:29:28 +0100, ba...@bastisoft.de (Sebastian
> Koppehel) wrote:
>
> >I'm repeating myself, but this is subject to regional differences.
> >Here in Hamburg, "das Cola" is never said.
>
> Maybe - but "down under" in East Westphalia "das Cola" might also be
> heard. But I must admit that that occurs quite rarely.
Well, I never heard it in Muenster, capital of Westphalia. And Westphalia
isn't exactly overpopulated.