Sanjay
مدرّس
Need help with German words like some, any etc.

The below words are use different in German compared to English, can some one help with the German translation and on which occasion would we use them.

"somewhere, sometime, someday, any day, anytime, anyway, somehow, overall, anywhere, anywhere, anyone, everyone, every time, everywhere"


٧ نوفمبر ٢٠١٨ ١٦:١١
التعليقات · 2
1
There are (not always but mostly) little semantic differences between the usage and intention of some and any. It does often also depend on the context you want to deliver. Let's have a look.

Somewhere, anywhere, everywhere:

* Everywhere should be clear. It means überall. For instance you say "I will visit the USA and want to go everywhere I can" and you mean you want to visit every corner of the country. Ich besuche die USA und möchte überallhin

* Somewhere you use usually to specify a place that is more or less certain. For instance you say "I know somewhere in Texas you can get a 5 pounds Steak" spoken of you know that this place exists but the certain place is difficult to discover. Ich weiß irgendwo in Texas bekommt man ein 5 Pfund Steak

* The use of anywhere is in german not different from somewhere. Because it both means irgendwo.

Sometime, anytime, every time:

* every time is translated with jedesmal. It means always with no exceptions . "Every time I drink I get hangovered" is quite clear. In german Jedesmal wenn ich trinke habe ich einen Kater.

* Some time (not to mix up with sometimes) will be used when you try to talk about one time that will happen or happened. For example "At some time tomorrow you'll get your mail delivery"

This can be a certain time or a period but it has a start and an end. Translated it will be Zu einem bestimmten Zeitpunkt bekommst du morgen Post.

* Anytime

This is easily used to say "whenever". Such as "you can call me anytime if you need help". It means it doesn't matter if 10 am or pm. In german it is translated with jederzeit or zu jederzeit. Du kannst mich jederzeit anrufen wenn du Hilfe brauchst. Caution: Here you have a big pitfall because if you translate from german to English you will get the <em>every time</em> translation but it doesn't fit into the semantics of jederzeit.

٧ نوفمبر ٢٠١٨

Hello Pawal,


Thanks for those explanation, it is very clear to me now. however, i have some more questions a well. If possible can you please provide explanation for them as well.

1. You said "überall" means everywhere. But in a sentence like "I will go anywhere with you" they translate it as "Ich werde überall mit dir hingehen"  but i thought "anywhere" in German means "Irgendwo". Irgendwo = somewhere. anywhere. Can you please explain this one for me.

2. The sentence "You can visit me any time". there are 2 translation for this sentence, can you please tell me which one is correct.

Du kannst mich irgendwann besuchen.

Du kannst mich jederzeit besuchen.


Thanks & Regards,

Sanjay D

٩ نوفمبر ٢٠١٨