russian / german translation needed.

[Soundguy]

Anyone out there with enough conversational german and russian to translate the following 2-word phrase to germ/russ?

" the machine "

thanks

Soundguy

 

[AlanB]

German

Die Maschine

(Die is female don't ask me why, my wife says it is because Women do all the hardwork........ She is German, but that is the translation.)

For reference Cats are all girls, (Die) and dogs are all boys (Der)

If it was a Tractor, it would be Der Tractor.....

Dont ask why,,, but I promise that is correct.

Oh, and Die is pronounced DEEE.

 

[MikePA]

Anyone out there with enough conversational german and russian to translate the following 2-word phrase to germ/russ?

" the machine "

thanks

Soundguy

Russian = машина

 

[Bluecheck546]

Russian= машина, say "mashina" ,oil for mashina say "maslo"

Learned this language back in "old country" under communist government, and it was mandatory to learn it starting in 5th grade in grade school, all the way thru high school and college.

 

[WhyNot]

Soundguy,
It look's like you got your answer but here is a website that is really good http://babelfish.altavista.com/

 

[RobJ]

you can also bookmark www.freetranslation.com

 

[Soundguy]

Thanks for the links and for the personal translations guys. It helped greatly.

soundguy

 

[Egon]

I think German has three tenses??? Das, Der, Die??? Not spelled correctly as my keyboard is not properly set up for German.

 

[Soundguy]

Anyone know what the 'das' is.. or would be equal to 'tense' wise?

Soundguy

 

[turnkey4099]

Anyone know what the 'das' is.. or would be equal to 'tense' wise?

Soundguy

It's not 'tense', it's gender. Masculine, feminine, neuter. The thing that makes foreign languages difficult for native English speakers. The entire sentence structure is built around it with teh verbs and modifiers having to agree with the gender of the noun. There are many graduations of language rigidity. I would rank Russian as one of the most rigid with German being rather loose.

For example, in Russian you can determine the gender of a noun at a glance except for a few exceptions - 6 IIRC (been over 50 years since I learned it in the military) which are easily memorized and even have their own form. In German it is anybodies guess as to what a strange word's gender is. If you don't know, there is no way to tell except in a dictionary or by its use in the sentence.

Harry K

 

[Egon]

not 'tense', it's gender

That sounds better.

 

[Soundguy]

Ok.. I can understand the gender thing.. I know a good bit of spanish.. and that is the same way.. una pluma .. an ink pen.. is female.... un lapiz a pencil.. is male.. etc.

I think 'Das' may be 'that'..

Soundguy

 

[jpr62902]

It is a both a pronoun (that) and an article (neuter "the"). Der is masculine "the" and die is the feminine version.

 

[czechsonofagun]

I was ready to help - but too late.


Bluecheck, it sounds very familiar what you say about russian in school- I studied russian for 12 years in my old country b/c it was mandatory

 

[Soundguy]

Great guys.. exactly what i needed to know.. especailly the gender parts.

Soundguy

 

[hilld]

German

Die Maschine

(Die is female don't ask me why, my wife says it is because Women do all the hardwork........ She is German, but that is the translation.)

For reference Cats are all girls, (Die) and dogs are all boys (Der)

If it was a Tractor, it would be Der Tractor.....

Dont ask why,,, but I promise that is correct.

Oh, and Die is pronounced DEEE.

Oh, women do all the work...hmm...is that why it is called "Das Mädchen" indicating a girl that has a neuter gender.....guess they are having an identity crisis.

 

[RobertN]

Would there be variation for high-German vs low-German? My great grandparents came from the old country, and settled in South Dakota. My grandmother was born in South Dakota and grew up with English, but knew German well because of my great-granparents. But... They spoke low-German. I remember my Grandmother talking of a Prussian background and Mennenite colonists, but am not sure if that all fits together.

A couple of my cousins took German in high school, and tried talking with Grandma in German. They couldn't understand each other very well, because the high school classes taught high-German.

 

[MikePA]

Oh, women do all the work...hmm...is that why it is called "Das Mädchen" indicating a girl that has a neuter gender.....guess they are having an identity crisis.

A great German movie (1981) is "Das Boot" (The Boat) which is a very realistic portrayal of life on a WWII German U-Boat. It's not only a great war movie, it's a great movie. I thought I could make use of the 5 years of German I took in Jr and Sr High and not have to read the English subtitles. I gave up and read the subtitles after about 10 minutes.

 

[AlanB]

It is more, High German, (Hoch Deutsch) and what folks speak....

The dialects are ludicrous in Germany. You may have flapjacks in Texas and we have pancakes in TN but their dialects change from village to village, 2 to 3km from each other.

The one I usually use as an example.

Many towns end in HEIM (home)

as in Ergersheim, Windsheim, Uffenheim You get the point.

In my wifes town they would call it A instead of heim,,,, nobody know why but it is said

ErgeshAh,,, WindsAh etc

And in the next town over they say it EEEEE

as in Ergershee,,, Windseee

Takes a while to figure out they are talking about the same darn place.

After living there a year or so, I met back with some of the original folks that helped me in my motorcycle riding, me holding a translation book in my hand and got me started. I was very proud of my German at that point till he looked at me and ask that I speak English, because surely what I was speaking was not German......... Guess it was Southern German with a Redneck American Accent.