Stuart Matthew Price sings "Goodnight Kiss"

Alles zu Liedern, Filmen und anderen "netten" Sachen.
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Mackenzie1970
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Re: Stuart Matthew Price sings "Goodnight Kiss"

Beitrag von Mackenzie1970 »

Ihr Lieben,

mir ist aufgefallen, dass mich hier niemand korrigiert. Auf der anderen Seite glaube ich aber auch nicht, dass alles stimmt, was ich so auf Englisch formuliere. Würde ich mich jetzt zwischen Korrigiert-Werden und Nicht-Korrigiert-Werden entscheiden müssen - ich wüsste nicht, was die klügere Wahl wäre.

Einerseits möchte ich da wirklich Fortschritte machen; andererseits ist das Formulieren noch ziemlich anstrengend für mich. Ich schreibe etwas, dann fällt mir etwas (meiner Meinung nach) Besseres ein und ich korrigiere. Dann werd ich wieder unsicher... Selbst wenn ich den Beitrag dann endlich abgeschickt habe - mein Gehirn rattert weiter.

Jetzt würde ich gerne wissen, was ihr Profis mir ratet (rietet?). Muss ich da durch oder bin ich noch nicht so weit? Soll ich für den Anfang über diese Unsicherheiten hinwegsehen und mich damit zufrieden geben, wenn ich mich verständlich machen konnte (was hoffentllich der Fall war)? Ich meine nicht, dass ich ab sofort nur mehr auf Englisch schreiben möchte. Mir gehts darum, ob ich, wenn ich mir eine englische Antwort zutraue, einfach loslegen soll.
Even songs that on a first glance seem to just be a lot of people screaming in pain often have rather clever instrumental tracks.
Zu dem Satz hätte ich auch noch eine Frage: Ich verstehe vollkommen, was du damit meinst, tiorthan. Was ich nicht kenne, ist die Formulierung 'seem to be sb. (screaming) in pain'. Weiß jetzt natürlich auch nicht, wo die Redewendung/der Begriff beginnt bzw. endet. Ist klar, worauf ich hinaus will?
If mistakes you make, then learn you will.
(Yoda-like advice)




tiorthan
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Re: Stuart Matthew Price sings "Goodnight Kiss"

Beitrag von tiorthan »

I'm going to challenge you by continuing to write in English (and because it makes it easier for me to think when I read your English texts)
Mackenzie1970 hat geschrieben:mir ist aufgefallen, dass mich hier niemand korrigiert.
The reason is quite simply that you didn't make a lot of mistakes. Maybe you have to write more in English :D
So, I don't have to worry any longer 'bout the a/an - question.
The correct word order would be "So, I don't have to worry 'bout the a/an question any longer."

But, I didn't notice that at first because it's a rather typical construction even by native speakers. You start with "So I don't have to worry any longer..." then you notice your listeners may not know what you're no longer worrying about and you add the reason.

As this is so common, you wouldn't catch that as a mistake unless you're really looking for it. I do that in the learner part of the forum but here I just correct things that I can spot immediately.

Having looked over your English texts in this thread again I found this:
- It's funny to read that.
I don't actually know whether this is correct or not because it depends on what you meant by "funny".

Funny can have two meanings:

- causing fun
- being difficult to explain or understand; strange

In this sentence my understanding leans to the second meaning, but I'm not sure if that's what you meant.

Einerseits möchte ich da wirklich Fortschritte machen; andererseits ist das Formulieren noch ziemlich anstrengend für mich. Ich schreibe etwas, dann fällt mir etwas (meiner Meinung nach) Besseres ein und ich korrigiere. Dann werd ich wieder unsicher... Selbst wenn ich den Beitrag dann endlich abgeschickt habe - mein Gehirn rattert weiter.

Jetzt würde ich gerne wissen, was ihr Profis mir ratet (rietet?)
It depends on what you want to achieve here. You should never change things just because you're not sure if it is correct. You should only change things that you know for certain are wrong, or if you found a way to express yourself more clearly.
Mir gehts darum, ob ich, wenn ich mir eine englische Antwort zutraue, einfach loslegen soll.
Just do it!
Even songs that on a first glance seem to just be a lot of people screaming in pain often have rather clever instrumental tracks.
Zu dem Satz hätte ich auch noch eine Frage: Ich verstehe vollkommen, was du damit meinst, tiorthan. Was ich nicht kenne, ist die Formulierung 'seem to be sb. (screaming) in pain'. Weiß jetzt natürlich auch nicht, wo die Redewendung/der Begriff beginnt bzw. endet. Ist klar, worauf ich hinaus will?
I'm not entirely clear what you're asking here. I wasn't using an idiom of some kind but just stringing together some words.
You're never too old to learn something stupid.
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Mackenzie1970
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Re: Stuart Matthew Price sings "Goodnight Kiss"

Beitrag von Mackenzie1970 »

Well, as it makes it easier for you (and I've enough time, too) I will try to do my best. Thank you so much for your feedback and for encouraging me to write more in English. :D

But please forgive me, if I still make mistakes when I'm not sure whether to choose Present Perfect Simple oder Simple Past. Though both you and Duckduck made every effort with me.

Zitat tiorthan:

I do that in the learner part of the forum but here I just correct things that I can spot immediately.

-> That's a good idea! I suppose, I found the happy medium (golden mean). Please correct me when you are close to throwing your hands up in horror. :wink: It's also helpful to just draw my attention to a mistake. Once I know I made one, I can move on and try to improve it. I mean, I love it, when someone talks or writes in English to me. I just mention this for the case someone starts running out of time.

Zitat:

In this sentence my understanding leans to the second meaning, but I'm not sure if that's what you meant.

-> When I use 'funny' I want to say that something made me smile or laugh. Is there any other way to describe it more clearly? Maybe 'merry' or 'amusing'?

Zitat:

You should never change things just because you're not sure if it is correct. You should only change things that you know for certain are wrong, or if you found a way to express yourself more clearly.

-> What a relief! From today on this shall be my new mantra. Om.

Zitat:

Just do it!

-> This made me laugh again, though he seems to be a very strict teacher.

Zitat:

I'm not entirely clear what you're asking here. I wasn't using an idiom of some kind but just stringing together some words.

-> Hm, that's no idiom... I struggle with the word 'be'. Could 'be' be replaced by 'make' in this sentence? Hope that's more intelligible. Otherwise I will have to think it over one more time. But now I can't go on any longer, phew.
If mistakes you make, then learn you will.
(Yoda-like advice)

Duckduck
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Re: Stuart Matthew Price sings "Goodnight Kiss"

Beitrag von Duckduck »

tiorthan hat geschrieben:Even songs that on a first glance seem to just be a lot of people screaming in pain often have rather clever instrumental tracks.
Zu dem Satz hätte ich auch noch eine Frage: Ich verstehe vollkommen, was du damit meinst, tiorthan. Was ich nicht kenne, ist die Formulierung 'seem to be sb. (screaming) in pain'. Weiß jetzt natürlich auch nicht, wo die Redewendung/der Begriff beginnt bzw. endet. Ist klar, worauf ich hinaus will?
Hi Mackenzie,
Don't worry, you're doing very well. :freu:
Let's take a look at tiorthan's sentence and make it a little less complex:
Even songs that seem to be (nothing but) a lot of people screaming in pain...
"seem to be" = zu sein scheinen
"nothing but" ergänzt von mir = nichts anderes als
"on a first glance" = auf den ersten Blick (zur Vereinfachung erstmal weggelassen)
Sogar Lieder, die nichts anderes als eine Menge Leute zu sein scheinen, die vor Schmerzen schreien...
Dumdidumdidum...
Duckduck :prost:
Mein Farbcode für Korrekturen:
Fehler / Stil/Ausdruck / Anmerkung

Mackenzie1970
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Re: Stuart Matthew Price sings "Goodnight Kiss"

Beitrag von Mackenzie1970 »

Hey Duckduck, :freak2: (you made me like this little guy),

so I did make a mistake on tiorthan's sentence. I understood 'Sogar Lieder, die auf den ersten Blick einfach nur eine Menge Leute zum Schreien zu bringen scheinen ...' (After my last reply today I'm not even sure, if that's proper German.) But you know, what I mean.
Now everything is fine, thank you! :prost:
If mistakes you make, then learn you will.
(Yoda-like advice)

Schuyler
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Re: Stuart Matthew Price sings "Goodnight Kiss"

Beitrag von Schuyler »

When I use 'funny,' I want to say that something made me smile or laugh. Is there any other way to describe it more clearly? Maybe 'merry' or 'amusing'?
What you wrote originally is perfectly fine; I don't see anything wrong with it at all. To me, it was clear that you meant "funny" as in the sentence made you laugh, and I personally think "funny" is the best word you could have used here. :) "Funny" can also mean something like strange, interesting, or unusual (although I disagree with tiorthan that it can mean "difficult to understand/explain;" I don't think I've ever heard it used in quite that way before,) and in some situations it might be helpful to use a different word so there is no confusion, but usually the context makes it clear which one you mean, such as in this case.

Even if you did mean "strange," what you wrote would actually still make sense, although maybe not in exactly the same way. I would then interpret it as you're saying it's funny (interesting, strange, coincidental, ironic, etc.) that tiorthan said the same thing about Metallica as what you have heard before from other people. ^^

"Merry" would not work because its meaning is close to "happy" or "cheerful," not "funny." If you said something like, "It's amusing to read that," though, that would be okay, too, and would make it obvious that you meant the statement made you laugh.
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tiorthan
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Re: Stuart Matthew Price sings "Goodnight Kiss"

Beitrag von tiorthan »

Schuyler hat geschrieben:(although I disagree with tiorthan that it can mean "difficult to understand/explain;" I don't think I've ever heard it used in quite that way before,)
I'm just bad at describing words, I meant something along the lines of strange.
Schuyler hat geschrieben: To me, it was clear that you meant "funny" as in the sentence made you laugh,
Most people would understand it the same way, I guess.

I have some problems with words that have multiple meanings. I read something like Die Queen war nicht erbaut. and what I understand quite literally at first is "The queen was not constructed." which, of course, doesn't make any sense.

Compared to that "funny" is easy to interpret because it's meaning is a spectrum and even if I'm wrong, I'm not usually wrong by much.
You're never too old to learn something stupid.
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Mackenzie1970
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Re: Stuart Matthew Price sings "Goodnight Kiss"

Beitrag von Mackenzie1970 »

Thank you for your explanations and your opinion, Schuyler. :) I was wondering, which other word I could have used instead of funny. I'm going to use 'funny' like I've always been doing, and when I don't feel that sure, I'm going to choose 'it's amusing to hear/see/read, ...that' or 'that's big fun', something like that.

Zitat:

"The queen was not constructed."

->That's kinda cute. You don't get me wrong here, do you?

Zitat tiorthan:

It depends on what you want to achieve here.

-> I suppose, it's obvious that I initially came to complete translating Stuart's songs. Then I found out, here are some really lovely and helpful people in this forum, with whom I feel comfortable... so I decided to stay. :)

Fact is, I was able to speak English quite fluently, when I used to travel to Greece twice a year. But it's years ago, and I didn't care too much then about the tenses or if I made a mistake, when talking to Greek people (because they aren't Native Speakers, too).

I would like to speak proper English more fluently, and I need to know so much more vocabularies. These are my two most urgent desires.
If mistakes you make, then learn you will.
(Yoda-like advice)

Mackenzie1970
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Re: Stuart Matthew Price sings "Goodnight Kiss"

Beitrag von Mackenzie1970 »

Too many other possible meanings came into my mind, since I've written the following.

Self-quote:

That's kinda cute. You don't get me wrong here, do you?

-> What I mean is, that most men don't like to be termed as 'cute', nothing else.
If mistakes you make, then learn you will.
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tiorthan
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Re: Stuart Matthew Price sings "Goodnight Kiss"

Beitrag von tiorthan »

Mackenzie1970 hat geschrieben:->That's kinda cute. You don't get me wrong here, do you?
I suppose that example makes it look cute, because I took it from a news source.

But if you take a look at everyday language, you'll see that a lot of things are not said directly. I do miss a lot of information in every-day communication because I interpret things literally and I don't have time to work out what they really mean beneath layers and layers of indirect meaning, social cues and often also more or less transparent lies.
-> I suppose, it's obvious that I initially came here to complete translating Stuart's songs. Then I found out, there are some really lovely and helpful people in this forum, with whom I feel comfortable... so I decided to stay. :)

Fact is, I was able to speak English quite fluently, when I used to travel to Greece twice a year. But it was years ago, and I didn't care too much then1 about the tenses or if I made a mistake when talking to Greek people (because they aren't native speakers, either).

I would like to speak proper English more fluently, and I need to know so much more vocabulary2. These are my two most urgent desires.
1 - "then" serves as a temporal reference here, so it has to go to the beginning or the end with all the other adverbs, or you can just leave it out, because you already have another time in there "when ..."

2 - Vocabulary is a collective noun (like water) which means that in most cases the plural doesn't make any sense. The countable non-collective equivalent is "word".
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Mackenzie1970
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Re: Stuart Matthew Price sings "Goodnight Kiss"

Beitrag von Mackenzie1970 »

Ah, that's how it looks when it's corrected, thank you. Apparently I was looking up in the wrong online-dictionary, because I checked 'It's years ago' and 'vocabularies' before writing. Am I allowed to add a link to this site? Until now I've thought, it was a reliable one. That's bad luck.

Zitat:

I suppose that example makes it look cute, because I took it from a news source.

-> I meant, it's cute to picture it. Especially when you cross out the 'not'. Can you imagine the Queen being constructed? I doesn't make any difference, whether it's said or taken from a news source.

Zitat:

I do miss a lot of information in every-day communication because I interpret things literally and I don't have time to work out what they really mean beneath layers and layers of indirect meaning, social cues and often also more or less transparent lies.

-> It makes me feel sad to read that. If there is something I can do to make it easier for you (at least when reading, what I wrote), just let me know. Maybe I can find a list with common or usual words with different meanings...

By the way: Is there any way to express the german 'Ihr Lieben/Mein Lieber/Meine Liebe' without sounding too intimate? Because when I look it up in the dictionary, it tells(?) me 'My dear' means 'Mein Liebling'.
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Schuyler
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Re: Stuart Matthew Price sings "Goodnight Kiss"

Beitrag von Schuyler »

Ah, that's how it looks when it's corrected, thank you. Apparently, I was looking up definitions / words / translations in an inaccurate online dictionary, because I checked 'It's years ago' and 'vocabularies' before writing. Am I allowed to add a link to my post? [You are not adding the link to this entire site, just to your individual post.] Until now I thought* it was a reliable one. That's too bad. [or] It's bad luck that the dictionary I found is not very good.

Zitat:

I suppose that example makes it look cute, because I took it from a news source.

-> I meant* it's cute to picture it. Especially when you cross out the 'not.' Can you imagine the Queen being constructed? It doesn't make any difference* whether it's said or taken from a news source.

Zitat:

I do miss a lot of information in everyday communication because I interpret things literally and I don't have time to work out what they really mean beneath layers and layers of indirect meaning, social cues and often also more or less transparent lies.

-> It makes me feel sad to read that. If there is anything I could do to make it easier for you (at least when reading* what I wrote,) just let me know. Maybe I can find a list with common or usual words with different meanings...

By the way: is there any way to express the German 'Ihr Lieben/Mein Lieber/Meine Liebe' without sounding too intimate? Because when I look it up in the dictionary, it tells(?) [correct :)] me 'My dear' means 'Mein Liebling'.
*This is just a small thing, but I've noticed you often use commas in the same way as you would do in German, which in English is not always correct. Everywhere you see an asterisk (*) is where I took out an unnecessary comma. I would suggest looking over this page if you're confused about the rules: http://www.englisch-hilfen.de/grammar/kommasetzung.htm . Commas and other punctuation marks are also supposed to be written before quotation marks, parenthesis, etc. not after: ex. "Especially when you cross out the 'not.'"
I apologize for my grammar police tendencies; it's really not a big mistake at all, and it's very common for even native speakers - and myself - to misuse commas as well. But if you want to try to write as correctly as possible ... ;)


- I believe it's fine to put links in your posts, and it would help us check whether the dictionary you've been using seems to be reliable or not.

- The direct translation that comes to mind for "Ihr Lieben/Mein Lieber/Meine Liebe" is "my love/dear/darling," which are all relatively intimate and not typically used for people you do not know very well. For people I am not as intimate with, I would probably say something more like "my friend(s)" instead. In more informal situations, though, sometimes people will say "(my) dear/darling/love/etc." to someone they only know casually, in which case the term is meant in more of a playful way than a serious one.
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tiorthan
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Re: Stuart Matthew Price sings "Goodnight Kiss"

Beitrag von tiorthan »

Mackenzie1970 hat geschrieben: I checked 'It's years ago' and 'vocabularies' before writing.
Well, both things do exist and I corrected them for different reasons.

"Vocabularies" is the regular plural of the word vocabulary and it has a legitimate use. Just as you can speak of waters when you mean "distinct masses of water" you can also speak of vocabularies when you mean distinct collections of vocabulary. For example I could say: "In comparison, the vocabularies of English and German differ significantly in size." But since you've been talking about your knowledge of words and phrases in just one language they are not distinct and thus just one singular vocabulary.

When I correct texts here on the forums, I try to adhere to a certain standard. "It's years ago" is fine if you are speaking a dialect that allows the contraction of "was" to -'s (although in most cases it is pronounced slightly differently than the is -> -'s contraction) or that generally uses tenses differently, but it does not exist in any standard and it is inconsistent with the use of tenses in the rest of your text, so I consider it wrong.
Am I allowed to add a link to this site? Until now I've thought, it was a reliable one. That's bad luck.
Is it dict.cc ? If so, it is pretty reliable when you try to translate from a foreign language into your native language but not the other way round. Dict.cc has a community driven translation model where people can add translations that are then checked. But that model also allows non-standard or rather obscure translations.

No dictionary is reliable if you only rely on that dictionary because they do not provide enough information on how a word is used. On top of that, multilingual dictionaries may contain long lists of possible translations, but they do not provide sufficient description of the meaning of a word. That's why I usually tell people to avoid dictionaries and first try to express themselves differently. Only if that doesn't work, look up the word and then double check potential translations using a monolingual dictionary and if possible try to find usage examples.
-> It makes me feel sad to read that. If there is something I can do to make it easier for you (at least when reading, what I wrote), just let me know. Maybe I can find a list with common or usual words with different meanings...
Not necessary. I do just fine with written language. In fact, the problem is often reversed, in a way, when people think that there is some hidden meaning in the things I write. The "deepest" hidden meaning they get from me though is on the level of sarcasm and irony ... ironically things that I sometimes don't notice when they are used on me.
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Mackenzie1970
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Re: Stuart Matthew Price sings "Goodnight Kiss"

Beitrag von Mackenzie1970 »

Vielen lieben Dank an euch beide für die Zeit, die ihr euch genommen habt und die Mühe, die ihr euch gegeben habt.

Bitte habt Verständnis, dass meine Antwort diesmal länger dauern wird. Mein Gehirn weigert sich gerade, wenn ich versuche, etwas auf Englisch zu formulieren (möchte es aber dennoch versuchen).

Ja, es ist dict.cc.
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Mackenzie1970
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Re: Stuart Matthew Price sings "Goodnight Kiss"

Beitrag von Mackenzie1970 »

So I'm going to keep on using 'meine Lieben/mein Lieber/meine Liebe', even if I write in English. Because friends to me are people I know in person and I'm not sure, whether it's appropriate to use 'my dear/my darling/my love' in a playful way on people I don't know in person. What do you think?

Zitat Schuyler:

I apologize for my grammar police tendencies.

->There's no need for. If you keep on reading my English posts, you will reveal other weak spots like when to use 'in, on or at' or which verbs and phrases require the Gerund and some more. But these are not that urgent desires right now, so please be patient. ;)

Zitat:

If there is 'anything' I could do to make it easier for you ....

-> Do you prefer 'anything' because it's more like a question or because of the word 'if'?

Zitat tiorthan:

Well, both things do exist and I corrected them for different reasons.

-> Thanks for your explanations, 'though I'm not sure how to translate 'distinct masses of water' (unterschiedliche Wassermassen?) correctly. The word 'distinct' has too many different meanings for me.

Zitat:

If so, it is pretty reliable when you try to translate from a foreign language into your native language but not the other way round.

-> This is my problem, because I have to find the English word first. I try to explain my approach, when I want to write something in English. First I think of a sentence I want to say in German (of course). When translating it into English, I usually need to find a word, which I think it expresses it best. My first address for this is Google translator, where I type in the German word. Then I get a list of possible English words. I choose one or two of them, change the language to English and type them in again. When I'm not sure, if I can trust Google or I need more information on how a word is used, I move to dict.cc and try out a few possibilities. The result of it is what you get to read here. Is there anything else I could do? (I can not imagine to go without dictionaries.)

What I'm not going to tell you is how much time it takes me to write an answer like this. :wink: And I don't want to make mistakes I can actually avoid. That's why I guess, it would be better not to write more than maybe two longer posts a week. I wouldn't have the feeling to overstrain (überbeanspruchen) you, either.

Zitat:

Not necessary. I do just fine with written language.

-> Do you mean it's not necessary to have consideration for it? When you are not sure if you got me right ... just ask, mein Lieber.
If mistakes you make, then learn you will.
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