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German diff between "fertig" and "bereit"? | ||
Tags: Meaning of words | German | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| IronFist Senior Member United States Joined 6438 days ago 663 posts - 941 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Korean | Message 1 of 26 17 September 2010 at 7:13am | IP Logged | ||
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I've heard them both used to mean "ready."
Freetranslation.com says "fertig" is "finished" and "bereit" as "ready." How interchangeable are they in German? I've heard people ask "bist du fertig?" (are you ready?) And I've heard "ich bin bereit" (I am ready). 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| eumiro Bilingual Octoglot Groupie Germany Joined 5275 days ago 74 posts - 102 votes Speaks: Czech*, Slovak*, French, English, German, Polish, Spanish, Russian Studies: Italian, Hungarian | Message 2 of 26 17 September 2010 at 8:50am | IP Logged | ||
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"Ich bin bereit" - you are prepared do start to work on something new, to go somewhere.
"Ich bin fertig" - you have just finished working on something. You can interchange both actually if someone asks you to do something or to go somewhere, but you want/have to finish something else first. When you've finished your first task and are ready to work on the new one, you can say both: "Ich bin fertig", "Ich bin bereit". 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Doitsujin Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 5321 days ago 1256 posts - 2363 votes Speaks: German*, English | Message 3 of 26 17 September 2010 at 10:09am | IP Logged | ||
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"Bereit sein" usually implies both willingness and readiness to to something while "fertig sein" usually implies that some previous task has been finished.
Examples: bereit sein Ich bin bereit, ihr zu vergeben. = I'm willing/ready to forgive her. Bist Du bereit, alles stehen und liegen zu lassen? = Are you ready to drop everything? see also: bereiterklären = to agree bereitstehen = to be available fertig sein Ruf mich an, wenn Du fertig bist. = Call me when you're done. see also: fertigstellen/fertigmachen = to finalize/finish/complete (fertigmachen can also mean to finish someone off or to drive oneself crazy) 5 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| IronFist Senior Member United States Joined 6438 days ago 663 posts - 941 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Korean | Message 4 of 26 18 September 2010 at 4:06am | IP Logged | ||
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Thanks guys!
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| Maikl Tetraglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6226 days ago 121 posts - 145 votes Speaks: German*, Dutch, English, Spanish Studies: Turkish | Message 5 of 26 20 September 2010 at 5:54pm | IP Logged | ||
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"fertig sein" can also mean to be wasted, exhausted, done in, etc., and it's ususally used with persons rather than things.
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| Markbr Newbie Netherlands Joined 5195 days ago 1 posts - 1 votes Studies: Thai | Message 6 of 26 16 October 2010 at 2:05am | IP Logged | ||
"Fertig" means that you finished an action. "Bereit" means that you finished something and ready to start something. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| William Camden Hexaglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 6273 days ago 1936 posts - 2333 votes Speaks: English*, German, Spanish, Russian, Turkish, French | Message 7 of 26 18 October 2010 at 11:26am | IP Logged | ||
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Fertig has a wider range of meaning, and often means "finished". Bereit is more like the Boy Scout "be prepared". The words may perhaps overlap in meaning.
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 LauraM Pro Member United States Joined 5353 days ago 77 posts - 97 votes Studies: German Personal Language Map | Message 8 of 26 12 November 2010 at 9:21am | IP Logged | ||
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I've often wondered this myself...
ALSO, if anyone peeks in here, I wonder if you can also tell me why sometimes my German friends say "Bist du bereit," and seemingly interchangeably also use "Bist du soweit?" Are they the same thing????? 1 person has voted this message useful |
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