Yet another German translation (Advanced) (Questions About Your Target Languages) Language Learning Forum

Yet another German translation (Advanced)
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15 messages over 2 pages: 1 2

ruskivyetr
Diglot
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Message 9 of 15

01 April 2010 at 12:57am | IP Logged

I don't feel that it's natural. It seems a little awkward. I don't know vielen dank oder danke schoen sounds much
better than danke sehr.
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egill
Diglot
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Message 10 of 15

01 April 2010 at 1:17am | IP Logged

Marc Frisch wrote:

tractor wrote:

ruskivyetr wrote:

I smiled when I saw Danke sehr :).
Danke sehr literally says thanks very.
Use vielen dank or danke schön :).

But, isn't "Danke sehr!" perfectly acceptable German?

Yes, it is.

ruskivyetr wrote:

I don't feel that it's natural. It seems a little awkward. I don't know vielen dank oder danke schoen sounds much
better than danke sehr.

If you want to go against a native speaker's intuition, then as a non-native speaker you'd better have some pretty darn compelling reasons...

For what it's worth, I found this in my Internet-crawling:

Wordreference

Their discussion seems to conclude that "danke sehr" is somewhat more intensive than "danke schön". Can any native speakers here confirm or deny this?
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ruskivyetr
Diglot
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Message 11 of 15

01 April 2010 at 3:46am | IP Logged

egill wrote:

If you want to go against a native speaker's intuition, then as a non-native speaker you'd better have some pretty
darn compelling reasons...

I was bilingual as a child in both German and English (I don't say I'm bilingual anymore because people assume
that since it used to be one of my native languages then I must have native fluency, which is NOT the case, as I
lost much of what I ever knew) I never, ever, ever heard danke sehr. Though the person who spoke it to me did
have Plattdeutsch as their native language, however regardless of that fact vielen dank sounds better to me than
all of them. My personal mistake for not recognizing danke sehr as being correct, although it sounds extremely
strange to my ear.

Edited by ruskivyetr on 01 April 2010 at 3:47am
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egill
Diglot
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Message 12 of 15

01 April 2010 at 4:57am | IP Logged

Ruskivyetr, I was too hasty in my judgment. I didn't realize your background, and perhaps assumed you were making a stronger claim than you actually did. For that I apologize.

For what it's worth, the very unscientific google test seems to support your intuition—"vielen dank" gets way more hits than "danke sehr".
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ruskivyetr
Diglot
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Joined 5292 days ago
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Speaks: English*, German
Studies: Spanish, Russian, Polish, Modern Hebrew

Message 13 of 15

01 April 2010 at 6:49am | IP Logged

egill wrote:

Ruskivyetr, I was too hasty in my judgment. I didn't realize your background, and perhaps assumed
you were making a stronger claim than you actually did. For that I apologize.

For what it's worth, the very unscientific google test seems to support your intuition—"vielen dank" gets way more
hits than "danke sehr".

You weren't hasty at all and I don't expect people to understand my backround ;). I just wanted to assert that so it
didn't look like I was making a hot headed claim or anything. There is no need to apologize whatsoever it was just a
little misunderstanding and mostly a misunderstanding on my part as to whether or not danke sehr was correct.
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Fasulye
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Message 14 of 15

01 April 2010 at 7:42am | IP Logged

For my native speaker feeling "vielen Dank", "herzlichen Dank" and "danke schön" are synonyms.

Here the Google proof (using the expressions in "...")

1. vielen Dank: 16.600.000 hits
2. herzlichen Dank: 2.250.000 hits
4. danke schön: 1.550.000 hits
3. danke sehr: 300.000 hits

"Danke sehr" seems to be the looser of this hitlist.

Fasulye

Edited by Fasulye on 01 April 2010 at 8:10am
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datsunking1
Diglot
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Message 15 of 15

06 April 2010 at 5:16pm | IP Logged

Fasulye wrote:

I used Danke sehr because that's what I have learned. (from assimil)

Most of my German resources are from the 1950's and 1960's so I'm guessing it's a older structure :D

Also,

Wohin gehen Sie? = Wo gehen Sie hin?

I've heard both of these... which one is correct?

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