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Wenig versus bißchen | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Questions About Your Target Languages |  | |
| rapp Senior Member United States Joined 5542 days ago 129 posts - 204 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Esperanto, Spanish | Message 9 of 13 07 April 2010 at 7:07pm | IP Logged | ||
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Yes, nuances are important to me.
So, how much knowledge constitutes "a little" is inherently vague, but "ein wenig" carries the connotation that the amount is on the small side of that range? And "nur ein wenig" even moreso? Would you say that an intermediate-level speaker who was being modest about his abilities might say he knew "ein bisschen" German, but wouldn't say he knew "ein wenig", because that would be a more concrete statement that his knowledge is small? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Arekkusu Hexaglot Senior Member Canada bit.ly/qc_10_lec Joined 5192 days ago 3971 posts - 7747 votes Speaks: English, French*, GermanC1, Spanish, Japanese, Esperanto Studies: Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Estonian | Message 10 of 13 07 April 2010 at 8:21pm | IP Logged | ||
Indeed, though I doubt "ein bisschen Deutsch" is a statement that would apply to an intermediate speaker. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| OlafP Triglot Senior Member Germany Joined 5246 days ago 261 posts - 667 votes Speaks: German*, French, English | Message 11 of 13 07 April 2010 at 8:33pm | IP Logged | ||
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rapp, you're making a mountain out of a molehill. The hints given concerning positive and negative connotations are correct but the difference is so faint that it's not worth losing any sleep over it. If skills in a language are required for a job then
- nur ein bisschen - schon ein bischen - nur ein wenig - schon ein wenig all will have the same result: someone else will get the job. In a restaurant you can say to the waiter: Ich hätte gern noch ein wenig Wasser. Ich hätte gern noch ein bisschen Wasser. There is absolutely no difference in the meaning. You will get the same amount of water for either expression. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| rapp Senior Member United States Joined 5542 days ago 129 posts - 204 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Esperanto, Spanish | Message 12 of 13 07 April 2010 at 9:29pm | IP Logged | ||
Excellent! Mountains are prettier than molehills. ;-) In my original post, I asked if the two words were synonyms, and the responses seemed to be "not exactly". And indeed, the connotations seem to be the opposite way 'round than I had guessed. So this has been a productive discussion for me, at least. Do your two sentences mean "I would like to have a little more water"? I'm only on lesson 20 of Assimil, so I haven't seen "hätte" before. It looks like a more literal translation might be something like "It would please me to have yet a little (more) water". 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| OlafP Triglot Senior Member Germany Joined 5246 days ago 261 posts - 667 votes Speaks: German*, French, English | Message 13 of 13 07 April 2010 at 9:41pm | IP Logged | ||
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Your translation is correct. "ich hätte" is the conditional form of "ich habe", i.e. "I would have". It is used for polite requests, usually in the expression "Ich hätte gern", "I would like to have". A hyperliteral translation is difficult, because there is no English word for "gern". You may also encounter "gerne", which is the same word. It's only about regional preferences.
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