They don’t of course, but sooner or later you are probably going to want to write, and written German can be a bit finicky about things like that.
However, once you have learned how to speak it correctly, rules like that are pretty easy to learn when you want to But I imagine, like me, even when writing casual English emails to friends, you like to use correct grammar, syntax, spelling, etc. You will want to do this also in German, especially to native speakers.
And you will find the capitalisation of nouns when reading, especially in complex sentences, immensely useful, I promise you. It’s true that some modern novelists ignore this rule: I suppose they are doing it for effect, or to differentiate themselves. But the majority don’t, and serious newspaper journalists don’t. (Conceivably headline writers might).
I believe that teenagers and students when writing online to their peers break all the rules, but I’ll bet they don’t when writing essays that they want a good mark for.
I can’t agree with this more! Capitalisation is important in German in deed and it’s good to learn it as soon as you start to write.
@mikeellwood how you find those composed words (like words composed form two or even three words just squeazed together into one long), which German is full of them? I believe I have a habit to compose words in English from learning German actually.
Yah, they’re hard to cope with sometimes. And, as I’ve said, I have a habit to compose words like they’re in German in English too. I remember one American said once to me: “Where in the name of God did you find that word?” (I don’t remember what word I actually composed though). “Where? Isnt’ it a word?” I replied. “Oh, sorry, then I just composed it by myself right now as we speak.” …
[quote=“tatjana, post:123, topic:2205”]
those composed [German] words (like words composed from two or even three words just squeezed together into one long)[/quote]
I always found those funny, really. When I started learning German, it was a summer program in Austria, and part of the name of the building (which became part of my address) was “auslandstudentendienst” (which means something like “foreign student service”). It has stuck with me for the last 40+ years!
When I learnt Deutsch I remember “Geschwindiegkitsbegränzung” which consists from “Geschwindiegkeit” and “Begränzung” (“speed” and “limitation”) and means speed limitation (mostly in the traffic). But there are more of course.
In English we can do the same, but we usually hyphenate, but we don’t always hyphenate and sort of loosely bung words together without any actual “glue”. Bit sloppy, but it kind of works. Would never suit the Germans of course. However, in certain circumstances they can also hyphenate, but I’ve never managed to learn the rules of when this is correct and when it isn’t.
My sole word in German arose from an incident when I parked my car and came back at the end of the day to find little lumps of set concrete scattered all over it. Apparently a concrete mixer lorry had taken the bend rather too fast and the resulting mess had been cleaned up before I returned. My word: Betonmischmaschine. It made an impression on me as it was 45 years ago!
I remember when my son was learning German at school, and had to describe his route to school as an exercise, and in practicing at home, taught me a new word (I had just started to learn it myself, not having done it at school):
Bushaltestelle - bus stop or bus-stop, but never, I think, busstop.
That one has always stayed with me.
(The stelle is just “place”).
It is really rather fun to pick apart those very long, squashed together words, whether German, or any other language. The Welsh LlanfairPG is a fun one!
I have a feeling this was a joke played by a resident of Ynys Mon on an Englishman, probably one with connections to the railway. Am I right?
The long German words seem to be a habit. They are one reason I never got on with German once I stopped chatting it to POWs in 1945!!
p.s. Has this thread rather moved from it’s title???
More of a nineteenth century marketing gimmick to attract tourists on the railway, I think. The name of two parishes stuck together with an extra bit, if I remember correctly.
Just checked on wi*****ia to check, and apparently the place is split into an old and new pentre uchaf and pentre isaf (upper and lower villages)
So, you could say there is a Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerchwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch Uchaf and a Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerchwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch Isaf!
A lot of that went on. Builth Wells is a fiction invented by the railway company, which also added the Wells suffix to Llandrindod, Llanwrtyd and Llangamarch in an attempt to attract travellers.
The Post Office was also guilty of changing names - the village of Crossgates on the junction of the A44 and A483 had a perfectly good name - Llanbadarn Fawr - before the Royal Mail decided that it could be confused with another village far down the road just outside Aberystwyth and promoted its own alternative. Confusingly, Powys County Council Cymrified this name to Y Groes when the time came to make signage bilingual, rather than re-instating the original as the Welsh name.
Brynaman was originally “Y Gwter Fawr”, named after a run off from early coal mining there. When the railway arrived, the local bigwig arranged for the station to be built at the bottom of the garden of his house (Brynaman House), and for the stop to be named accordingly, which then became used as a name for the place as a whole.
He probably preferred the sound of the address!
However, in certain circumstances they can also hyphenate, but I’ve never managed to learn the rules of when this is correct and when it isn’t.
