Grammar Barbie says, "Prepositions are haaaard[1]!"

[pne]

Amy said just now, "Ich möchte lieber bei Auto in den Kindergarten!"; I wonder whether that's a loan-translation of "by car", though I'm not sure whether I've used that construction to her.

She also says, "Please help me by [activity]", which is a loan-translation in the other direction (cf. yesterday's "beim Ausschneiden helfen"), where I'd use "help me with [activity]".

And, in non-preposition news, Amy told Stella the other day what she'd like to eat: "Diese Zeit möchte ich ..." (as in "This time, I want to ...") :D

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[1] As anyone who has learned another language can surely confirm, prepositions are indeed hard, cross-linguistically, because just about every language uses them a bit differently even in cases (such as closely-related languages) where it seems that a 1:1 mapping is possible. And then there are lots of 1:n (e.g. French "de" vs. Italian "di; da"? English "for" vs. Spanish "para; por"? these may be m:n, though...) and m:n mappings...

Comments

[ghewgill.livejournal.com]

I was musing the other day about how in (North American) English one says in a month, on a date, and at a time. And as of a month/date/time some condition was true. Here in New Zealand, I've heard at used for months, dates, and times, and as at a month/date/time some condition was true.

I wrote about some other prepositions (http://hewgill.com/journal/entries/257-kiwi-english) a while ago.

[ifeedformula.livejournal.com]

I think my limited German is getting better. I could almost maybe translate what Amy said without having to look it up. *L*

I want to *something something* auto(car) in Kindergarten, right?

[pne.livejournal.com]

I want to *something something* auto(car) in Kindergarten, right?

Pretty much, yes!

"I want to go to kindergarten by car".

(Note: in den Kindergarten = "into" kindergarten; im/in dem Kindergarten = in kindergarten. That's accusative vs. dative, motion-towards vs. location-at.)

What made you learn German? Or how did you come to know it?

[ifeedformula.livejournal.com]

What little I know I remember from a couple of songs we had to sing in German in choir back in HS. I've also picked up a little bit from you. :D

[pne.livejournal.com]

Kinda like Stella picked up some English from me, perhaps :)

(That is, from listening to me talking English to Amy.)