GERMAN questions, answers, grammar and anything related

Alright, I have another German-related question. I'm trying to keep up on it even after the class, although its a bit hard sometimes.

What is the real differnce between machen (when used in reference of "to do), and tun? Both say "To do" in the definition. The German teacher said that one is more informal than the other, but I wanted to know when one would be appropriate in which situation. Oh, and the book doesn't conjugate tun anywhere, so could I be helped with that as well.

Vielen Dank!

ich tu
Du tust
er/sie/es tut

wir tun
Ihr tut
sie tun


When to use them? Oh boy, ohboy. What a hard question.
Well when i was young I was told that that tuen is very slang-ish and bad form, but it seems to have grown out of it. I have the feeling that it's pretty much interchangeable. There's also the element that machen also has the secondary meaning of 'to create' which gives it a different feel.

In some cases tun seems more common, but which ones.. hm...
so tun alsob
to pretend (lit. to do) as if.

perhaps.

Can't think of any other examples right now.
maybe our new German members can help, they should be more up to date with the language :)
 
Hmm. Is tun something that would most likely be used with the imperfect past, and machen would most likely be used with the perfect past, because one is supposed to be more formal for another. Exampe:

Er tat ein Referat für Schule.

oder

Er hat ein Referat für Schule gemacht.

I'm sure that might be confusing "to do" a report in German, since from what I've learned about it, it's more literal than English, but I just wanted to find an example. But would those be about the context they would be used, because machen is more formal, and tun is more informal?
 
Well in this case it would be machen if it's 'to create' and you'd probably be more precise and say geschrieben (written), machen sounds a bit child like.

If you held your referat it would be gehalten.

I think tun is also more common in any kind of imperative form, Das tust du do. Das kannst du doch nicht tun (also machen would fit nicely too here).

There also a secondary meaning of tun, which is 'to put'. Da tust Du 2 Stück Zucker rein. Tu das auf den Fernseher.

So when the meaning is more to create it's definitely machen when it's to put it's tun (or a more approriate one) maybe Tun is more an immediate more impulsive quicker sort of action while machen with it's connection to creating more of a process, I guess.

maybe like the difference between "make it so" (which involves a longer process... and is a bit outdated) and "do it" ?
 
Oh - my dad was in germany for 6 months - but he only speaks greek :)

He only could speak to his army friends at the time.

He learned a few words - Gutten tag, Voseslos? (In english its meant to be "whats the problem?"). Thats about it I think.

He also learned how to order food. But he forgot those words now.
 
Ich weiss nicht was "Voseslos" ist auf Englisch, aber "Guten Tag" ist "Hello" oder "Good day".

Now that you mention it, I remember you saying that you could speak Greek. You'll have to say something in Greek sometime, Angvav.
 
It's technically
"Was ist loß" lit. "What is loose".
a bit like "What's up".

But if you say it quickly it could sound like Ang spelled it.
Especially as in many places you say "is" instead of "ist"
and it could be simplified to "was loß", which would not be considered proper at all though.
 
And what does that translate to? I know it's a question of some kind, but I learned from German class not to answer questions that when I don't know what they mean. :lol
 
Pos pas?

Ich tut gut. Und dir? (I'm doing good. And you?)

Kala eise?

Ja, ich bin fit im Moment. (Yes, I'm well at the moment).

Nice, here's some improvements for ya.


"Ich tut gut" is more like "I doing well"
You wouldn't say it, and it's gramatically off.
it's "Mir geht es gut" something like "it's going well with me"

"ich bin fit im Moment" is i am fit at the moment
Maybe "Mir geht es zur Zeit gut"

:)
 
Sometimes I don't really understand some things and dictionary can't help me, so I ask you here. :)

So wrote Brian this: Been very busy lately but having a ball! Does that mean: I'll keep it rolling? In German: Am Ball bleiben?

And this one from Errowyn: What happens after auto-pilot goes out on you? No idea...

I'm still learning and most I can understand by the context. I hope you can always understand what I mean. Sometimes I use an online-dictionary and I count on it. ;)
 
I'll be glad to explain them.

"Having a Ball":Sehr Spass. I would "have a ball" at a party, or some other place, because I would be having a lot of fun.

"Goes out on you": This is a bit more complicated. This means stops working. Remember that in this sentence, "you" is similar to "man", because they both refer to the generic person. If your computer breaks (like it freezes), then it "goes out on you".

Verstehen Sie jetzt?
 
Nice Job Ohboy :)
Viel Spaß btw, the other one is "'very fun"
:)

Yeah so having a ball means something like "sich köstlich amüsieren"
and going out on you, like ohboy said very well as well, is that it's simply stopping to function. Like an engine that runs out of fuel and turns off.
 
Thank you very much, Oh Boy and Jassian!

I never thought that "Having a ball" means "Having fun". :)
 
it's technically "This is a sausage to me", so something like 'that's as important as a sausage to me.'
 
Oh wait it wasn't 'a sausage' but 'sausage' so "this is sausage to me".
:) Well, to some people sausage can be quite important! :p:)
 
Grün is indeed green yep
ü = [alt] + 129

Luft on the other hand is air
Red would be rot
:)