{"id":7892,"date":"2016-11-08T18:04:09","date_gmt":"2016-11-08T18:04:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/?p=7892"},"modified":"2017-12-08T14:39:25","modified_gmt":"2017-12-08T14:39:25","slug":"the-curiosity-of-the-plural-of-das-wort","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/the-curiosity-of-the-plural-of-das-wort\/","title":{"rendered":"The Curiosity of the Plural of &#8220;das Wort&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">This post is about the German word &#8220;<em>das Wort&#8221;<\/em>. What&#8217;s the plural?<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Family Guy - Bird is the Word!.flv\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/RHjw5wfoj10?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">No, not bird! The plural is\u00a0<em>W\u00f6rter<\/em>. Sounds right. And <i>Worte<\/i>. Sounds right. Wait, what? Which one is correct? Is there another form? What&#8217;s going on here? Let&#8217;s find out!<\/p>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong>What does the\u00a0<em>Duden\u00a0<\/em>say?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The\u00a0<em>Duden<\/em>, a prestigious German\u00a0<em>W\u00f6rterbuch\u00a0<\/em>(dictionary) gives the following explanation about the plural of\u00a0<em>das Wort<\/em>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"color: #3366ff;\"><em>Der Plural \u00bbW\u00f6rter\u00ab wird meist f\u00fcr Einzelwort oder vereinzelte W\u00f6rter ohne R\u00fccksicht auf den Zusammenhang gebraucht:<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<section class=\"term-section\">\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"color: #3366ff;\">sag mir drei W\u00f6rter, die mit \u00bbex-\u00ab anfangen<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #3366ff;\">dieses Verzeichnis enth\u00e4lt 100\u200a000 W\u00f6rter<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/section>\n<p><span style=\"color: #3366ff;\"><em>Der Plural \u00bbWorte\u00ab wird meist f\u00fcr \u00c4u\u00dferung, Ausspruch, Beteuerung, Erkl\u00e4rung, Begriff, Zusammenh\u00e4ngendes oder bedeutsame einzelne W\u00f6rter gebraucht:<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<section class=\"term-section\">\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"color: #3366ff;\">sie sprach einige Worte zur Begr\u00fc\u00dfung<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #3366ff;\">dies waren seine [letzten] Worte<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #3366ff;\">ich will nicht viel[e] Worte machen<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #3366ff;\">gefl\u00fcgelte, goldene Worte<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #3366ff;\">mit ander[e]n Worten (<em>Abk\u00fcrzung<\/em> m.\u2002a.\u2002W.)<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #3366ff;\">mit guten, mit wenigen Worten<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #3366ff;\">drei Worte nenn ich euch, inhaltsschwer<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/section>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Before looking at each plural individually, let&#8217;s digest for a second what the\u00a0<em>Duden\u00a0<\/em>says here. It makes the difference between the plurals in the\u00a0<em>Zusammenhang <\/em>(context)\u00a0in which it is used. An easier explanation is that the word\u00a0<em>das Wort\u00a0<\/em>has two different definitions, and one meaning gets the plural\u00a0<em>W\u00f6rter<\/em>, the other gets the plural\u00a0<em>Worte.<\/em><\/p>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong>Definition 1:\u00a0<em>W\u00f6rter\u00a0<\/em>&#8211; single words outside of context and meaning<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Definition 1:\u00a0<em>das Wort<\/em> refers to any single word outside of any particular context, such as\u00a0<em>hallo<\/em>,\u00a0<em>gehen<\/em>,\u00a0<em>Supermarkt<\/em>,\u00a0<em>Bleistift<\/em> &#8211; these are all words, or as the\u00a0<em>Duden\u00a0<\/em>calls them:\u00a0<em>Einzelwort<\/em>. In this way,\u00a0<em>Wort\u00a0<\/em>gets the plural\u00a0<em>W\u00f6rter<\/em>. This is also reflected in the German word for dictionary:\u00a0<em>W\u00f6rterbuch\u00a0<\/em>&#8211; a book with words. The words by themselves do not have any particular contextual meaning, and so it is only about the word itself.<\/p>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong>Definition 2:\u00a0<em>Worte<\/em> &#8211; context and meaning<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Definition 2:\u00a0<em>das Wort\u00a0<\/em>refers to a words in context, in basically any other way that you would use\u00a0<em>Wort<\/em> where it does not refer to the word itself. For example words spoken in a speech &#8211;\u00a0<em>Worte<\/em>. In the example the\u00a0<em>Duden<\/em> gives, it also says &#8220;<em>Drei Worte nenn ich euch, inhaltsschwer<\/em>&#8221; (I will tell you three words, with content). What is meant here is that the meaning of the words that will be given matters &#8211;\u00a0the words are\u00a0<em>bedeutsam\u00a0<\/em>(meaningful).<\/p>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong>A rule of thumb<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Confusing enough, right? Yeah&#8230; What makes it even more confusing is that the\u00a0<em>Duden\u00a0<\/em>says that the different plurals are used\u00a0<em>meistens\u00a0<\/em>(usually) &#8211; not even always &#8211; for the different definitions. You may then say that it doesn&#8217;t matter much which plural you use, but it can obviously have quite a different meaning. If you are in a conversation, it is not such a big deal. If you are writing it in a letter or message, you wanna get it right! How?<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Well, let&#8217;s make things a bit easier with a simple rule of thumb. Ask yourself this question:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Do I refer to the words in context?<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">If the answer is yes, use\u00a0<em>Worte<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">If the answer is no, use\u00a0<em>W\u00f6rter<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Or inversely: Do I refer just to the words, regardless in what context?<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">If the answer is yes, use\u00a0<em>W\u00f6rter<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">If the answer is no, use\u00a0<em>Worte<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<img width=\"350\" height=\"233\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2016\/11\/photo-1453738773917-9c3eff1db985-350x233.jpg\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image tmp-hide-img\" alt=\"\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2016\/11\/photo-1453738773917-9c3eff1db985-350x233.jpg 350w, https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2016\/11\/photo-1453738773917-9c3eff1db985-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2016\/11\/photo-1453738773917-9c3eff1db985-1024x683.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 350px) 100vw, 350px\" \/><p>This post is about the German word &#8220;das Wort&#8221;. What&#8217;s the plural? No, not bird! The plural is\u00a0W\u00f6rter. Sounds right. And Worte. Sounds right. Wait, what? Which one is correct? Is there another form? What&#8217;s going on here? Let&#8217;s find out! What does the\u00a0Duden\u00a0say? The\u00a0Duden, a prestigious German\u00a0W\u00f6rterbuch\u00a0(dictionary) gives the following explanation about the plural&hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"post-item__readmore\"><a class=\"btn btn--md\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/the-curiosity-of-the-plural-of-das-wort\/\">Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":110,"featured_media":7895,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[11971,8],"tags":[2067,375965,3349,3404,1401,229848],"class_list":["post-7892","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-grammar-language","category-language","tag-dictionary","tag-duden","tag-plural","tag-singular","tag-words","tag-wort"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7892","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/110"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7892"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7892\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9405,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7892\/revisions\/9405"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7895"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7892"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7892"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7892"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}