Using German Synonyms - pdf

Using German Synonyms

This book, designed for students who have already developed a basic competence in German, aims to broaden and improve their vocabulary and is invaluable as a guide to finding the right word for the context. It provides detailed information on groups of German words with related meanings, including examples of usage, English glosses, and regional variations. There are two indexes allowing users quickly to locate words in German or English. The book is an essential reference for undergraduates, teachers of German, and other professional linguists.

Product Details

Hardcover: 346 pages
Publisher: Cambridge University Press; 1 edition (June 26, 2000)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0521465524
ISBN-13: 978-0521465526

Book Description

This book, designed for students who have already developed a basic competence in German, aims to broaden and improve their vocabulary and is invaluable as a guide to finding the right word for the context. It provides detailed information on groups of German words with related meanings, including examples of usage, English glosses, and regional variations. There are two indexes allowing users quickly to locate words in German or English. The book is an essential reference for sixth formers and undergraduates as well as teachers of German and other professional linguists.

Reviews

Unlike Farrell or Beaton, "Using German Synonyms" suffers in that it indexes groups of synonyms by a German keyword. I doubt that many non-native speakers of German will find this easy to use. There is also very little explanatory information in English: most of the text consists of groups of synonyms with brief definitions in English and sample sentences in German. There really isn't much here for the native English-speaker that is different from a German thesaurus. What the Farrell and Beaton books have that I find so interesting and informative are detailed explanations in English describing the use of different words in German that basically mean the same thing in English.

I did like the classification of words by different "registers": words that are only used in spoken speech or written German or literary or business German are identified as such. Offensive terms are also identified. Most readers of this book will probably quickly peruse it looking for swear words. I found it interesting that the term "Weib" used to be a "fine literature" term for "wife" but is now only used as a pejorative in spoken German. I did not know that.