Wiktionary:About German

This is a Wiktionary policy, guideline or common practices page. This is a draft proposal. It is unofficial, and it is unknown whether it is widely accepted by Wiktionary editors.

Policies – Entries: CFI - EL - NORM - NPOV - QUOTE - REDIR - DELETE. Languages: LT - AXX. Others: BLOCK - BOTS - VOTES.

Shortcut:
WT:ADE

This page explains considerations (beyond those covered by general policies) which apply to German entries and German translations of English entries.

Wiktionary:Entry layout explained is the principal policy on formatting entries. This document supplements that policy.

Entries

German entries begin with a ==German== header, which is inserted into the article after any ==Translingual== or ==English== section, but otherwise in alphabetical order with other level 2 headers.

If an entry for another language (or ==Translingual==) appears on the same page as the German entry, the entries are separated with a single empty line.

Following is a simplified entry for the German word Wörterbuch (“dictionary”). It shows the fundamental elements of a German entry:

==German==

===Pronunciation===
* {{IPA|de|/ˈvœʁtɐˌbuːx/}}

===Noun===
{{de-noun|n,(e)s,^er|dim=^lein}}

# [[dictionary]]

====Declension====
{{de-ndecl|n,(e)s,^er}}

Headers

The headers allowed below the 'German' header are the same as those used in English entries, except for the “Translations” section, which is only allowed in English entries. The headers also have the same order and levels as in English entries, and the format of their content is generally identical, though certain differences between the two languages have to be taken into account.

Pronunciation

For an overview of the symbols used to transcribe German pronunciation, see Appendix:German pronunciation.

Nouns

Most German nouns have a gender (masculine, feminine, or neuter, or, rarely, more than one of these) and are declined (at least) for four cases (nominative, genitive, dative, and accusative) and two numbers (singular and plural). The nominative singular (for pluralia tantum the nominative plural) of a noun is its "basic" (lemma) form, on whose page we include the definitions and all further linguistic information. For nominalizations of adjectives, the article-less form is the lemma. For the adjective groß, the nominalized lemmas are Großer m, Große f, and Großes n, not, for instance, (der) Große m.

A full German noun entry includes a complete declension table ({{de-ndecl}}) in a separate ====Declension==== section, but all German noun entries should include the nominative singular, genitive singular, and nominative plural forms in the headword line. The template {{de-noun}} is used to format the headword line and to place the entry in Category:German nouns.

Verbs

German verb conjugation is more complex than English verb conjugation. As with English verbs, the infinitive is considered the "basic" (lemma) form on whose page the definitions and all further information can be found.

German verb entries should note the verb's infinitive form, third-person singular present indicative form (e.g. läuft, nieselt), first- and third-person singular past indicative form (lief, nieselte), and past participle (gelaufen, genieselt). Entries should also note which of the auxiliary verbs haben and sein is used for forming the composite tenses (perfect, pluperfect, and future perfect). Note that some verbs (e.g. passieren) can form composite tenses using either haben or sein, depending on the particular sense of the verb and whether that sense is transitive or not.

The template {{de-verb}} should be used to format the headword line and to place the entry in the appropriate category within Category:German verbs.

The template {{de-conj}} should be used to specify a conjugation for every verb.

Prefixes

German prefixes should generally start with a lowercase first letter. When prefixes are applied to nouns, they are capitalized, but this is because all nouns are capitalized, not because the prefix has any inherent capitalization. For example, Autofokus uses {{prefix|de|auto|Fokus}}, which links to auto- (valid), not to Auto- (invalid).^[1]

Spelling

Like English spelling, German spelling was quite variable until a few centuries ago. Since then, several orthographic conferences and reforms have established a standard orthography. Wiktionary includes all attested spellings, and normalizes main-forms to current spelling conventions if a word has only been used during times of different spelling practice (e.g. nouns before capitalization of them was frequent) or has not pertained to the written language (but is attested from audio), but spellings which have been used but are no longer used or standard can use {{de-superseded spelling of}} or other templates to point to the current standard spellings.

A number of words spelled with ss (such as Esstisch) were deprecated in favour of ß spellings in 1902, but then made standard (and the ß spellings deprecated) in 1996 (Compare dass, where the usage notes are more specific and detailed.) If possible, the usage notes should make it clear when the entry's spelling was valid; it is often enough to simply list all rule changes chronologically with {{U:de:deprecated spelling}} and {{U:de:new spelling}}.

Obsolete spellings

Spellings which were deprecated by or before the Second Orthographic Conference of 1901, or which fell out of use before then, and which have not been reintroduced by a more recent reform, are to be labelled obsolete rather than merely superseded ({{de-superseded spelling of}} handles this distinction).

Rechtschreibreform of 1996

The Rechtschreibreform of 1996, and several subsequent reforms of that reform, deprecated several old spellings and introduced several new spellings. The reform was not very popular in opinion polls, but it has been adopted by all major dictionaries and the majority of publishing houses, and spellings which it deprecated are no longer taught or considered correct in schools. See Category:German words affected by 1996 spelling reform.

In 2006 the reform was declared “complete” and made binding in German schools and government bodies; further minor adjustments (“Aktualisierungen des amtlichen Regelwerks”) have taken place in 2011 and 2017. See Category:German words affected by 2011 spelling changes and Category:German words affected by 2017 spelling changes.

Switzerland and Liechtenstein spellings

As the letter ß is not used in the official orthography of Switzerland and Liechtenstein, words containing a ß should include an alternative form with the ß replaced by ss if attested. In the article whose title is spelled with ß, {{de-CH-alt}} is used in the ===Alternative forms=== section (see Floß). In the article whose title is spelled with ss, {{standard spelling of|de|ß version|from=SLDE}} is used as the sole definition (see Floss).

Additionally, since 2017 an unadapted borrowing deprecated in one of the reforms is considered valid in Switzerland if the source language is one of the official languages. In practice, this mostly concerns German terms of French origin, such as Portrait or Cliché (both invalid spellings in standard German but accepted in Swiss High German).

Declension

Dative singular -e in noun declension

Many strong masculine and neuter nouns have two dative singular forms: one is identical to the nominative (das Buch, dem Buch; der Tod, dem Tod), while the other adds an -e (dem Buche, dem Tode). In writing, the form with -e was very common, though far from universal, until the mid-20th century.

Forms with -e are still used in contemporary German, but they are widely restricted to a large but limited number of more or less fixed expressions (im Schweiße seines Angesichts, zu Hause, in diesem Sinne, zum Tode verurteilt, and many more). Outside of such idioms the e-form is now very rare and likely to sound odd in many cases.

Declension of language names

Many names of languages are nominalizations of adjectives. These language names have two sets of singular forms. “Deutsch”, for example, has the nominative singular forms “Deutsch” and “Deutsche”:

The nominative form “Deutsche” is used only when the definite article is used: “das Deutsche”:
- 1922, Eduard Engel, Deutsche Stilkunst, page 65:
  Das Deutsche ist formenreicher als das Englische, […]
When the definite article is used directly in front of the language name, the genitive is often “des Deutschen”:
- 2007, Ulrich Ammon, Klaus J. Mattheier, Sprachliche Folgen der EU-Erweiterung, page 135:
  Statt der institutionellen Stärkung des Deutschen ist eher die umgekehrte Wirkung festzustellen, nämlich dass die fortdauernde institutionelle Schwäche des Deutschen seinen Wert in den Augen der Ostmitteleuropäer mindert […]
The nominative form “Deutsch” is used when no definite article is used, typically referring to the language as a whole. It is sometimes also used even when the definite article is used, in which case it typically signifies a particular variety or idiolect of German, rather than the language as a whole:
- 1965, Edith Hallwass, Wer ist im Deutschen sattelfest?: Sprachlehre in Frage und Antwort, page 13:
  Das Deutsch ist immer nur ein Teil des Deutschen: gutes oder schlechtes, falsches oder richtiges Deutsch, das Deutsch unserer Klassiker und das Deutsch, das wir heute sprechen, das Deutsch, das man lernt, schreibt, versteht […]
- 2004, İnci Dirim, Peter Auer, Türkisch sprechen nicht nur die Türken, page 204:
  In diesem Kapitel wollen wir abschließend einen Blick auf das Deutsch unserer Informanten und Informantinnen mit nicht-türkischem Familienhintergrund werfen.
The genitive forms “Deutsch” and “Deutschs” are the genitive forms of “Deutsch” (never of “das Deutsche”):
- 1969, Fritz Tschirch, 1200 Jahre deutsche Sprache in synoptischen Bibeltexten, 2nd edition, Walter de Gruyter, page XV:
  Schließlich mußte versucht werden, Übersetzungen zu finden, die, zeitlich ungefähr in der Mitte zwischen Luther und Menge stehend, den charakteristischen Sprachstand der für die Gestalt des Deutschs der letzten 200 Jahre so entscheidend gewordenen Aufklärung spiegeln.
- 1974, Walter Rost, Deutsche Stilschule: Ein praktisches Lehrbuch des guten Stils, 5th edition, page 148:
  Wer sich in diesem Punkte nichts durchgehen läßt, wer konsequent jeden Scheinattributsatz vermeidet, wird in der Beherrschung des Deutschs rasch große Fortschritte machen.
- 2002, Neue deutsche Sprachgeschichte: mentalitäts-, kultur- und sozialgeschichtliche Zusammenhänge (Dieter Cherubim, Karlheinz Jakob, Angelika Linke), page 396:
  Die Besonderheiten sind auf die Zeit, den Raum und den gesprochenen Charakter seines Deutschs zurückzuführen.
- 2003, Erich Donnert, Die Freimaurerei in Russland: von den Anfängen bis zum Verbot von 1822, page 156:
  [Er] verfasste in der Folge seine literarischen Werke nur noch in Russisch, bemühte sich jedoch weiterhin um Verbesserung seines Deutsch, und zwar nicht ohne Erfolg, […]
- 2007, Bernt Ahrenholz, Verweise mit Demonstrativa im gesprochenen Deutsch (Linguistik - Impulse & Tendenzen vol. 17), Walter de Gruyter, page 7:
  Günthner (2000, 2002) plädiert in Zusammenhang mit ihren Untersuchungen […] für eine stärkere Berücksichtigung von Strukturen des gesprochenen Deutsch.

Declension of adjectives

Until the 1800s, adjectives were sometimes left uninflected in the mixed and weak declensions of masculine, neuter and sometimes feminine nominative and accusative positions, as in unser täglich Brot, das neu Testament, kaum hat der Herr ein neu Testament eingesetzt, ein gut Mann, der gut Mann, ein gut Mensch, der gut Mensch, etc. (For more, see Karl Rühl, Unflektierte (nominale) und starke Form im Singular des attributiven Adjektivs in den hochdeutschen Mundarten, 1909, Giessen/Darmstadt.) These obsolete forms are not given in the adjective declension tables. Vestiges of this usage in fixed expressions may have individual entries, see e.g. fließend Wasser, trocken Brot.

Criteria for inclusion

The criteria for inclusion with respect to German terms are the same as Wiktionary's general criteria for inclusion. In particular, this means that whether the semantics of a German compound can be predicted based on its constituents has no bearing on whether the compound is to be included (hence, it is never a WT:SOP) as long as the compound is written without dashes or spaces (i.e. is a closed compound). This is the consensus established throughout numerous discussions.^[2]^[3]^[4]^[5]^[6]^[7]^[8]^[9] The most commonly voiced points in favor of keeping articles of semantically predictable closed compounds are:

Semantically predictable closed compounds are also included as articles in other languages, including English: coalmine, headache, schoolteacher etc. Moreover, affixed constructions like chlorineless^[10] or conjugated verb forms are also included.
Knowing where to split the compounds is not obvious to users who don't know German (which is the primary audience of en.wiktionary.org) and sometimes even to intermediate German learners. Perusing a text in a language that one has no command of and translating every single word is a service that Wiktionary aims to offer. Having to split compounds by trial and error, especially those recursively consisting of further compound, i.e. requiring multiple splits, is very time-consuming and cumbersome.
Some compound words allow multiple splits into constituents and have multiple pronunciations (e.g. Wachstube).
Semantically predictable closed compounds are also included in major monolingual German dictionaries: Tanzschule at Grimm, DWDS, Duden, OWID, TheFreeDictionary, and de.wiktionary.org.
German sometimes requires one of a number of interfixes (Fugenelemente) to create compounds (e.g. -s-, -es-, -n-, -en-), sometimes permitting multiple versions (Juwelierskunst/Juwelierkunst). German regularly shortens the constituents if they are verbs (e.g. Lehnwort) and sometimes draws on non-lemma forms (e.g. Männerfuß). All this makes deriving the compound from its parts nontrivial.

The following counterarguments have been commonly addressed as follows:

This would lead to a limitless number of German compound entries.
1. All words in all languages.
2. The limit is WT:ATTEST.
3. WT:NOTPAPER
The criteria for inclusion should not be tied to orthographic convention.
1. The orthographic convention dictates what people want to look up however.
Special:Random will then mostly yield random German compounds.
1. It currently mainly yields Romance-language conjugations.

Translations in English entries

German translations in English entries belong in a * German: {{t|de|...}} line under a sense-specific table header (usually as {{trans-top|[sense of the English headword]}}) within a level 4 or level 5 ====Translations==== section of the ==English== entry. Only supply the “basic” (lemma) form of the German translation, e.g. the nominative singular for a noun, the predicative form for an adjective, and the infinitive for a verb. For nouns, also supply the gender of the German translation. Further details for the translation should not appear in the English entry, but in the corresponding German entry instead.

Templates

Category:German templates
- Category:German inflection-table templates

Help

See generated lists of missing German words:
- Wiktionary:About German/Todo
- Wiktionary:Requested entries (German)
Also check these lists in the user namespace:
- lists of German nouns. Red and grey words need your help.
- Wanted entries

References

[1] Talk:ur-

[2] Talk:neuntausendneunhundertneunundneunzig

[3] Talk:Zirkusschule

[4] Wiktionary:Beer_parlour/2011/February#German_CFI

[5] Talk:Plastikschwanz

[6] Wiktionary:Beer_parlour/2012/May#SOP_or_not_SOP

[7] Talk:Sportlerherz

[8] Talk:Kinderleichenficker

[9] Wiktionary:Beer_parlour/2017/July#Delete_SoP_compounds_in_languages_like_German_and_Dutch

[10] Wiktionary:Tea_room/2010/September#chlorineless

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