A question for any German speaking friends out there

[auntiemeesh]

I think I've mentioned before that the German book I picked is a little bit crap. So I need some help from anyone who has a functional understanding of the German language (native or studied).

Q. 'There' seems to have two translations. Da and dort. How do I know when to use which, or are they interchangeable?

ex: Wo ist die Schule? Die Schule ist da. Wo ist Doktor Keller? Doktor Keller ist dort.

The book seems to use them interchangeably, but if that is so, which one is the preferred word?

Q. Freundin. It's translated as girlfriend in the book. Is this girlfriend as in buying roses for her on Valentine's Day, or girlfriend as in the form of friend used when referring to any female friend? Or is it both?

Comments

[lindahoyland.livejournal.com]

It is a long time since I studied German at school,but I think da and dort are pretty much interchangerable,dort is slightly more formal.

Freundin is used for any female friend and is not limited to girlfriend.German uses the in suffix to make nouns feminine in general, eg Die Leherin- teacher(female) die Artzin (a lady doctor) ect ect.It is considered ill mannered to use the male form if referring to a woman.

[auntiemeesh.livejournal.com]

Thank you very much. :)

[lily-the-hobbit.livejournal.com]

I'm a native speaker so, though I can't really explain why things are a certain way I can tell you how words are used.

Da and dort.... well, if you have a choice of only the two of them I would say da is closer than dort. But if you have hier as well, then hier is here, da is there and dort would be even further... like... yonder, a third distance English has abandoned. Da also has a second meaning. Like in "hie und da" would be "now and again/then". Another thing with da refering to a distance is, like when you say "Sie war da" meaning, for example your friend was over in the afternoon, you would probably translate it as "she was here", because da does not really refer to a distance just to a general existence. If something is "da" and it does not imply distance it usually just means that it exists.

Freundin is, as lindahoyland said, simply the feminine form of Freund (male friend). Any word refering to women usually ends with -in, and if you are refering to a female teacher you would use Lehrerin rather than Lehrer.
Freundin, then, can be either your girlfriend as the one you buy roses for, or just any female friend you have. Which is why I much prefer the English difference of friend and boyfriend/girlfriend. It avoids confusion.

Hope that makes sense. I really admire you for tackling a language as difficult as German. If you need any help, feel free to ask me.

[auntiemeesh.livejournal.com]

Awesome!

So, da would be 'there', while dort would be more like 'way over there'. Good to know.

Girlfriend is becoming less clear in English as well, since a lot of girls refer to their group of female friends as their girlfriends. I don't know why, really, and I've never used the term that way myself. And I can't even begin to picture men using boyfriend in the same way, lol. "Hey honey, I'm going out with my boyfriends tonight, 'kay?"

I will definitely be calling on you for help and clarification again. :)

[lily-the-hobbit.livejournal.com]

"Hey honey, I'm going out with my boyfriends tonight, 'kay?"

*LOL*
I can see that causing some raised eyebrows :)

No worries! I'm always willing to help out.