How Do You Say It in German?

Bahasa Indonesia - Deutsch

"Nicht-Verstehen signalisieren / nachfragen" (to give "Not Understand" sign / to question) was currently the topic of the German course, as my student Aldo (see Private German Teacher) asked these critical questions:

"Why does this sentence use "wie" (how) and why does the other sentence use "was" (what)? Is it possible to exchange the words?"

Following are the interrogatives, which Aldo has asked:

1. Wie heisst das auf Deutsch? (How do you say it in German?)

2. Was heisst ... (church) auf Deutsch? (How do you say ...(church) in German?

I wondered, what my friends in Germany say about that. I just consider all friends. :-)

The comments follow:

Mrs Engelhardt in Karlsruhe:

Was heisst ... or wie heisst ... both are correct! It is really free, which question word you choose. All the best for your German course and your life wholly ...

Mr Wehmann in Hildesheim:

Regarding your new problem in German I would say, that I would begin the question in both cases with "was", because the questions ask about something concrete. With "wie" the question asks actually rather about a quality, for example: Wie spricht man das aus? (How is it pronounced?)

Ulli & Martina in Hamburg:

Wie heisst das auf Deutsch? = it asks the translation of the word. (church = Kirche). Was heisst das auf Deutsch? (church) = it asks an explanation on the content, so: what a church is.

Christiane in Garstedt:

Wie heisst das auf Deutsch? => how can I translate it in German? So: translation! Was heisst (church) auf Deutsch? => what does the terminology mean in German? So: meaning! Further I cannot also explain to you about these interrogatives, somehow it is also "feeling matter"!

 What interesting comments from my friends! I see.

So, what in the book "studio d Deutsch als Fremdsprache, Kurs- und Uebungsbuch A1" (Berlin: Cornelsen, 2006) is described, according to my opinion is the following:

the question "Wie heisst das auf Deutsch?" is used, because the asked thing is already in the classroom. You can point at it with the demonstrativpronoun "das". And the question "Was heisst ... (church) auf Deutsch?" is used, because you cannot point at the asked thing. Maybe it is not available in the classroom or it just cannot be in there. Therefore you should mention the asked thing in another language. So, both interrogatives ask about the translation of the words. And the further question is, whether both question words "wie" and "was" can be exchanged. My student Aldo just thought about it.

So, Aldo, you can easily exchange both question words. I am responsible for that. ;-)


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