translated from THE German

[bustrofedon]

Hello all,

How grammatical/ungrammatical is the usage of 'the' before the name of the language, if there is no any additional specification (like 'the German of Goethe'). Internet search gives a lot of examples of 'the' in such cases, but to me it seems a little weird here.

Comments

[yamx]

In the usage I'm familiar with "the German" actually means "the German version of this text," not "the German language.

Example: This sentence seems gender-neutral in English, but in the German the word endings are feminine.

[bustrofedon]

I just added the picture to the main post with an example of what I mean.

[muckefuck]

Do you mean instances like, "I am learning to speak the English"?

I don't know that I would call it "ungrammatical" as much as "unidiomatic". It immediately identifies the speaker as non-native.

[bustrofedon]

I just added the picture to the main post with an example of what I mean.

[muckefuck]

That example is perfectly idiomatic. As yamx points out, "the German" is here equivalent to "the German text".

[muckefuck]

I find it interesting that the German idiom is exactlly parallel, i.e. "(übersetzt) aus dem [language]en von [person]". Note how the language name in this case is a substantivised adjective; if it were an ordinary neuter noun, it wouldn't have the oblique adjective ending -en. This is also the case after the preposition in but not auf (both of which can translate "in"), e.g.: "Was heißt das im Deutschen?" but "Was heißt das auf deutsch?" (Both of which mean "What is that called in German?")

[hkitsune]

Indeed. It's a VERY common phrase.

[aim_of_destiny]

I dunno, my immediate reaction was "Oh, they mean 'aus dem Deutschen'!"
This isn't just a transliteration issue, though. I agree with the previous posters - it means "from the German text".

[lied_ohne_worte]

I had the same reaction. Although I'd rather think of it meaning something like "from the original German".

[freak_thankyou]

I feel like it's an article in front of a proper noun which sounds wrong to me. If there is other stuff implied, like you suggested with "the German of Goethe" or the suggestion of "the German text" then that's fine. But without thinking about it with an implied "text/version" of the end, it sounds wrong to me.