The new literal button

This seems like a good innovation although it doesn't always show a literal translation.
It might be better to call it "help", this would open it up to other kinds of hints, such as explaining something new in the phrase that isn't obvious to the student.

This might be an example-
https://members.rocketlanguages.com/members/forum/conversation-in-german/ich-muss-zum-hotel-adlon-and-ich-muss-zum-hotel-adlon-fahren

Hallo sfpugh!

Thank you very much for your feedback on the new literal button feature! I will pass that on to the development team that has put that together. 

Would you be able to give me an example of a place where the literal button doesn't show a literal translation? That way we can look into getting that sorted out. 

Danke schön!

Liss

 

Well, finding examples  of the literal button not really being literal is quite time consuming as they are scattered randomly around the lessons but are not very frequent.
Here is an example: 12.4 
Literal button: "Indeed just"

doch is a modal particle that has no literal meaning and is quite complicated to use correctly. As for glatt I don't know how this is being used as none of the definitions in Leo are quite like what is given. I guess smoothly would work, used to mean easily?

But that is probably not the best example, but is the one I found first.

I came across another example from 22.1 Lost passport.

Hallo sfpugh!

Thanks very much for getting us those examples!

For the first one that you've located, the process of pulling literal translations out of our lessons and putting them into the new literal button has meant that a few translations that are intended to highlight the presence of modal particles like doch glatt have been caught up in the mix. We are working on finding them and correcting how they are displayed - I will pass this one on to be addressed. As for the meaning of glatt here, we've got an older forum thread on this sentence that should help to clear everything up: https://members.rocketlanguages.com/members/forum/german-vocab/translation-for-glatt#forum-post-49560. Do let me know if that doesn't help to answer all of your questions about this!

For the second one that you've found, you're right: this is more of an illustrative translation than a literal one. A more literal one would indeed be something like "This you find often" or "This you find commonly." I will pass this on to be corrected as well.

Our apologies for the inconvenience with some of these literal buttons not really being literal! There are likely to be a few hiccups with the new button now that we've rolled it out, but we hope to find and amend any areas where they're not working as intended.

Danke und bis zum nächsten Mal,

Liss

Thanks Liss
I wondered if glatt was being used as a modal particle, and I looked in the chapter on modal particles in a very comprehensive grammar book, but is wasn't on the list. ( the book is Hammer's German Grammar and Usage).
Can many words get used as modal particles occasionally, or was the list just incomplete, there were 35 words on the list. The chapter also said that there is some dispute about which words can be regarded as modal particles.

If I find any more none literal uses of the literal button as I go on with my revision I will post them. But "non literal" use of the button doesn't bother me I just wondered if the use of the button could be expanded to include hints on other things.

Another one: 23.1 At the office Literal button: I've heard some singing about it.

Shouldn't that be "ringing" or a similar word?

I noticed that the Collins dictionary gives the following as an example of this idiomatic usage:
Er hat davon (etwas) läuten hören
He has heard something about it

Is that correct, why not gehört?

 

Hallo sfpugh,

I would say that the modal particle list in your book shouldn't be considered exhaustive - often different textbooks/authors provide slightly different lists when it comes to modal particles. Since modal particles are generally a feature of colloquial language, it's possible that what words are used as modal particles might change over time or even differ between regions; some will be more "standard" than others.

As for the sentence that you've found where läuten is translated as "singing," this is probably a typo - I agree that "ringing" would probably be a better translation. I will make sure that this is fixed.

For the example in the Collins dictionary of Er hat davon (etwas) läuten hören, that is indeed correct. This is a grammatical feature called the Ersatzinfinitiv "substitute infinitive." Essentially, this means that when the past participles (e.g. gehört) of certain verbs follow an infinitive, they will change to their infinitive form instead of their past participle form. This is mandatory for some verbs, like modals, and optional for some others, like hören.

I hope that that is helpful!

Tschüss!

Liss

Thank you Liss that was very helpful, I had never heard of the Ersatzinfinitiv.  I found an explanation in Hammer's German grammar in a section that I hadn't visited.

Bitte, sfpugh! I'm glad that this helped. :)