From German is Easy blog: Word of the Day . . . Hereś the last segment:
der Lohn is about the idea of compensation, gratification for some sort of work you did and the most common meaning is wage. Definitely a good word to know but what makes it REALLY useful are the related verbs
Lohn-verbs
There are two prefix verbs based on Lohn: entlohnen and belohnen. Entlohnen is some fancy version for to (financially) compensate but it’s pretty rare and I don’t think it’s worth learning.
- Er wird für seine Arbeit entlohnt.
- He gets compensated for his work.
Belohnen on the other hand is super useful. Taken our standard be-idea we get “to inflict compensation” or “to put compensation upon someone” and it doesn’t take too much mind bending to get from that to the real meaning: to reward.
- Maria belohnt sich für ihren harten Arbeitstag mit Shopping.
- Maria rewards herself for her hard working day with shopping.
- Gute Arbeit wird belohnt.
- Good work is being rewarded.
- Der Hund kriegt zur Belohnung einen Knochen.
- The dog gets a bone as a reward.
- Junge Familie sucht 3 Zimmer-Wohnung hier in der Gegend. Maximal 1000 Euro warm. Bieten 500 Euro Belohnung.
- Young family looking for a 3 room apartment in this area. No more than 900 Euro all included. We offer 500 Euro reward.
Now you might be wondering if there’s also a stand-alone verb lohnen. Well, a few hundred years back, it did exist and it simply meant “to compensate someone”. Today, only one version is still in use… sich lohnen.Yeah… German really does love itself some self reference.
Literally, sich lohnen means something like “to pay, compensate for itself” and that’s really not too far from the actual meaning… to be worth it.
Literally, sich lohnen means something like “to pay, compensate for itself” and that’s really not too far from the actual meaning… to be worth it.
- Das Wort “Lohn” zu lernen lohnt sich.
- Lit.: Learning the word Lohn pays, compensates for itself.
- Learning the word “Lohn” is worth it.
German also has es wert sein, which is the more literal equivalent to to be worth it.
- Das ist es wert.
- That is worth it.
but es wert sein sounds a bit grander, more epic. Sich lohnen is for every day stuff and it has some vibe of “great deal” in it, though you wouldn’t use it in context of actual shopping.
Examples:
Examples:
- Schon halb 12?! Da lohnt es sich fast nicht mehr, loszugehen, oder?
- Already half past 11?! Hmm… it almost isn’t worth the effort to leave now, is it?
- Das Restaurant ist echt der Hammer. Ja, man muss ein bisschen fahren, aber es lohnt sich wirklich.
- The restuarant is the bomb. You have to drive for a bit, yes, but it’s really worth it.
- Wie war die Show? Hat es sich gelohnt so lange anzustehen?
- How was the show? Was it worth it to wait in line for so long?
I know it might be a little bit tricky to use this, with the weird sich but it’s worth trying… es lohnt sich, es zu versuchen.
And I think that’s it for today. This was our look at the meaning of der Lohn. As always, if you have any question or suggestions or if you want to try out some examples with lohnen and get them corrected, just leave me a comment.
I hope you enjoyed it and see you next time.
Oh and to really hammer the structure of sich lohnen into your head, here’s a link to a famous old Schlager called “Liebeskummer lohnt sich nicht”… viel Spaß :)
I hope you enjoyed it and see you next time.
Oh and to really hammer the structure of sich lohnen into your head, here’s a link to a famous old Schlager called “Liebeskummer lohnt sich nicht”… viel Spaß :)
(dear copyright lawyers, I posted a link here. In case it gets transformed into a video window let me know)
** vocab **
der Lohn – the gratification, wage, reward (for work done)
der Mindestlohn – the minimum wage
der Stundenlohn – hourly wage
die Lohnerhöhung – wage increase
der Mindestlohn – the minimum wage
der Stundenlohn – hourly wage
die Lohnerhöhung – wage increase
das Gehalt – the salary
die Gehaltserhöhung – the pay raise
das Einstiegsgehalt – the entry wage/starting salary
die Gehaltsvorstellungen – the salary expectation (often asked in job offers)
die Gehaltserhöhung – the pay raise
das Einstiegsgehalt – the entry wage/starting salary
die Gehaltsvorstellungen – the salary expectation (often asked in job offers)
sich lohnen – to be worth it, to be a good deal
lohnend – lucrative
lohnend – lucrative
belohnen – reward
die Belohnung – the reward (a bit like a price)
die Belohnung – the reward (a bit like a price)
entlohnen – compensate (financially, rare and formal)
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