# wie kommt man?



## Artrella

> Gruesse nach Argentinien - danke es geht mir gut und wie kommt man in Argentinien zu den Sprachen Deutsch und Italienisch?



Bitte, ich verstehe nicht "wie kommt man"?  Could someone translate it into English?  If possible all the phrase?
Danke!


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## Whodunit

Artrella said:
			
		

> Gruesse nach Argentinien - danke es geht mir gut und wie kommt man in Argentinien zu den Sprachen Deutsch und Italienisch?
> 
> 
> 
> Bitte, ich verstehe nicht "wie kommt man"?  Could someone translate it into English?  If possible all the phrase?
> Danke!
Click to expand...


Ok, let me translate it, because I don't know if there's a good word-by-word translation for "kommen zu" in THIS case.



> Greetings from _the location where the writer lives_ (to Argentina doesn't exist in English) — Thanks, I'm fine. And what made you decide studying languages like German and Italian?


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## Ralf

Hi Art, it is some sort of colloquial phrase meaning as much as: "- thanks I'm well. How comes that you get down to German and Italian (language) in Argentina?"

zu etw. kommen = to achieve sth., to reach sth., to succeed in getting sth. - depending on the context, also: to come into sth

Ralf


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## Whodunit

Ralf said:
			
		

> Hi Art, it is some sort of colloquial phrase meaning as much as: "- thanks I'm well. How comes that you get down to German and Italian (language) in Argentina?"
> 
> zu etw. kommen = to achieve sth., to reach sth., to succeed in getting sth. - depending on the context, also: to come into sth
> 
> Ralf



How comes? Hm, I'm not sure, but I only know "How come?". It looks grammatically more correct with an s, but I've never heard "How come*s*?".


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## QUIJOTE

wie kommt man?, is not how come, is "how to get to" this is because is refering to place not to a situation.

translation made possible by wife by the way

in other words she told me.


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## Whodunit

QUIJOTE said:
			
		

> wie kommt man?, is not how come, is "how to get to" this is because is refering to place not to a situation.



No, you're wrong. "wie kommt man in Argentinien zu ...?" is referring to a situation, not to a place. Otherwise, it should have been "Wie kommt man nach Argentinien?"


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## Ralf

Whodunit said:
			
		

> How comes? Hm, I'm not sure, but I only know "How come?". It looks grammatically more correct with an s, but I've never heard "How come*s*?".


I am familar with "how come" as an informal phrase, too. I have no idea why I wrote comes (perhaps some sort of overdone grammatical correctness as you assumed  ). Anywhay, your suggestion "what made you ..." comes (but this time it has to be come*s* ) pretty close to the original connotation in German and spares the confusion of "how come/comes". 

Ralf


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## Magg

Artrella said:
			
		

> Bitte, ich verstehe nicht "wie kommt man"?  Could someone translate it into English?  If possible all the phrase?
> Danke!


Art, wouldn´t it be something like:* ¿cómo va eso (por ahí/allí/Argentina)?*?
or *how´s it going?* in English.
Well, maybe I haven´t understood properly and I´m wrong.


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## Whodunit

Ralf said:
			
		

> I am familar with "how come" as an informal phrase, too. I have no idea why I wrote comes (perhaps some sort of overdone grammatical correctness as you assumed  ). Anywhay, your suggestion "what made you ..." comes (but this time it has to be come*s* ) pretty close to the original connotation in German and spares the confusion of "how come/comes".
> 
> Ralf



Okay, these were just two little suggestions. I had no idea that they could be correct.


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## Whodunit

Magg said:
			
		

> Art, wouldn´t it be something like:* ¿cómo va eso (por ahí/allí/Argentina)?*?
> or *how´s it going?* in English.
> Well, maybe I haven´t understood properly and I´m wrong.



Maybe you mean, "*how does it work*" or "*how's it possible*"?


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## Magg

Whodunit said:
			
		

> Maybe you mean, "*how does it work*" or "*how's it possible*"?


Yes, more or less.
Something like: *How are you doing?, What´s up?*

Did I write something wrong?


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## Whodunit

Magg said:
			
		

> Yes, more or less.
> Something like: *How are you doing?, What´s up?*
> 
> Did I write something wrong?



Nope. Now you're wrong. It means "How the heck is it possible to be a learner of German or Italian in Argentina?"


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## Magg

Whodunit said:
			
		

> Nope. Now you're wrong. It means "How the heck is it possible to be a learner of German or Italian in Argentina?"


Good grief!
I have a lot of imagination.


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## Artrella

Whodunit said:
			
		

> Nope. Now you're wrong. It means "How the heck is it possible to be a learner of German or Italian in Argentina?"




I thought the same thing Who!! But without the "heck"...   I thought it was "How come you are learning G and I being an Argentinian" (what the heck for???!!!!) ha ha 

Danke alles!!!!


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## elroy

Artrella said:
			
		

> I thought the same thing Who!! But without the "heck"...   I thought it was "How come you are learning G and I being an Argentinian" (what the heck for???!!!!) ha ha
> 
> Danke alles!!!!



zu etwas kommen: get around to doing something

Example:

*Mein Computer ist neulich kaputt gegangen, und ich komme nicht dazu, ihn zu reparieren.*

So I would translate it as "How does one get around to studying German and Italian in Argentina?" or "How does one manage to study German and Italian in Argentina"?

Tell your friend it's not that uncommen.    I studied Spanish in Palestine, German in the United States, and Norwegian in Germany.  Hm...now that I think of it, I think Dutch is the only foreign language I was introduced to "on the ground"!   

PS - "Danke alles" is not correct.  It should be "Ich danke euch allen" or (perhaps) "Danke zusammen"???


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## gaer

> Gruesse nach Argentinien - danke es geht mir gut und wie kommt man in Argentinien zu den Sprachen Deutsch und Italienisch?


 
Denglish: Greetings to Argentina - thanks, it goes good to me, and how comes "man" in Argentinia to the languages German and Italian.

"Wie kommt man ---- zu" is idiomatic. It means "how do you get to those languages", but you have to look at it very loosely. Since Spanish is the official language, how does one end up speaking, learning, using those additional languages?

Free: Hello from me [to you] in Argentina. Thanks, I'm doing fine—and how [and why] does one get involved with Italian and German in Argentina?

Art, if I had more context, I could nail it closer. 

Gaer


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## QUIJOTE

Whodunit said:
			
		

> No, you're wrong. "wie kommt man in Argentinien zu ...?" is referring to a situation, not to a place. Otherwise, it should have been "Wie kommt man nach Argentinien?"


 
Well my friend you're gonna have to take this with my wife...she's the one who was born and raised in Germany.


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## gaer

QUIJOTE said:
			
		

> Well my friend you're gonna have to take this with my wife...she's the one who was born and raised in Germany.


Well, I suggest you have her reread the sentence then answer how someone can be referrting to getting to a place when the sentence clearly talks about getting to LANGUAGES.  

Gaer


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## QUIJOTE

Yeah, probably that's what happened she didn't read the whole sentence, but I can tell you in many cases German can be confusing at least for me, that's why I only venture to say few things about it, I will show her this though, I am interested to hear what she has to say...I'll let you know.


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## Whodunit

elroy said:
			
		

> zu etwas kommen: get around to doing something
> 
> Example:
> 
> *Mein Computer ist neulich kaputt gegangen, und ich komme nicht dazu, ihn zu reparieren.*
> 
> So I would translate it as "How does one get around to studying German and Italian in Argentina?" or "How does one manage to study German and Italian in Argentina"?
> 
> Tell your friend it's not that uncomm*o*n.    I studied Spanish in Palestine, German in the United States, and Norwegian in Germany.  Hm...now that I think of it, I think Dutch is the only foreign language I was introduced to "on the ground"!
> 
> PS - "Danke alles" is not correct.  It should be "Ich danke euch allen" or (perhaps) "Danke zusammen"???



uncommen? Very Denglish!!!

ich uncomme
du uncommst
...

Ok, seriously now!

You could say "(Ich) Danke alle*n*".


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## Whodunit

QUIJOTE said:
			
		

> Well my friend you're gonna have to take this with my wife...she's the one who was born and raised in Germany.



Okay, how to contact her via WR?


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## Ralf

gaer said:
			
		

> Free: Hello from me [to you] in Argentina. Thanks, I'm doing fine—and how [and why] does one get involved with Italian and German in Argentina?
> 
> Art, if I had more context, I could nail it closer.
> 
> Gaer


Gaer, there is no need for further context. You hit the nail on its head. However, I'd prefer your previous suggestion "How does one end up ..." since I feel it is an excellent equivalent for the German "Wie kommt man zu ..." in the example given.

Just to improve your Denglish:


			
				gaer said:
			
		

> Denglish: Greetings to Argentina - thanks, it goes good to me, and how comes "man" in Argentinia to the languages German and Italian.


It has to be: "... it goes me good, ..." (English for runaways)

Ralf


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## QUIJOTE

gaer said:
			
		

> Well, I suggest you have her reread the sentence then answer how someone can be referrting to getting to a place when the sentence clearly talks about getting to LANGUAGES.
> 
> Gaer


 
*wie kommt man*?

As explained by my wife and I don't want to further any more debate since this thread had a lot of responses, and I don't want to deviate from the subject.

 the phrase alone is *how to get to* now if you finish the phrase with *to Argentina* then is different than if you end it with *learn to read or write German in Argentina* totally different meaning.

Now I promise to stop translating since clearly I am not in a position to do this.

apologize for the confusion.

tschuldigung


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## gaer

Ralf said:
			
		

> Gaer, there is no need for further context. You hit the nail on its head. However, I'd prefer your previous suggestion "How does one end up ..." since I feel it is an excellent equivalent for the German "Wie kommt man zu ..." in the example given.
> 
> Just to improve your Denglish:
> It has to be: "... it goes me good, ..." (English for runaways)
> 
> Ralf


Ah, you're right. When one writes Denglish, one must be thorough about it, mustn't one?  

Gaer


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