# Er ist es leid...



## Olwe

_Er ist es leid, viel zu studieren, aber keine guten Noten zu kriegen._

...I can say I've never seen leid used this way. I know intuitively what's being said, but how would you translate this?


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## berndf

I would translate "er ist es leid..." as "he has had enough of..." or "he is tired of...".


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## Hutschi

It is usually used in literature, it is seldom in coll. language.


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## kurotsuru

In some contexts perhaps even "he is fed up with …".


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## Olwe

So "Ich bin es leid, das Geschirrspülen." is the same as "Das Geschirrspülen ist mir leid?"


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## Kuestenwache

Well both are not really German. "Etwas leid sein" means as already pointed out "to be fed up with something", but it can only be used in that construction. So it has to "Ich bin das Geschirrspülen leid."


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## Lekare

nobody would use the latter. "Ich bin das Geschirrspülen leid" would be the correct form.


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## Olwe

Okay, "Das Geschirrspülen ist mir leid" is NOT correct (even though I know I've heard/read it). And "Ich bin das Geschirrspülen leid" IS correct. What about dropping the object? Would "Ich bin leid" mean "I'm fed up" in general?


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## berndf

Olwe said:


> Okay, "Das Geschirrspülen ist mir leid" is NOT correct (even though I know I've heard/read it).


Are you sure you aren't confusing "XXX *ist *mir leid"cross with "XXX *tut* mir leid"tick which means something completely different.


Olwe said:


> And "Ich bin das Geschirrspülen leid" IS correct.


Yes it is. Though it ought to be "Ich bin *des* Geschirrspülen*s* leid" but only very few people still use the genitive here.


Olwe said:


> What about dropping the object? Would "Ich bin leid" mean "I'm fed up" in general?


No, this isn't possible. You would have to say "Ich bin es leid" or, colloquially, "Ich bin's leid".


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## Olwe

German is often like a highly obtuse, abstract artificial intelligence computer language . So leid is sorrow (almost damaging sorrow) with tut mir, but a state of tolerance without. What about leiden? Maybe that's where the "Ich bin's leid" really comes from: leid is an adjective and leiden is a verb. But leid sometimes borrows leiden's meaning. Ach das leidige Deutsch!


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## Hutschi

As far as I remember, "es" in "ich bin es leid" is genitive.
And it would be "ich bin des Geschirrspülens leid". But this construction is dated and not used anymore as you can see when you consider the different declensions used by the different entries in this thread.

I am not sure if "es" is genitive here, however, because there is also the genitive form "Ich bin seiner leid". The genitive forms are very seldom now in such context, they are used only together with special verbs, end there is a tendency that they are replaced by other forms. So "es" has a special function in the sentence.

It can be used in literature and especially to show dated language in historical context.


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## berndf

Olwe said:


> German is often like a highly obtuse, abstract artificial intelligence computer language . So leid is sorrow (almost damaging sorrow) with tut mir, but a state of tolerance without. What about leiden? Maybe that's where the "Ich bin's leid" really comes from: leid is an adjective and leiden is a verb. But leid sometimes borrows leiden's meaning. Ach das leidige Deutsch!


Well, "leid" is a very old adjective which exists today only in set phrases which developed in different times in different contexts. Idioms are rarely very "logical". Make no mistake, your language, English, is full of idioms the meaning of which a foreigner would never be able to guess from the meaning of the individual words. E.g. take to sentence "his leg remained paralyzed for good"; what is "good" about this?


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## Hutschi

In Grimms "Deutschen Wörterbuch" findet man mehr.

Here you can read about the history and different meanings, but note that it is old and uses old spelling and does not consider new developments.


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## Olwe

So what does "Ich bin seiner leid" actually mean? I am fed up for/with him?

Don't get me wrong, I love German for all its twists and turns. The heart of German poetry is this palate of wild verbal color. English in America, however, is more like a tool, which makes it dull and lifeless, IMHO. Heidegger said poetry is the best use of language, and IMHO German poetry of the 18th and 19th century is amazing.

As far as "His leg remained paralyzed for good," it might be a shortened form of "for a good long while," therefore originally ironic, but the irony was forgotten. Another example is how both in English and German we say "pretty" to mean "a lot." But I've heard the irony brought back in German, "Heute is schön ... schön kalt."


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## berndf

Olwe said:


> So what does "Ich bin seiner leid" actually mean? I am fed up for/with him?


Yes it does though it would be an unusual thing to say. The expression "Ich bin <genitive noun phrase> leid" is normally confined to uses with noun phrases describing an action, like "des Abwaschens". Speaking of a person one would rather say "Ich bin seiner überdrüssig". Needless to say both expressions sound equally archaic to most modern ears.


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## Olwe

So "Ich bin deiner leid/überdrüssig" is "I am/grow weary of you" (familiar)? What about "Ich bin dir leid"? What would the formal Sie form be? Anyway, this is beginning to sound very formal and old-fashioned even to my American ears. But I love it!


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## berndf

Olwe said:


> What about "Ich bin dir leid"?


I wouldn't know what this should mean.


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## berndf

One more thing: "Es ist mir leid" exists as a variant in Austria  for "Ich bin es leid". So instead of "Ich bin es leid, Geschirr zu spülen" Austrians might say "Es ist mir leid, Geschirr zu spülen".


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## Hutschi

The same in Germany, but both are dated or used in high-style literature.


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## berndf

Hutschi said:


> The same in Germany, but both are dated or used in high-style literature.


Have you really read ""Es ist mir leid..." in texts by German authors?  (Maybe excluding Bavaria.)


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## Hutschi

There are a lot. A prominent author is Heinrich Heine. http://books.google.de/books?id=_by...,&cd=10#v=onepage&q="ES ist mir leid,&f=false
(Reisebilder)

In common (coll.) language, I nether heard it, and nether used it myself.

Heine lived some times in Bavaria - but I do not think that there is really a relation. It is just dated, so it is used only in literature now. In new literature you can use it to characterize a 19th century person.


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## Hutschi

One example is in "Reisebilder" by Heinrich Heine - a quotation of Sebastian Bach.

http://books.google.de/books?id=_byxoJgAMY8C&pg=PA132&dq=%22ES+ist+mir+leid,&cd=10#v=onepage&q=%22ES%20ist%20mir%20leid%2C&f=false

The phrase is seldom now and I never heard or used it in coll. language.
But in literature it is not very seldom. In recent literature it could be used to characterize a 19th century person.


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## Olwe

If you know the artist Friedrich K. Waechter, in his_ Wahrscheinlich guckt wieder kein Schwein_ there is a cartoon where a man is cutting the buttons off his clothing with scissors, saying "Das knöpfen ist mir leid." Hey, I learned a lot of German from Simplicissimus, Waechter, and other German cartoons.


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## berndf

Thank you, chaps. One never stop learing, does one?


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