# that is why I messed up the calculations a couple of times.



## polyglotwannabe

hi, help say this, please
context:
i am so sorry.
i have been careless with my writing and i have made mistakes. 
the perimeter in the problem is 62.
that is why i messed up the calculations a couple of times.
i apologize.
the following is the correct answer, so i think
the phrase in the thread is what i need to correct. here is my try into german.
es tut mir so leid.
Ich war Ich war unvorsichtig mit meiner Schrift und habe Fehler gemacht. 
der Umfang in der Aufgabe ist 62.
*Deshalb habe ich die Berechnungen ein paar Mal durcheinander gebracht.*
_*Ich entschuldige mich.*_
das folgende ist die richtige antwort, so denke ich.
the phrase in bold, does it make sense to a german????.
Thanks,
poly


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## Thersites

Hi, commenting only on the bold sentences, they look fine to me. Thomas


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## polyglotwannabe

Alright, Thomas, thanks a lot for the confirmation.


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## Schlabberlatz

polyglotwannabe said:


> *Deshalb habe ich die Berechnungen ein paar Mal durcheinander gebracht.*


Frankly, I do not like the sentence. It does not sound idiomatic to me.

_…, deshalb habe ich mich ein paarmal verrechnet. _[neutral] [note: you normally have a comma before "deshalb", not a full stop]
_…, deshalb habe ich mich ein paarmal komplett verrechnet. _[stressed]


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## polyglotwannabe

So, you are saying that the above one does not sound well to a german, i mean, it is not heard much in that context, is that right?
 i need to write that so i would appreciate if you'd give your reasons. thanks a lot


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## Schlabberlatz

polyglotwannabe said:


> So, you are saying that the above one does not sound well to a german, i mean, it is not heard much in that context, is that right?


Right.


polyglotwannabe said:


> i need to write that so i would appreciate if you'd give your reasons.


The reason:


polyglotwannabe said:


> it is not heard much in that context


In other words:


Schlabberlatz said:


> It does not sound idiomatic to me.



I cannot say much about language use in Switzerland – where Thomas is from. But I do not think I have ever heard "Berechnungen durcheinander bringen". To me, it almost sounds as if you had messed up the _order_ of your calculations, and not the calculations themselves.


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## polyglotwannabe

Schlabberlatz said:


> Right.
> 
> The reason:
> 
> In other words:
> 
> 
> I cannot say much about language use in Switzerland – where Thomas is from. But I do not think I have ever heard "Berechnungen durcheinander bringen". To me, it almost sounds as if you had messed up the _order_ of your calculations, and not the calculations themselves.


Great!. thanks. I am going with your suggestion then.


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## Thersites

(Suits me)


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## polyglotwannabe

I appreciate your help Thomas, though. Greatly appreciated.


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## polyglotwannabe

thomas, i believe your expression fits more with ' upsetting something, disrupting something or confusing it. Just saying.


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## Hutschi

Schlabberlatz said:


> Frankly, I do not like the sentence. It does not sound idiomatic to me.
> 
> _…, deshalb habe ich mich ein paarmal verrechnet. _[neutral] [note: you normally have a comma before "deshalb", not a full stop]
> _…, deshalb habe ich mich ein paarmal komplett verrechnet. _[stressed]


I think it depends on context. This does not work good with formulas.  
It works good with numbers.


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## Schlabberlatz

Hutschi said:


> I think it depends on context. This does not work good with formulas.
> It works good with numbers.


It’s about numbers   :


polyglotwannabe said:


> the perimeter in the problem is 62.
> that is why i messed up the calculations a couple of times.





Hutschi said:


> This does not work good with formulas.


Well then, what would you say when it’s about formulae?


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## Hutschi

If it is just a simple calculation error "Rechenfehler" would work. Edit: _= Ich habe mich verrechnet._
But context is "messed up".

Neutral:  Ich habe beim Auflösen der Formeln etwas verwechselt. (much weaker than "messed up".)

Coll.: Ich habe mich bei der Lösung der Formeln verhauen/vertan.
Ich habe (bei der Lösung) die Formeln durcheinandergebracht.
Ich bin bei der Lösung durcheinandergekommen.


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## Thersites

polyglotwannabe said:


> thomas, i believe your expression fits more with ' upsetting something, disrupting something or confusing it. Just saying.


Hi. While it may be true that your original sentence is not perfectly idiomatic it is a) a correct German sentence and b) easily understandable. What needs most work in your text are all the other sentences 😉.


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## polyglotwannabe

Thomas(CH) said:


> Hi. While it may be true that your original sentence is not perfectly idiomatic it is a) a correct German sentence and b) easily understandable. What needs most work in your text are all the other sentences 😉.


Thanks for saying that. Can you say what other sentences?. Without rectifying them of course,?. So I can either open another thread or try to fix them on my own.
Thanks!


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## Thersites

polyglotwannabe said:


> i have been careless with my writing


Hi Poly. I will try and suggest a translation. Does the above mean that you wrote them prematurely or that you had trouble reading your own handwriting? Assuming it is more like the second:
_
Es tut mir sehr leid, ich war nicht sorgfältig genug mit meiner Handschrift und habe deshalb einige Male falsch gerechnet. Der korrekte Wert für den Umfang ist 62. Folgendes wäre also richtig, denke ich:_


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## Hutschi

*E*s tut mir so leid.

Ich war Ich war unvorsichtig mit meiner Schrift und habe Fehler gemacht._ (unklar)_

*D*er Umfang in der Aufgabe ist 62._ (Unverständlich. Was meinst Du hier mit Umfang in der Aufgabe? Geht es um eine Matheaufgabe?)_

Deshalb habe ich die Berechnungen ein paar Mal durcheinander gebracht. _("Deshalb" ist unklar. Worauf bezieht es sich?) _

Ich entschuldige mich.

*D*as *F*olgende ist die richtige *A*ntwort, so denke ich.

Das meiste sind Tippfehler. Die anderen Punkte eventuell separat klären.


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## polyglotwannabe

Thank you so much for all the help. you always so attentive and ready to help.
Yes, right, this is related to math. I am helping some students with math and Language Arts who primary language is German, of course, needless to say that my German is found lacking a lot of times. But they have some English and with my little German and a translator we manage to understand each other.
i wanted to say this:
''I was careless with my writing and that is why I made some mistakes.
The perimeter( of a shape) in the problem is 62, not 60.
That's why I messed up the calculations a few times.
I apologize.
the following is the correct answer, i think''.

And I was indeed careless!


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## Hutschi

That's why I messed up the calculations a few times.

Ich würde hier sagen:

"Deshalb stimmen meine Berechnungen in einigen Fällen nicht." (Das ist neutraler. Aber "Ich habe mich verrechnet" stimmt nicht. Es waren falsche Eingangsdaten. Die Rechnung selbst war wahrscheinlich korrekt.)

PS: Umgangssprachlich könnte man vielleicht sagen:

"Deshalb habe ich meine Berechnungen vermurkst." - aber das ist sehr umgangssprachlich es passt nicht gut zum restlichen Stil. Es gibt "to mess up" gut wieder, aber ich weiß nicht, wieweit es überregional verstanden wird.

Duden: vermurksen - umgangssprachlich


> durch ungeschicktes, unfachmännisches Arbeiten verunstalten oder verderben


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## polyglotwannabe

Hutschi said:


> That's why I messed up the calculations a few times.
> 
> Ich würde hier sagen:
> 
> "Deshalb stimmen meine Berechnungen in einigen Fällen nicht."


Right, sounds great. Much like saying in English they did not agree well in some cases, literally.
Thanks a lot dear friend. And to all!


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## Thersites

polyglotwannabe said:


> And to all!


Say hello to the Big Apple.


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## polyglotwannabe

Thomas(CH) said:


> Say hello to the Big Apple.


Lol I will!. Come and visit when Covid's gone for good!


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## Kajjo

polyglotwannabe said:


> The perimeter( of a shape) in the problem is 62, not 60.


You should add a unit. Without unit it looks so wrong.


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## polyglotwannabe

Kajjo said:


> You should add a unit. Without unit it looks so wrong.


Yes, I know. This is an answer to a previous conversation so the audience knew what  I meant so units are kind of implied, but comment is a valid one.


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## JClaudeK

polyglotwannabe said:


> i wanted to say this:
> ''I was careless with my writing and that is why I made some mistakes.


Meinst Du damit: 
Ich habe beim Abschreiben (=  beim Kopieren) (der Übung) nicht aufgepasst, deshalb  .....
 ?


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## polyglotwannabe

JClaudeK said:


> Meinst Du damit:
> Ich habe beim Abschreiben (=  beim Kopieren) (der Übung) nicht aufgepasst, deshalb  .....
> ?


Right, that's it, Jkc. My warmest regards for you too. Long time!. My workload has cut off my german studies somewhat but once in a while I read a little bit.


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## Schlabberlatz

Hutschi said:


> "Deshalb stimmen meine Berechnungen in einigen Fällen nicht." (Das ist neutraler. Aber "Ich habe mich verrechnet" stimmt nicht. Es waren falsche Eingangsdaten. Die Rechnung selbst war wahrscheinlich korrekt.)


You may be right, but the original English is "messed up", which is even stronger than "verrechnet". "Berechnungen stimmen nicht" would be something like "I got the wrong results" in English.


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## polyglotwannabe

Schlabberlatz said:


> You may be right, but the original English is "messed up", which is even stronger than "verrechnet". "Berechnungen stimmen nicht" would be something like "I got the wrong results" in English.


Messed up is definitely stronger in English as well. Agreed.


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