# Verhalten wiedergutmachen



## Maranello_rosso

Hello everyone.
Please, could you help me?

Here is a phrase out form "Stolz und Vorurteil" :


*Wie kann ich ein solches Verhalten je wieder gut machen?*

Here is how I understand that:
Wie kann ich - How can I
ein solches Verhalten - such behavior
wieder - again
gut machen - to make good.

if I combine all that all I get :

_How can I make such behavior again good?_

Sounds bad.
Please, help me to translate that in a right way.
Thank you in advance.


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## JClaudeK

"wiedergutmachen" = einen Schaden/ ein Unrecht ausgleichen = to make up / repair / retrieve s.th.


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## Maranello_rosso

JClaudeK said:


> "wiedergutmachen" = einen Schaden/ ein Unrecht ausgleichen = to make up / repair / retrieve s.th.


Thank you.


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## Hutschi

JClaudeK said:


> to make up / repair / retrieve s.th.


In the given context it may work as metaphor.

But we have behaviour rather than damage. (This includes damage by behavior, of course.)

How can I ever make up for such behaviour?

"Je wieder" is here a kind of "ever".


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## Maranello_rosso

Hutschi said:


> In the given context it may work as metaphor.
> 
> But we have behaviour rather than damage. (This includes damage by behavior, of course.)
> 
> How can I ever make up for such behaviour?
> 
> "Je wieder" is here a kind of "ever".


Thank you.


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## elroy

JClaudeK said:


> "wiedergutmachen" = einen Schaden/ ein Unrecht ausgleichen = to make up / repair / retrieve s.th.


You can _make up for_ a loss / an injustice. 
“repair” is close but the meaning isn’t quite the same.
I can’t see how “retrieve” could fit, though.  Could you give an example?


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## JClaudeK

elroy said:


> Could you give an example?


_Du_ bist der Muttersprachler ..... , ich lasse Dir den Vortritt.


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## bearded

Im OP-Satz bedeutet ''Verhalten'' mMn schlechtes, fehlerhaftes Verhalten. Nun finde ich im WR-Wörterbuch unter 'retrieve' u.a. (no. 5) die Definition/Übersetzung _Fehler wiedergutmachen. _Bei seinem Vorschlag hat sich JClaude vermutlich darauf bezogen.


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## berndf

bearded said:


> Im OP-Satz bedeutet ''Verhalten'' mMn schlechtes, fehlerhaftes Verhalten. Nun finde ich im WR-Wörterbuch unter 'retrieve' u.a. (no. 5) die Definition/Übersetzung _Fehler wiedergutmachen. _Bei seinem Vorschlag hat sich JClaude vermutlich darauf bezogen.


Yes, that is wierd. Meaning no 5 of _retrieve_ is _wiedergewinnen_. And that is correct but _wiedergewinnen _and_ wiedergutmachen_ do not mean the same thing. Their meanings are not even close.


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## bearded

berndf said:


> Their meanings are not even close.


True, but in the Merriam-Webster Dictionary there is a meaning no.6 of  _retrieve = remedy the evil consequences of..
Definition of RETRIEVE_


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## manfy

bearded said:


> True, but in the Merriam-Webster Dictionary there is a meaning no.6 of  _retrieve = remedy the evil consequences of..
> Definition of RETRIEVE_


 I changed my preferred English online dictionary to Lexico. It shows multiple example sentences for every definition of the word and that I find much more helpful than the mere verbal explanation that most other dictionaries use:
<Lexico - retrieve>


> 3   *Put right or improve (an unwelcome situation)*
> 
> _‘he made one last desperate attempt to retrieve the situation’_


Personally, I'm unfamiliar with that usage. I might be able to guess that meaning in the right context, but none of the examples given sound "everyday".

It seems this is BE only. If you click on 'UK dictionary' and change to 'US dictionary', you don't find this definition at all!


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## bearded

manfy said:


> If you click on 'UK dictionary' and change to 'US dictionary', you don't find this definition at all!


My (poor) English tends to be on the UK side..


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## manfy

You should switch to intE (international English = mix and match as needed) like I did. Then you always have an excuse for every mistake...


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## bearded




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## berndf

manfy said:


> _‘he made one last desperate attempt to retrieve the situation’_
> 
> 
> 
> Personally, I'm unfamiliar with that usage. I might be able to guess that meaning in the right context, but none of the examples given sound "everyday".
Click to expand...

In that example _retrieve_ means to _correct/rectify/improve/repair_ an unwanted situation. And _correct_ is also the synonym given by Webster.

That is still not what _wiedergutmachen_ expresses. _Einen Fehler wiedergutmachen_ not mean that that the consequences of the mistake are undone but that compensation is offered.


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## manfy

> That is still not what _wiedergutmachen_ expresses. _Einen Fehler wiedergutmachen_ not mean that that the consequences of the mistake are undone but that compensation is offered.


Hmm, that's hard for me to say because I don't use 'retrieve' in that sense.
You're probably right. "To make amends [for something]" is probably a better general purpose translation for 'wiedergutmachen' -- and it works in both AE and BE.


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## bearded

berndf said:


> _Einen Fehler wiedergutmachen_ not mean that that the consequences of the mistake are undone but that compensation is offered.


Actually, among the synonyms of  'wiedergutmachen' I find 'bereinigen' in the Duden
and among the synonyms of 'bereinigen' I read _beseitigen, berichtigen, richtigstellen._

Sorry, I don't want to sound polemical, but don't those meanings fit the OP text ''wie kann ich ein solches Verhalten wiedergutmachen'' = how can I retrieve (=remedy the consequences of) such a bad behaviour''?  It is apparently only a UK-English usage of ''retrieve'', see above.


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## berndf

bearded said:


> Actually, among the synonyms of 'wiedergutmachen' I find 'bereinigen' in the Duden
> and under the synonyms of 'bereiningen' I read _beseitigen, berichtigen, richtigstellen._


That meaning doesn't fit the context. I recognise that this meaning of _wiedergutmachen_ exists, though it is rare and not part of my active vocabulary (in my active language _eine Situation wiedergutmachen_ is not a valid collocation).

But that is definitely not meant in this very common set phrase. It means that damage has been done and there is nothing you can to retrieve it and you are wondering what you could possibly do in compensation. I'd say _make up for _is the only truly fitting translation. I agree with this:


elroy said:


> You can _make up for_ a loss / an injustice.
> “repair” is close but the meaning isn’t quite the same.
> I can’t see how “retrieve” could fit, though.  Could you give an example?


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## manfy

> It is apparently only a UK-English usage of ''retrieve'', see above.


It's probably best to ask BE speakers in the English Only Forum. 
Just because you find a word in the dictionary, it doesn't mean that it is used frequently. 
If it were in frequent use, I'd surely have come across it a few times in the past 30 years. There are quite a lot of Brits in Singapore and also Aussies speak a BE-based "mutation" of English.


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## berndf

manfy said:


> It's probably best to ask BE speakers in the English Only Forum.
> Just because you find a word in the dictionary, it doesn't mean that it is used frequently.
> If it were in frequent use, I'd surely have come across it a few times in the past 30 years. There are quite a lot of Brits in Singapore and also Aussies speak a BE-based "mutation" of English.


I still don't see anything variety specific in this use. The sense you quoted matches that from Webster's. At any rate, neither fits the context of the OP, as I have explained above.


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## bearded

manfy said:


> It's probably best to ask BE speakers in the English Only Forum.


Cf. retrieve vs restore #4.


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## Hutschi

I see it in following way:

_How can I ever make up for such behaviour?_
= (nearly)
_How can I retrieve the situation?_

Depending on context, both are pragmatically the same.


There is a difference in point of view, and (may be) a psychological difference.

The words are very different, but the phrases mean the same. "What can I do?"


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## berndf

Hutschi said:


> _How can I ever make up for such behaviour?_
> = (nearly)
> _How can I retrieve the situation?_
> 
> Depending on context, both are pragmatically the same.
> 
> 
> There is a difference in point of view, and (may be) a psychological difference.


No, it is a material difference between correcting a situation and compensating for it. At any rate we have a concrete context here and _to retrieve_ in the sense of _to correct_ doesn't fit.


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## Hutschi

Compensating is one kind of correction and correction is one kind of compensation. It depends on context to be pragmatically the same.

Compensation can be correction.
Correction can be compensation.

This applies in case of situations.

There are cases where compensation does not correct a situation, and there are cases where correcting it does not compensate.

But in very many situations it is practically the same.

To say "I beg your pardon" mostly is compensation and correction. 

*Wie kann ich ein solches Verhalten je wieder gut machen?*

This means pragmatically:

Was kann ich tun, um diese verfahrene Situation zu korrigieren?
Was kann ich tun, um es wieder in Ordnung zu bringen?


I wrote this in German because I fear false friends.

---

Another question is whether it is purely rhetorically. I exclude this here. To say it is a kind of self reference in some cases.
Often the answer is: "Ist schon in Ordnung."

---

In case of things it is even easier.
In shops they have both ways explicitly: Reparieren oder Geld zurück. (Repair or compensate.)
Here we see the difference clearly.

Both is "wiedergutmachen".

---
In case of "Verhalten" and "Was kann ich tun, um es in Ordnung zu bringen?" it includes to compensate and or to repair. 

In German it just does not define it.


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## berndf

Hutschi said:


> *Wie kann ich ein solches Verhalten je wieder gut machen?*
> 
> This means pragmatically:
> 
> Was kann ich tun, um diese verfahrene Situation zu korrigieren?
> Was kann ich tun, um es wieder in Ordnung zu bringen?


Yes, you "correct" the situation caused by your past behavious but not your past behaviour itself. That is impossible.Therefore you might say you _retrieve the situation_ but you cannot say you _retrieve your behaviour_.


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## Hutschi

berndf said:


> Yes, you "correct" the situation caused by your past behavious but not your past behaviour itself.




Wie kann ich ein solches Verhalten je wieder gut machen?

This does not mean: Verhalten in der Vergangenheit ändern.

It means Wie kann ich mich in Zukunft verhalten, um solche Sachen zu vermeiden *und*_ Was kann ich jetzt oder später tun, um die Situation in Ordnung zu bringen_? In my mind it is to repair and or compensate and to avoid.

(I forgot the "to avoid in future" aspect.)


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