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Duden Stilworterbuch Der Deutschen Sprache: Die Verwendung Der Worter Im Satz (Part 2)

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What the Stilwörterbuch is:

The Stilwörterbuch is a dictionary of collocations. So what's a collocation? It's a word (or collection of words) that are often found with the headword. So in an English dictionary of collocations, you might look up the word 'big' and under the entry, amongst many other things, you would find 'a big decision', 'a big disappointment', 'a big improvement', 'a big mistake', 'a big surprise' and so on. So it is easy to see whether the word you are thinking about using is ever used in combination with a second word or phrase. In the Stilwörterbuch, most entries are under verbs and adjectives (though most common nouns get a look in). So common objects for the verbs are given, nouns for the adjectives as well as some idioms.

What the Stilwörterbuch is not:

It is not a 'dictionary of style' that would answer, for example, "Am I allowed to put two subordinating conjunctions next to each other, as in the English sentence 'I have decided *that* *if* he comes at all, he will only be paid half the fee.'?" The book for that is the Duden volume #9: 'Richtiges Und Gutes Deutsch' (if you are curious about the double conjunction issue, the keyword is Treppensatz). The multitude of complaints about the Stilwörterbuch on Amazon.de are a result of people misunderstanding what the Stilwörterbuch is designed for. Collocations, not style.

Who might use it:

As a DaF learner, I have found this invaluable. Particularly in the difficult area of which preposition goes with which phrase, amongst many other things. Naturally, since it is in German, your command of German needs to be fairly good for it to be of much use.

Where to from here:

In your DaF monolingual dictionary (Langenscheidts Großwörterbuch Deutsch als Fremdsprache is the standard and best), there will be a list of collocations with most words. This should do the job for most people. There will be, however, a point where you need even more detailed lists of collocations. When you reach this point, it is time to buy the Stilwörterbuch.