Need German speakers

[FarrahWaters]

Are the German translations of these phrases accurate? An acquaintance is trying to send a condolence card.

I am very sorry for your loss.
Ich bin für Ihren Verlust sehr traurig.

Thinking of you during this difficult time.
Denken an Sie während dieser schwierigen Zeit.

Also, she wants to know how accurate the babelfish website is.

[Archaea]

I suppose if they knew you weren't a German speaker they would be impressed.

I need to start thinking German to make the phrase sound German, I'll get back to you.

For example, Verlust is feminine, not masculine.

And denken is not correct.

You would use the word Gedanken, as opposed to the nomilization of the verb Denken.

[Archaea]

I moechte mein herzliches Beileid aussprechen fuer (now is this a close friend, you use deine, if not, use Ihre) Verlust

I moechte mein herzliches Beileid fuer deine Verlust aussprechen would be better.

Unser Gedanken sind an dir or Ihnen depending on familiarity, in dieser Zeit, or zu dieser Zeit.

Right now it's not flowing well.

[Archaea]

my bad,

use, deinen Verlust or Ihren Verlust.

Time erodes knowldege of gender.

[FarrahWaters]

thanks for your help-- having to remember feminine/masculine differences in foreign language is a pain.

[ute4ever]

Originally Posted by FarrahWaters

she wants to know how accurate the babelfish website is.

Babelfish does a literal word-for-word translation. However it does not rework sentence structure. For example in English we commonly state the noun and then the verb, while most European languages are vise versa. Plus sometimes you get the prime verb rather than the conjugated form.

[outlier]

Originally Posted by Archaea

Time erodes knowldege of gender.

Yikes! How old do you have to be before this starts happening?!

[MikeWaters]

Originally Posted by outlier

Yikes! How old do you have to be before this starts happening?!

for this reason we are quite lucky that male and female genitalia are very different in appearance.