Difficult German Synonyms - Different
There are often multiple words in languages which have the same basic meaning, but are used in slightly different ways. Any advanced German learner has probably had qualms w/ ändern/verändern, gebrauchen/verwenden/nutzen, and many more examples. In these posts, I’ll explain these differences.
In this post: How to say ‘different’ in German.
1) Different meaing ‘unalike/not the same’
i) This is expressed using either verschieden or anders, with the difference being that verschieden is used with a plural subject or words implying 2+ things, whereas anders is for a singular subject. The same applies when used as adverbs.
Ex: A und B sind verschieden.
Ex: A ist anders als B.
Ex: Wir sind verschiedener Meinung darüber.
Ex: Darüber bin ich anderer Meinung als du.
Ex: Die beiden reagierten verschieden auf den Vorfall.
Ex: A reagierte anders als B.
Note: Anders doesn’t always need als; depends on the sentence.
To say something is different in length/size etc. you also use verschieden (e.g. verschieden lang/groß).
However a subtle difference is that verschieden states 2+ things are not alike, whereas anders has to be used when a comparison/contrast exists.
Ex: Darüber denke ich anders als sie.
ii) Hi you know how rules are rarely 100% well ta-da you can use verschieden with a singular subject, but only if at least 2+ things are being compared. So if I said ‘that can be thought of differently’ it means there are at least 2+ different ways of thinking about it and verschieden works there.
Ex: Darüber kann man verschieden denken.
Ex: Die Spielweise der beiden Frauen ist verschieden.
And for my next trick… you can also use anders with a plural subject, but only if the plural subject represents one group differeng from another.
Ex: Diese Bienen sind anders als die ersten, die wir gesehen haben.
And for my final trick… verschieden von is a synonym to 'anders als’ and can be used with a singular subject, but do note that this is considered formal.
Ex: Insekt A ist verschieden von Insekt B
iii) Anders is also used w/ sing. or plural when sth has changed in comparison to a previous time.
Ex: Die Blumen sieht jetzt ganz anders als vor zwei Tagen aus.
2) Different meaning ‘different distinct entities’
Important to note here is that this can sometimes be synonymously translated to both 'various’, 'different’, or 'another’ in English and this is important to know what to do in German.
i) When ’different’ and ’various’ ARE interchangeable, the German equivalent is verschieden.
Ex: Diese Schuhe werden in verschiedenen Farben angeboten.
ii) When ’different’ and ’various’ ARE NOT interchangeable, the equivalent is usually anders with a singular subject. To see why we need to do this compare:
Ex: Wir kaufen in verschiedenen Supermärkten ein.
>> This would be understood as 'various supermarkets’.
Ex: Ich kaufe in einem anderen Supermarkt als sie ein.
>> This would be understood as 'in a different supermarket’.
iii) When ’different’ and ’another’ ARE interchangeable, the equivalent is anders.
Ex: Er zog ein anderes Hemd ein.
>> He put on a different/another shirt.
3) A note on 'unterschiedlich’
Unterschiedlich typically means varying/varied/variable.
Ex: Die Leistungen dieses Schülers sind unterschiedlich.
>> The student’s marks vary [btwn. subjects].
However it can also be synonymous to verschieden in the sense of 'different’ in which case it is only really useful to use unterschiedlich if verschieden would cause ambiguity by meaning either different or various. Compare:
Ex: Verschiedene Ansichten wurden vertreten.
>> This could mean 'various views were represented’ or 'different views…’.
Ex: Unterschiedliche Ansichten wurden vertreten.
>> This can only mean ’different/differing views were represented’.
Andersartig: This means 'different’ and stresses ’of a different kind’ - e.g. der Studienrat wollte eine völlig andersartige Lösung dieses Problems finden.
Verschiedenartig: This means 'different/diverse’ and stresses ’of various kinds’ - Er besaß ein Gefühl für die Zusammengehörigkeit ganz verschiedenartiger Symptome. This is formal.
Dictionary of German Synonyms - R.B.Farrell
A Practical Dictionary of German Usage - K.B.Beaton
In class today my teacher briefly mentioned how anders/verschieden couldn’t always be used synonymously so I decided to look properly in it and make a post.
