After some research I don't think that *nerved* could possibly be translated the proposed way.

See http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=nerved

Hi there
I personally would translate nervig with
unnerving, or in passive
genervt with unnerved.
Regards
Charbot

@chabot
Don't think that works for *nervig* coz *nervig* means that another person is annoying or gets on your nerves; ie it is about the other persons behaviour. Which is IMHO not at all what *unnerve* is about. I think *unnerve* is rather the result of someone beeing *nervig*, isn't it?

Possible. But I'm still the opinion if someone is nervig
he is unnerving you. The result of someone being nervig would
be that you are unnerved then. But your point makes some sense too.

@Charbot: Charlie hat Recht, "nervig" ist jemand der "auf die Nerven geht".
Also ist "to get on sb's nerves" oder "to be annoying" doch eine gute Übersetzung. Eine weitere Möglichkeit wäre u.U. auch "getting tedious".

Geht übrigens auch für Situationen. Also nicht nur jemand sondern auch *etwas* kann nervig sein.
Das ist ja nervig! - This is getting on my nerves / this is annoying

Übrigens *jemand/etwas ist nervig* ist synonym zu *jemand/etwas nervt*

Okay, ihr habt mich überzeugt. Ich schätze ich habe versagt. :-(
Dabke für die Tipps
Schönes Wochenende!

This is interesting. No one's mentioned the use of "nervy" as an adjective, as in the sense of "He's got a lot of nerve." Would that be better? I also looked up "nervy" and LEO says "nervous," but unless BE uses "nervy" in that way, that's not right to me. "nervoeus" should be "nervous," at least in AE.

"Nerved" is something I've never heard. "Unnerved," as in "made uncomfortable" or "unsettled," yes. In my opinion, you can be "unnerved," but not "nerved."

When I'm right, 'unnerved' is AE - don't know if in contrast it would be 'nerved' in BE.

I hope 'irritating' is used both in AE and BE in the same contexts and meanings . At least, my PONS gives 'irritating' for 'nervig' and in my opinion it fits well.

It gives 'sinewy' and 'wiry' as well but marked as getting obsolete and also as being more elevated language, which 'nervig' definitly isn't.

nerved and nervig, I think GRAMMATICALLY aren't the same category, although they are adjectives. You can see this exactly if you try to use 'irritating' and 'nerved/unnerved' interchangeably.

Something or someone can be irritating/nervig to somebody.
Someone can be nerved/unnerved himself/herself.

(Vielleicht sollte ich doch lieber deutsch schreiben, weil ich bestimmt immer wieder hübsche Grammatikfehler und Ähnliches einbaue, aber ich nutze so gerne die Gelegenheit selbst formuliertes Englisch zu schreiben und nehme kompetente Verbesserungen dankend entgegen.)

In my opinion this is definitly a wrong entry. At least, I wouldn't consider it a good translation and thus would leave this entry out of consideration if I had to translate 'nervig' or vice versa 'nerved'.

I agree that "nerved" is not a normal English adjective, and that "nervig" is more like -ing than -ed. So LEO's offering of *nerved = nervig seems to be an error on at least two grounds.

But the rest of this is getting confusing. My guesses so far (corrections devoutly hoped for):

nervig (Menschen, Zustände) - annoying, irritating
nervig sein, auf die Nerven gehen - get on one's nerves, annoy, irritate
genervt - annoyed, irritated, AE ticked off
LEO has also Das nervt! - That sucks. I would suggest at least adding a less vulgar option. How about That's a (real) pain?

nervig (Pflanzen) - veined, ribbed, sinewy, pithy

nervy (bold, impudent) - gewagt, frech, unverschämt
(Exiting across two lanes of traffic was a really nervy move.)
(Asking someone how much money they make is a nervy question.)
LEO gives mutig and nervös; I'd say the former is close, the latter simply wrong. Or can we conceive of saying, e.g., a nervy horse? Not MUSEN...

nerve oneself (strengthen, embolden) - sich aufraffen?
(We have to nerve ourselves to clean out that horrible closet.)
(But normally not as a participial adjective, or is that an adjectival participle: *We were nerved to clean out the closet.)
(And normally not as a non-reflexive verb: *The general nerved the soldiers for the coming battle.)

unnerved (= startled, taken aback) - erschüttert
(He was unnerved when the cockroach fell into his hair.)
unnerved (= shocked, made uncomfortable, unsettled) - ? (erschüttert seems too weak, entsetzt too strong)
(She was unnerved when her boss offered her a bribe.)

PS: Another error in LEO is "auditory nerv [sic]".

@hm, what a thoroughgoing posting on it...

I'm confused, my PONS gives 'to unnerve sb' as 'jdm auf die Nerven gehen / jdn nervös machen'... Would 'to be unnerved' not be the same as 'gevert sein'? Or is it 'to unnerve' generally more in direction 'making sb feel nervous/uncomfortable' and has never anything to do with getting annoyed?

Susanna, I've never heard "unnerved" in the sense of "getting annoyed." It always has the flavor of being shaken up a little, made uncomfortable, taken aback.

@Mrs Grundy: Thanks!

So 'unnerved' doesn't express the meaning of 'genervt'.

to unnerve sb = jdn (etwas) schockieren / nervös machen / aufwühlen ...

nerved (according to hm--us is no normal English adjective at all) and unnerved would thus be more or less false friends to the German 'genervt'... and don't correspond to 'nervig' anyway.

nerved/nervig = false entry!

btw: I never heard 'nervig' in these second meaning: wiry/sinewy, but obviously it exists... I assume (???) most Germans know 'nervig' just in the sense 'irritating', so they might get confused if an English speaker describe their plants as 'nervig' :-).

MISSGrundy *hopeshe'llforgiveme*

No problem at all, Susanna!

"Nerved" seems to be a real false friend. First of all, it does not seem to be much in use in English anyway, secondly, when used its meaning is far off the "nervig"-meaning expected by Germans.
To "unnerve" makes things worse, as in some contexts the German expectation just fits.

By the way, the translators of the crime story "Nerve" by Dick Francis had a lot of trouble with it.

Merriam Webster says:
Main Entry: nervy
Pronunciation: 'n&r-vE
Function: adjective
Inflected Form(s): nerv·i·er; -est
Date: 1607
1 archaic : SINEWY, STRONG
2 a : showing calm courage : BOLD b : marked by effrontery or presumption : BRASH
3 : EXCITABLE, NERVOUS
- nerv·i·ly /-v&-lE/ adverb
- nerv·i·ness /-vE-n&s/ noun

Main Entry: nerved
Pronunciation: 'n&rvd
Function: adjective
Date: 1800
1 a : VEINED <a nerved wing> b : having veins or nerves especially of a specified kind or number -- used in combination <fan-nerved leaves>
2 : showing courage or strength

Sorry if this whole thread has just been too much like its name, but I'd still be interested in a bit more consensus if possible.

Thanks, CJ, for quoting from Webster's. However, the weirdness of most of their definitions doesn't get us much farther IMO. I've never heard "nerved" as an adj. in either sense they give (and evidently neither have Peter nor MissG), and of their senses for "nervy," the only one I've ever encountered is "brash." A nervy horse? A nerved warrior (as opposed to a real verb: The warrior nerved himself...)? I'd like to hear what others think.

And has anyone addressed MissG's question about whether "nervig" can mean "nervy" in the sense of (if I'm not off base) gewagt, frech, usw.? The answer seems to be no, but it might be nice to have it confirmed lest it slip into LEO.


<soapbox> In part this reinforces my feeling that I might not choose Webster's as my sole source of reliable information if I were a non-native who needed actual advice about which words *should* be used in normal educated English, as opposed to which ones *might* conceivably be or have been used by someone somewhere at some time. It's as if you had to rely on Google hits without any cautionary info about quantity, quality, or provenance.

Cf. e.g. http://www.leo.org/cgi-bin/dict/forum/forum.c...
</soapbox>

@hm -- us:
You are right. "Nervig" bedeutet definitiv weder "gewagt" noch "frech".

Oh, sorry for missing the question: Agree with AGB.

nervig - irritating

nervy - AE: unverschämt (impudent), mutig (courageous)
nervy - BE: nervous? (my PONS gives it like this...)

But you could as well translate into German:
He's (quite) nervy to act like this.
Er hat (ganz schön) Nerven, sich so zu verhalten!
(colloquial like: to have the nerve to do sth.)
Er ist ganz schön unverschämt (or: 'mutig' depending on the context), sich so...

I'm from America, therefore I speak American English, I suppose. But I'll put in my personal experience as a basis of opinion: I've never heard any naturally English speaking person use the verb "to be nerved", or anything of that nature. It's a mistake I came across a lot with Germans learning English, they always mix it up when saying "He's really nerving", or "I'm so nerved". I would say, to be best understood by every naturally English speaking person, it would be best to just say "I am annoyed", (as a sidenote, that I just thought about, "I'm bothered" could be a good synonym for "I'm unnerved". I think Susanna had said it correctly, when she said it was something that bothers you, or that is eerie, so much that it makes a person wary, or uncomfortable in the current situation....although "bothered" could also mean "annoyed" if the correct emotion is connected to it, if you feel angry to some extent, or in the least displeased, then you could be bothered (meaning annoyed)).
I've just begun learning German only a year ago, but I'm quite good with English definitions and other aspects of it. Therefore I won't try to give a translation to all the English I've just written, if someone feels up to it, I'd appreciate it.
And one last thing, "to nerve" someone, being that I've never heard it, is not at all a saying that native speakers use; only "to have nerve", meaning that someone is brazen, or not take others' feelings into account when doing something.
Wow, this is long, anyway, in closing....Don't use "to nerve" as a verb in English, only unnerve, as I've explained in the former paragraphs. Hope this helps to clear up (at least the English side of this string) everything.

Zur Bedeutung von nervig im Deutschen:

Der Duden kennt als erste von 2 Bedeutungen:
"den Eindruck angespannter Kraft vermittelnd"

Mit den Bsp.: Ihre kleinen, -en Hände griffen nach seinen Schultern (Kirst, 08/15, 532); es ist -er, das Pferd, obgleich es bekanntlich vom Tapir stammt (Th. Mann, Krull 345).

Quelle: Duden: Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in 10 Bänden. 3., völlig neu bearbeitete und erweiterte Auflage. Mannheim, Leipzig, Wien, Zürich: Dudenverlag 1999.

Ich kenne den Begriff in dieser Bedeutung auch fuer kraftvolle klassische Musik.

Als einzige Uebersetzung bietet Duden-Oxford Großwörterbuch Englisch (Deutsch-Englisch), Dudenverlag:

nervig Adj. (auch fig.) sinewy

"He nerves" is a slang meaning that something someone else does grates on your nerves (auf die nerven gehen). Nerved is the past tense.

@mari: with that comment you have just disagreed with every single one of the native speakers above. They are all saying you DON'T use the word like that.
Do you have an example? A few nice hits in Google where people have used it? If not, I don't think your comment will (or should) be taken seriously, but if you can find some, please do let us know.

Rereading this thread again reminded me of an expression that I think has its origin in Black English: "He's getting on my last nerve." I use it often.

nerved- nervig is given by Leo with the context bot. A little googling (search plant & nerved /pflanze &nervig) indicates that this is probably correct! (don't know it myself tho)
Another meaning for nerved appears to be describing a horse which has had certain nerves removed.

@susanna: obwohl dein posting schon etwas älter ist: "nervig" im sinne von "sehnig" ist mir sehr wohl bekannt. gustav schwab verwendete es fast inflationär zur beschreibung durchtrainierter griechen und was da sonst noch im "klassischen altertum" herumsprang.

@all: I think the entry has already been adjusted according to this discussion.

ak, das ist interessant. Aber ist diese Wortbedeutung nicht eher veraltet? Hätte das Wort nie so verwendet und bin erst durch diese Diskussion auf die Zweitbedeutung des Wortes *nervig* gestoßen, weil ich auf 'sinewy' und 'wiry' stieß. Meine Einschätzung, dass das deutsche Wort 'nervig' für diese Bedeutung nicht der gleichen Sprachebene entspräche, war aber sicher etwas voreilig und aus zu schneller Feder!

Soweit ich mich richtig erinnere, waren weder 'nervig' noch 'nerved' zum Zeitpunkt der Diskussion mit [bot] oder Ähnlichem gekennzeichnet. 'nervig' ist jetzt nicht mehr in Leo. (Finde ich etwas schade, denn das Wort ist durchaus verbreitet und bietet Boden für Fehlinterpretationen. Sichere Übersetzungsvorschläge, wie z.B. 'irritating' - falls als nötig erachtet, auch die 2. Bedeutung: sinewy - gibt es ja durchaus...)

p.s. there was some question of BE usage - unnerved is the same as AE.
Nervy on the other hand does indeed mean over-nervous, over-sensitive.

I am also a native english speaker.

People do so "Oh that was so nerve racking!" or "At the end my nerve was completely raw", or "That hit/touched/striked a raw nerve, or that was nerve straining, or " I strained every nerve while watching the fight".

@mari
I'm not a native speaker, but to me "He nerves" is totally different to your latest examples where you always use *nerve* in a sense of *der Nerv* (de) and NOT *nervig* (de).

BTW, non of your examples could IMHO possibly be translated as *nervig*. All of it is along the lines of *nervenaufreibend*, *nervenzerreissend*, *Nerven liegen blank* etc.

Don't know if I'm right, but maybe you've got a slightly wrong idea about *nervig*?

@mari:
Perhaps you haven't been around other native speakers for a while, or were just typing or thinking too fast?

People do say "That was nerve-racking," and they write it with a hyphen. In my experience they don't say *"My nerve was raw" but rather "My nerves were raw." They do not say *"striked a raw nerve"; the past participle is "struck." I have never heard "nerve-straining," and I have heard "strain every nerve" only in a 19th-c. hymn. (-:

Sorry, correction:
the past tense and past participle are both "struck."

Ich bin auf diese alte Diskussion gestoßen auf der Suche nach deutschen oder englischen Synonymen für "nervig" in dem Sinne, in dem das Wort in der Weinansprache verwendet wird, also dort, wo es nichts mit "auf die Nerven gehen" zu tun hat, sondern mit Feinnervigkeit, wie sie vielleicht bei Blättern oder Pflanzen allgemein auftreten kann - und eben geschmacklich. Meine persönliche Einschätzung ist, dass "nerved" gerade und ausschließlich auf diese Bedeutungen von "nervig" passt. Nach einem kurzen Überfliegen der bisherigen Kommentare scheint diese Überlegung ein bisschen zu kurz gekommen zu sein, womöglich wegen der auch im Deutschen relativen Seltenheit der Verwendung von "nervig" in diesem Sinne. (Bitte um Entschuldigung für den rein subjektiven Kommentar - habe jetzt keine WB-Recherche betrieben.)

Sollte dann ein [biol.] abbekommen.

Deine persönliche Einschätzung in allen Ehren, schlonsky, aber sie ist für unsere Zwecke hier wenig hilfreich. Zum einen fehlen Belege dafür, dass im Deutschen "nervig" als synonym von feinnervig verwendet wird. Ich habe es so noch nie gehört. Zum anderen fehlen Belege dafür, dass "nerved" in diesem Kontext im Englischen so verwendet wird.

[biol.] ist nicht sehr aussagekräftig, da auch die Nerven des Menschen etwas Biologisches sind.

http://plants.usda.gov/java/profile?symbol=CALE11

Dann halt [bot.]