C2 · 27 words

Road construction

Layers, machines and damage in a structure everybody takes for flat.

An English reader who meets das Bankett in a road-works notice pictures a formal dinner, and the notice is not about food. On the road das Bankett is the verge: the unpaved strip of soil or gravel beside the carriageway that props up the edge of the surfacing and lets the water run off it. It is not built to carry a wheel, which is why a notice says so when a lorry would be tempted to use it. German does use the same word for a banquet, with the same plural, die Bankette, so the dinner is not wrong in general, only wrong here. A text that mentions die Querneigung, a ditch or a crash barrier always means the strip of ground. And the paved lane a driver may stop on is something else again: der Seitenstreifen.

The words

Verb (4)

einbauento lay (asphalt), to place (fill)VerbC2

Bei Nieselregen darf die Deckschicht nicht eingebaut werden.The surface course must not be laid in drizzle.

Separable: baut ein, eingebaut. In an ordinary flat it means to fit or install.

walzento roll (compact with a roller)VerbC1

Gewalzt wird, solange das Mischgut noch heiß genug ist.Rolling goes on for as long as the mix is still hot enough.

Regular: walzte, gewalzt.

abfräsento mill off (a layer)VerbC2

Die alte Deckschicht wird nachts vier Zentimeter tief abgefräst.The old surface is milled off four centimetres deep overnight.

Separable: fräst ab, abgefräst.

vergießento seal by pouring (joints, cracks)VerbC2

Im Herbst werden die Risse mit heißer Masse vergossen.In the autumn the cracks are sealed with hot compound.

Inseparable; irregular: vergoss, vergossen. Also Tränen vergießen, to shed tears.

This list belongs to Getting around and going away — 18 lists and 680 words that can also be practised as a whole.

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