Toxicology

A hazard label speaks a German of its own, and the entry bei Verschlucken shows its grammar at work. Verschlucken is a verb turned into a noun. Any German infinitive can do this; it then takes a capital letter and is always neuter: das Verschlucken, das Einatmen. In running prose the article stays and fuses with the preposition, so a doctor writes beim Verschlucken von Kleinteilen, with beim short for bei dem. On a label the article goes, the way a telegram drops everything it can: Giftig bei Verschlucken, Gesundheitsschädlich bei Einatmen, Giftig bei Hautkontakt. The two forms are not interchangeable. Bei Verschlucken in a letter reads like a warning sticker, and beim Verschlucken on a bottle would look home-made. English turns the same idea into a clause, « if swallowed »; German keeps it a noun. These pages explain words and give no medical advice.