damages
noun · Schadensersatz
Schadensersatz, the claim, not Schäden, the harm. English marks the remedy with nothing but the plural, German gives it a word of its own, and a rendering that says Schäden turns the money claim back into the injury.
Which translation, when
Why
English packs the remedy into a plural, damage is the harm, damages is the money awarded for it, one letter carries the whole difference between injury and claim. German cannot lean on number, Schaden and Schäden are both the harm, and the remedy has its own word, Schadensersatz, § 249 Abs. 1 BGB opens with it. So every damages in the source forces a decision the English drafter never had to make: claim or harm. A clause limiting liability for damages restricts the remedy, a clause about damage to the goods describes the harm, and the two German words do not overlap. Rendered as Schäden, a damages claim stops being a claim, the German sentence talks about losses lying about instead of money owed, and the reader sees a description of facts where the English text stated a right.
Typical mistakes
- Anspruch auf Schäden is not a German claim, a claim goes auf Schadensersatz, and the phrase tells the reader the plural was translated instead of the remedy.
- Schadensersatz and Schadenersatz are both in circulation and machine output mixes them, the BGB writes Schadensersatz, pick the statutory form and hold it through the document.
- The plural s is a signal, not a rule, storm damages across several sites really are Schäden, so read for remedy or harm before reaching for either word.
What matters
A limitation of liability clause is where the plural earns its keep: liability for damages capped at the contract price is a statement about the remedy, Schadensersatz, while damage to the goods in transit is a statement about the harm, Schaden. The cap sits on whichever German word the translation chose, and only one of them is what the drafter meant.
What the machine misses
An engine reads damages as the plural of damage and writes Schäden wherever the context gives it no firm push, headings, defined terms and loose prose above all. The one-letter signal separating the English claim from the English harm is exactly what machine output flattens, and the German sentence ends up describing losses where the source granted a right to money.
Examples
| to claim damages | Schadensersatz verlangen |
| liable in damages | zum Schadensersatz verpflichtet |
| damages for delay | Schadensersatz wegen Verzugs |
| damage to the goods | Schäden an der Ware |