[details=“English Translation”]I’m Ali, by the way.
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What is the difference in usage between ‘nebenbei’ and ‘übrigens’? I saw a post on Reddit asking about ‘by the way’ in German and it seems that ‘übrigens’ is the most common transition word–is this true? If then why use ‘nebenbei’?
I think in many cases you can use them interchangeably, but I personally don’t use “nebenbei” much at all.
“Nebenbei” implies that the following is of less importance than something else and can also be used for actions. For example: “Ich mache meine Hausaufgaben. Nebenbei schaue ich Fernsehen.” (I’m doing my homework. At the same time, I’m watching TV.) In this example homework is the important action and watching TV is only something unimportant you do at the same time.
In this usage you cannot interchange it with “übrigens”.
If you use “nebenbei” as “by the way” it kinda implies the topic is less important than what else you are talking about.
“übrigens” introduces something during a conversation you remember at that moment or wanted to tell the other person before, but had no opportunity to. It still feels, at least to me, like you are downplaying the following information after.
Also you usually would only use it in spoken German.
By the way (pun intended), the German sentence here sounds slightly weird to me. It would feel more natural to me to place “nebenbei” at the beginning of the sentence here. Though I would rather use “übrigens” anyway (out of personal preference).
So I would probably say “Übrigens bin ich Ali.” or “Übrigens, ich bin Ali.”
I hope this helps a bit, but it’s really tricky to get into disctinctions of words with similar meanings.
I see. So ‘nebenbei’ is more like ‘oh this is another small thing that you should know–probably doesn’t matter but I’d tell you anyways’, right?
I love these little discussions which tease out the subtleties (like what you mentioned) in word usage. Thank you so much for the explanation!
Yes, “nebenbei” is basically, “we are having this conversation about this (important) topic right now, but let me just interject that x even though it might not matter much” while “übrigens” is more like “let me add this thing to our conversation i just remembered/want to tell you about now”.
That said, some people, like me, might just always use “übrigens”.
Though, as mentioned in my previous message, you cannot use “übrigens” if you are talking about two actions happening at the same time, only in the meaning of “by the way” they can both be used.
If it helps to remember, you can also split it literally “neben” (second) + “bei” (by the side).
German often uses “Neben-” as a prefix as contrast to “Haupt-” (main), and “nebenbei” can be viewed as such. The second action/topic besides the main action/topic.
While “übrigens” comes from “übrig” (left over; other): Something which is left over from something else (some different topic) not mentioned yet/before.
Of you cannot take it too literally, but maybe this helps get more visualization of the difference.
Thank you so much for the very detailed explanation!