Wie bedient man diese Maschine?

Sentence Discussions German
#1
English Translation

How do you operate this machine?

Would not “betrieben” be a bette verb to use instaed of “bedienen”?

#2

“bedienen” is directly about which buttons to press and which levers to flick.
“betreiben” is more abstract and about how to get it installed, connected, maintained, what energy supply it needs, operating costs, etc.

I think in short you could say
bedienen - to operate
betreiben - to run

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#3
English Translation

How do you operate this machine?

“operiert” would also work. I think.

#4

Unfortunately, not.

Wie operiert diese Maschine? would sounds strange to natives and would mean: How does the machine function / work? But it wouldn’t work in the mentioned context.

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#5

Yes, “operieren” would not work here.

“operieren” has two main meanings:

  • perform surgery (with optional direct object):
    Der Arzt operiert den Patienten.
  • proceed according to a uniform plan, e.g. miliary (no direct object):
    Das Militär operiert in dieser Gegend. Hier sind überall Warnschilder.

DWDS (operieren – Schreibung, Definition, Bedeutung, Etymologie, Synonyme, Beispiele | DWDS) also lists a third, colloquial meaning, but this is basically just the second meaning used for fun with less serious acting. Also note that the example given there has no direct object.

“Eine Machine operieren” would mean “to perform surgery on a machine”, and would sound like a humorous way to say “to repair”.

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