Was working on translating a phrase, which might be an idiom, literally ("that's a grey area..."), and I noticed there are quite a few options for translating "area." Some you can tell apart by the list of synonyms they give, but for many it's still unclear. What would you say the differences between the following are (example sentences are most welcome!), and which would work for that vague/ethereal type of "area" used in that idiom above?
Bereich
Gebiet
Gegend
Fläche
Umkreis
Teil
Revier
Das ist eine Grauzone.
I'd like to suggest you to first work on reaching an intermediate level in German before trying to understand every word with all meanings. Meanings vary a lot depending on the context. Instead of trying to memorise all possible synonyms of a word, you should read a lot and listen a lot and just memorise the meaning of the words in that very context. With time you'll stumble over more meanings but they'll come naturally to you.
Excellent comment, Miriam.
The first thing that I thought of was Zone, like you mentioned, and then I thought, “I`d just say die graue Zone.” Then I thought that sounded a little clunky, and I thought German most likely has just one word for it, and found on dict.cc “die Grauzone”, just like you said, and then cross-referenced it on Duden and found die Grauzone there too, with the explanation of its meaning being proper.
You are absolutely correct in saying you have to reach at least an intermediate level before trying to understand the nuances of all these synonyms. Some just sound right and others don’t. Eventually you develop a feel for it. Like with “Revier”, I always think of “Das Polizeirevier”, police station. With das Gebiet, “Grenzgebiet”. You hear these words in contexts over and over and your mind just kind of knows what sounds right I suppose. But those words have more meanings in other contexts than in the examples I gave.
Again, very good answer.
