frugality
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frugality
The quality of handling resources such as money, time, or energy economically and thoughtfully, and avoiding unnecessary spending or waste.
Ihre Sparsamkeit ermöglichte es ihr, trotz des geringen Einkommens ein kleines Vermögen anzusparen.
Her frugality enabled her to save up a small fortune despite her low income.
'Sparsamkeit' (frugality) is derived from the adjective 'sparsam' (frugal). The ending '-keit' is a common way to form abstract nouns from adjectives that describe a quality or state.
Freundlichkeit, Ehrlichkeit und Pünktlichkeit sind wichtige Eigenschaften.
Friendliness, honesty, and punctuality are important qualities.
The word is often used with a possessive pronoun to emphasize a person's quality. Another typical construction is 'aus Sparsamkeit' (out of frugality), used to give the reason for an action.
Seine Sparsamkeit ist in der ganzen Familie bekannt.
His frugality is known throughout the whole family.
Common verbs used with 'Sparsamkeit' (frugality) are 'beweisen' (to demonstrate), 'lernen' (to learn), or 'jemanden zur Sparsamkeit erziehen' (to raise someone to be frugal). The quality is also often described with adjectives such as 'übertrieben' (excessive) or 'sprichwörtlich' (proverbial).
In schweren Zeiten mussten die Menschen Sparsamkeit lernen.
In difficult times, people had to learn frugality.
efficiency
'Effizienz' and 'Sparsamkeit' both have to do with not wasting resources. The difference lies in the goal: 'Effizienz' asks how good the result is in relation to the effort involved. So it is about achieving a lot with little time, money, or energy. 'Sparsamkeit' places more emphasis on using or spending little. Learners may confuse the words because both can sound positive. But something can be frugal without being especially efficient, for example if you save money but lose a great deal of time.
Im Urlaub achtet Lena auf Sparsamkeit, weil ihr Budget klein ist.
Lena pays attention to frugality on vacation because her budget is small.
Durch die neue Software steigt die Effizienz im Büro deutlich.
The new software significantly increases efficiency in the office.