"Lock" and "close" in German
I was trying to explain to someone that my door can only be opened with a key, regardless of whether the door is locked or simply closed.
I figured schließen would fail to express that unambiguously though, as it can mean both, and circumvented the issue with
Der Schlüssel wird immer gebraucht, um diese Tür zu öffnen.
Later I looked it up, finding a multitude of possibilities, many of which, however, seem to have the same double meaning issue, e.g. zu- and abschließen.
Up next in my list is sperren but I only ever hear it used for things that are blocked. DWDS seems to agree:
Beispiel:
das Fenster, die Tür sperrt (= schließt schlecht, nicht)
For that case, how could I make the distinction between locking and closing a door made in idiomatic and unambiguous German? That's my main question but you are welcome to cover the subtleties of those popular close/lock verbs here if you fancy. :)
1 answer
You can express the same meaning as "closed, but not locked with a key" with:
- "Die Tür ist zugezogen" (if the door was deliberately closed)
- "Die Tür ist ins Schloss gefallen" (if you did not close the door yourself, but a gust of wind or similar closed it)
(Both of them can require a key to reopen, depending on the lock)
To say that the door was locked with a key, you could use
- "Die Tür ist abgeschlossen" (I would normally interpret this as being locked)
- "Die Tür ist zugesperrt" (totally unambiguous)
"Die Tür ist geschlossen" is ambiguous, but I would normally use it for a closed door which can be reopend without a key.
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