Clare Bentley Mar 9, 2015:

I disagree, Werner and Nicole I'm afraid, Werner that I still disagree. Firstly, no, I don't believe it makes more sense than differ, otherwise I wouldn't have suggested it! Differ makes perfect sense. The people behind the survey want to find out how children's views differ from those of their parents. The Oxford dictionary gives two main meanings of defer. One to postpone, and secondly, to defer 'to' the knowledge of someone else. The word 'to' is missing here. I would also have to say that the source text is evidently not the best example of written English I have ever seen. Beate has posted several questions from it now. Amongst them was one instance of a typo, and one ambiguous sentence. Therefore it's hardly beyond the realms of possibility that this sentence also contains a mistake. I think Oliver has made the best suggestion, which is to check with the client.

Nicole Göbel Mar 9, 2015:

defer kann unter Umständen auch abgrenzen bedeuten. Also, wie sich die jüngere Generation von ihren Eltern abgrenzt.

Werner Walther Mar 9, 2015:

@Clare I am convinced, the solution must be defer. The object is not mentioned, but it's there (in the 'cloud'). To differ makes less sense, don't you agree?

Beate Simeone-Beelitz (asker) Mar 8, 2015:

danke, mach ich morgen

Oliver Walter Mar 8, 2015:

I think it must be "differ" Since the context mentions "parent" and "youngest generation", I think Clare must be right. Beate should return the translation with a comment saying that she assumes this is what was really intended.

Beate Simeone-Beelitz (asker) Mar 8, 2015:

leider keine weiteren Infos....

Clare Bentley Mar 8, 2015:

Could there be a typo and it's actually supposed to be differ?! Defer doesn't make much sense to me here as the object of the sentence is missing. For it to make sense, we'd need to know whom they were deferring to...