LW casualties 4 July 1943

[rof120]

Nick is right and he explained this perfectly.

Mind the pronunciation, never say "sea" (as in English) for See, which in both cases is pronounced "Zay".

Yes this is a permanent trap for non-German speakers (and readers). Why this same word is used for both all lakes and all seas (often oceans) in the world I don't know. Possibly language experts have answered this question long ago. I can imagine that the word is extremely old and appeared almost at the same time* as people in old antique Germany, and they didn't care if the water expanse they saw was a lake or a sea… (?). No warranty, "usual disclaimer".

* Like other words which I assume are very old, like Wasser, Holz, Feuer, Wolf, Bär, essen and many more. (Water, wood or timber, fire, wolf, bear, to eat…)

PS : der See, die See, das Meer. Here we can use all three German genders and none is jealous. "Das Meer" is the same as "die See" and they pronounce it "das Mayr".

[edwest2]

Language is like that. The German and Polish word for roof, dach, is spelled the same. American English is full of examples. When I asked a linguist friend of mine to explain the rules for the use of die, der, den, and das, he said it was arbitrary. A sort of make it up on your own. I found this answer to be very unsatisfactory. But then I can't explain High German, Low German and Plattdeutsch.

[RolandF]

There is a difference,
Über See means "over sea" without closer description of the area (Nordsee, Ostsee, Ärmelkanal etc.)
"Over lake" is always connected with the name of the lake (Bodensee, Chiemsee, Ammersee, Garda-See etc.)

Regards
RolandF