Hello everyone,
and welcome to our German word of the Day. And this time, we’ll take a look at the meaning of
stoßen
Stoßen is one of those words that flies under the radar of many learners. Like… even if you’re already somewhat fluent, chances are that you’ve never really noticed stoßen.
But that doesn’t mean that you haven’t used it. You might very well have. And you’ve almost certainly seen it.
Because while it’s not all that interesting by itself, it’s got some nice juicy prefix versions that hang out in a whole range of topics, like magnetism, heartburn, breaking the law, having drinks with friends, and boredom… I… I mean soccer.
Quite the range, right?
So let’s take a look.
***
If we look up stoßen in a dictionary, we’ll find a whole bunch of options like thrust, bump, poke or strike.
And those are actually not too far from the very origin of the word – the obnoxiously ancient Indo-European root *(s)teu-. The core idea of this root was thrusting, moving forth and by extension bumping and knocking.
And this root actually has a really surprising descendant in English: the verb for what you’re doing right now… to study. Yes, to study. Of course it got the meaning it has today straight from Latin, but the origin of that meaning is the notion of “pushing forward”.
You’re striving for the knowledge, and you put in some real effort for your progress.
And this whole notion of pushing in a direction is actually quite helpful for understanding stoßen.
The meaning and use of “stoßen”
Because they’re all what I would call “occasional” translations. So they do work sometimes, but none of the words actually really captures stoßen and stoßen is not the prime translation for any of them. For stoßen, it’s better to remember it as an idea, rather than a translation and this core idea could be described as:
some (straight) momentum that then hits an object
Sounds very physical and abstract, but there’s actually a really great way to visualize it: billiards.
Stoßen is what we do with the cue (the stick). We stoßen against the ball. And even more important, the balls stoßen against each other and against the wall.
There’s momentum that then hits an object.
- Das Auto ist gegen den Baum gestoßen.
- The car bumped/crashed/ran into into the tree.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
As you can see by my translation, stoßen works for a mere bump as well as for a crash.
But the main use case for stoßen in daily life is actually hitting body parts.
And not in the sense of punching or boxing. Those are schlagen and boxen.
What I mean is this moment, when we go to the kitchen at night to get some “fromage du minuit” from the fridge and then we hit our toe on one of the new “design” chairs because their back legs protrude out into the room in a weird and unnecessary way.
In that scenario, what I’d say is
- “Aua. Verdammte Scheiße! Scheiß-Drecks Ikea-Design-Scheiße.”
Something along those lines.
And later, when I am explaining to the police why I am burning furniture in my driveway in the middle of the night, I’ll say this:
- Ich habe mir den Zeh gestoßen.
- I hit my toe.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
And I’m sure many of you now are thinking the same as the officers: Sir, why is the German version twice as long? And why are we using haben now for the past, when earlier we used sein? And what’s up with this weird phrasing anyway?
Great questions.
The answer to the first one is simply – it’s because German is well-hung. I mean… its… its parts are longer then the average. Like… the words and the structures.
Then, we have the question why we used habe gestoßen now and ist gestoßen earlier?
And that is because earlier, the car itself was the moving entity with the momentum.
Take these examples:
- Ich bin mit dem Zeh gegen den Stuhl gestoßen.
- I bumped with my toe against the chair.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Ich habe mir den Zeh am Stuhl gestoßen.
- I hit my toe on the chair.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
Both sentences describe the same thing, but the phrasing is different. In the first, I am moving through space, which is a case for sein. In the second version, I am moving and bumping my toe against the chair, as a direct object, and that’s a case for haben.
And why is it den Zeh and not meinen Zeh. And what is the mir doing there.
This is actually a really common idiomatic type of phrasing that German likes to use for body related things.
I’m sure many of you have seen it already elsewhere.
Instead of “I wash my hands.” in German you’ll say “I wash MYSELF THE hands.” . And instead of “I cut your hair.”, Germans say “I cut you the hair.”. In a way, it shifts the focus of the act more toward the rendering of a service. Like… “I am doing some handwashing to/for myself“. Or “I am doing my hair cutting for you.”
The other phrasing (aka the one most languages use) does exist, as well, but no one really uses it and it sounds a bit theatrical or epic.
So, please do try to learn the “weird” one. It’ll make you sound much more natural AND it has the added benefit that you practice the Dative (reflexive) pronouns a little.
I mean… hitting our head or toe AND practicing mir… if that’s not awesome, then I don’t know what is :)
- Das Einhorn stößt sich in der Höhle der Zwerge immer den Kopf.
- The unicorn always hits its head in the cave of the dwarfs.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- “Du bist heute irgendwie so dumm.”
“Ja, ich hab’ mir gestern den Kopf gestoßen.”
“Ach sooo.” - “You’re so stupid today, somehow.”
“Yeah, I hit my head yesterday.”
“Ohhh.” - Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
Oh and to make things even more confusing, if you just generically want to say that you bumped against something, then YOU are the direct object. So you say “I bumped myself against…”
- Ich habe mich am Tisch gestoßen.
- I bumped against the table.
- Ich habe mir den Kopf am Tisch gestoßen.
- I hit my head against the table.
So in both sentence, we have a direct object. That’s what I “hit”. And then in the second, we have ourselves as the “beneficiary”.
And before you think about this too hard and end up confused, let’s swiftly move on :).
Because, besides stoßen in the context of bumping body parts somewhere, you’ll likely sooner or later also come across the phrasing the combo stoßen auf. Which means pretty much that… to come across, to run into, and it’s usually used in the contexts of discovering something.
- Die Eichhörnchen sind auf ein geheimes Moonshine-Lager der Einhörner gestoßen.
- The squirrels have come across/discovered a secret Moonshine stash of the unicorns.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Bei meiner Recherche bin ich auf ein paar echt interessante Theorien gestoßen.
- During my research I came across a few interesting theories.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
And if you think about it, at the core, these examples are not that different from a billiard ball running into the wall or a car bumping against a tree. Sure, they’re a bit more figurative, and there’s no actual collision, but the core idea – this theme of some straight momentum that runs into something – is pretty visible.
And with that theme in mind, you should have no trouble with the related words of stoßen. Like the noun der Stoß….
- Endlich fühlt es sich wirklich wie Fotos schießen an – die iPhone 14 Pro Kamera mit Rückstoß.
- Finally it really feels like shooting pictures – the iPhone 14 Pro camera with recoil/kickback.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- “Wow, du hast aber eine große Stoßstange.” (USE PORN MUSIC)
“Ich weiß. Willst du mal anfassen?” - “Wow, you have a big bumper.”
“I know. Do you want to touch it.” - Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
… and more importantly, all the various prefix versions.
And you’ll be surprised just how useful they really are.
The Prefix Versions of “stoßen”
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ich mache einen Satz hier, damit ich die Verwendung festigen kann :)
ich habe einen Freund, der IMMER auf sein Handy schaut, sogar beim Laufen. Heute ist er gegen eine Laterne gestossen. Kein Wunder.
Super!
Blud only finding Soccer boring because Germany ain’t cooking nomore with it
*Ich schüttle enttäuscht den Kopf
It’s the other way around. It is objectively boring for me, but if we cookin’ it gets mildly interesting for some time.
I suck at it, too. I’m a basketball guy.
It’s a miracle you didn’t mention 2014
What happened there? I was too young to watch TV.
Better not to remember
Came here because of “an seine Grenzen stoßen”, which I liked.
Thanks and nice sound effects lol.
Happy you had fun :)
Ich habe mich mit dem Tisch gestoßen
this is equivalent to:
Ich bin gegen den Tisch gestoßen
Not “mit”.
I had the same question as @kishkisan.
To check:
Is “Ich bin gegen den Tisch gestoßen” ok, as an equivalent to “Ich habe mich am Tisch gestoßen” ?
It’s roughly the same, though “Ich bin …” could be more about the idea of running into an obstacle while “Ich habe mich…” is about you hurting yourself.
Hallo Emanuel
Ich bin auf dieses Wort “anrempeln”gestoßen (Wie hat dir das Wortspiel gefallen?) Ich habe mich gefragt, ob es mit “stoßen” austauschbar ist?
Ich habe dich angerempelt
Ich have have auf dich gestoßen
Danke
Absolutely not!
“stoßen” – to give a heavy sudden push/shove
“stoßen auf” – to come across, during some sort of journey
“anrempeln” – accidentally or on purpose bumping into someone physically.
“anrempeln” ist im Prinzip immer Mensch vs Mensch, und “stoßen” ist zu “generic”. Man kann die nie vertauschen, auch wenn die Aktionen viele Ähnlichkeiten haben.
Loved this article… actually and all others.
Danke :)!!
I am thankful for all those who paid a little extra. Their generosity gave me membership here. Thank you so much and I’m happy to be a part of this community
Dies war ein großartiger Artikel. Ich habe wirklich sehr viel gelernt. Here is a small grammar mistake:
“its parts are longer then the average.” It should be “longer than the average”
We use “than” for comparisons. “Then” is used for time sequences.
Fromage de minuit, not fromage du minuit
Why though? Is it like a name?
In French, when a noun (minuit) is used as an adjective to describe another noun (fromage), use the word de.
Album de photo, voiture de sport, raquette de tennis, etc.
Not just nouns, in French when something that isn’t an adjective is used as an adjective (it doesn’t have to be a noun, it could be a preposition or a verb), use the word DE.
la joie de vivre, le pain d‘hier, le billet de train
Oh, I didn’t even notice that :). I thought it was Fromage as opposed to fromage. But yeah, now it makes sense. Merci!
Hai, I enjoy reading your articles. But I am not a paid subscriber. Of late I am not able to read any of your articles, not even 1 per month, it shows that I reached my free limit. I am not even able to login.
I am not sure if this is the right place to say this.
Thank you
Do you know how to clear the cache and cookies of your device? That might fix it. Sometimes, the browser stores old data and causes problems, especially when I make changes on the site.
Yes, it worked! great articles, thank-you
Before I read the article and forget … you should say: “for me it is so-so” not “… so and so”. The latter, in Australian slang, means … a not very nice person, a proper bastard, an arsehole etc. A bit old fashioned – my parents used to use it quite a lot, and I’m 68 – but probably still in minor use.
“So and so” is still in common colloquial use in England, usually in the form of “a bit of a so and so”.
Do you mean for describing a person, like Hugh mentioned?
Oh that’s good to know then :).
Any idea if this is just true for Australian or if it hold for British and American as well?
I’ve certainly heard it in America.
Two different things here…
Old So and so is an old fuddy duddy, my neighbor scolds the children, the old so and so.
When things are so so, it means less than average…my grades are so so compared to last year.
I think the pejorative version of “so and so” only applies when you someone “is a so and so”: “Those Manchester United supporters are a right bunch of so and sos, and the City fans aren’t much chop either”. But if you use it as a sort of pronoun/placeholder when you forget someone’s name, for example: “So and so is getting married” or “He was walking along the street with so and so” then it’s completely neutral. (Full disclosure: I’m another old fella from Australia.)
But you’d agree that the way I used it (as “meh”) was not correct, right?
Yep, definitely wrong(*). I think, like Hugh, that you’re probably mixing it up with “so so”, also written as “so-so”. Which often comes up in an “es geht’s” sort of context. “How are you today?” “Hmm, so so…”. Or: “How’s the Eisbein?” “So so…” (ie, not great, not terrible, but leaning a little toward the lower end of the spectrum. So “meh” is a pretty good translation of “so so”).
(*) Fun fact — I reread the entire article trying to find where you’d used an expression like that, but couldn’t find any trace of it. Then I reread Hugh’s message, and noticed that it occurred to him before he’d read the article. I’m sure my consequent deep knowledge of stoßen and friends is going to dazzle the locals next time I’m in Berlin!
I think I used it in the newsletter :). Did you really read the entire article again just to find it?? You are a dedicated man, Sir!
Same for American English, both the neutral and pejorative version. I mostly think of the negative use as coming from old movies, like Katharine Hepburn calling somebody “you old so-and-so” or something…
Hallo lieber Emanuel,
Ich finde Redewendung ” sich die Hörner abstossen ” sehr lustig . Man will seines tierlichen Verhalten nach vorne bringen und etwas verrücktes machen . Man macht Erfahrungen damit seines Leben einreichen .
Ich habe auch das Verb Vorstossen ( Vorstoß ) gesehen , das bedeutet etwas nach vorne stoßen ( Vordringen ) , oder ? Aber davon bin nicht sicher .
Bis Bald
Du hast es fast richtig. Aber nicht “etwas vorstoßen”. “vorstoßen” ist was eine Armee oder eine Expedition macht. Und ja, es ist wirklich ähnlich zu “vordringen”, nur ein bisschen “schneller” vom Gefühl her.
Looks like your new server doesn’t allow even one free article anymore… schade.
It should. Did you come here from the newsletter? And if yes, did you try the system I described at the bottom of the newsletter? That should fix it. If not let me know.
Hello!!!
I can’t believe I’m back from holiday just in time to read this article. I mean, I could have read it while I was away, but I can’t write on touchscreens to save my life!!! My holiday in Sweden was soooo good I’m still buzzing from all the excitement :)
Anyway, you only have 2 typos. Let’s anstoßen to that!
So in both sentence, we have a direct object (So in both sentences, we have a direct object)
Life footage of some of my British readers… live footage – come on, we’re not all like that :)
Sounds a bit like an expidition (Sounds a bit like an expedition)
Bis bald :)
I mean, 3 typos and two of them had already been spotted by another reader ;)
Ok, I just took the quiz and found another typo (see, I’m not in my normal state of alertness…)
die Stoßstange = the bumber (Of a car.) (bumper)
BTW, what’s the NSFW word you were trying to use as a pun? Is it Ständer? I’m sure I’ve read this somewhere but shouldn’t really go and ask my teacher…
Yeah, Ständer is a pretty common word for a boner. Not Stoßstange, but in an “adult” context, people would understand it immediately.
Willkommen zurück :)!!
I think there might be a few more typos/misuses hiding up there:
* repuslive => repulsive
* Fußballterminologie ist halt nicht die Stärke von Emanuel, aber es sollte
sein. (Similarly, a player “takes a penalty (kick)”, for what it’s worth!)
* gases, not “gasses”. (The latter is a relatively rarely used verb — “The supermarket gasses the Tomatoes to make them red”, while the former is the plural of “gas”.)
Very interesting word and with many variations!
Thank you very much for the opportunity to access this blog with a scholarship :)
Keep up the good work!
All the features you’re providing really do make your posts worthy of serious study. And yet at the same time laugh! Here are a few typos: “Life footage of some of my British readers,” Should be “live footage” & “Sounds a bit like an expidition,” Should be “expedition”. Congrats on the driving test. I sought to pay as little as possible to get my Italian drivers license and ended up paying 920€ total, but hey, I learned a lot of bureaucratic Italian along the way…
Wow, that’s cheap. You won’t be able to do it for that price in Germany, no matter how hard you try.
I think the cheapest is like 1500,- if you already kind of know how to drive.
Oh and of course it matters, whether you do stick or not. I did stick, and that takes longer to learn of course. I’m happy I did though. I’d feel like a disabled driver if I were just able to drive automatic.
By the way… I have always wondered how driving school works in Rome. Like… do you learn to force your way onto a crossing there? The driving culture is totally different to Germany and I’m really curios how it’s taught.
Das macht Spass! Insbesonderes über die Einhörner – Theater. :-D
“der Rückstoß = the recoil, the kickback (Of guns and so on.)” Would there be a separate word for the politically corrupt meaning?
I’m not sure what you mean actually? Like… what’s the English word for “politically corrupt”?
Letzer Zeit habe ich unumstoesslich gelesen – so irrevocable. Menn denkt an Rechte die irrevocable sind, ist das die gleiche Besinnung auf D?
Ich verstehe deine Frage nicht ganz :). Was genau willst du wissen?
Oh, Moment… jetzt habe ich es verstanden.
“irrevocable” can be used in the sense of “cannot be taken away”. “unumstößlich” can NOT be used in that sense.
It means that something is standing super mega firm. Like a truth for instance, which cannot be “toppled”. But for rights, it’s tricky because there, “irrevocable” at least to my understanding, means that it cannot be taken away.
Like kickbacks to a corrupt politician. The oh so lovely money under the table. I think it would be something like “jdn. bestechen” or “Schmiergeld zahlen,” at least to talk about the giving side.
Congrats on the driver’s license!!
Nah, Rückstoß would not be understood in that sense. It’s really the physical phenomenon only.
I think I’d actually translate “kickback” as just “Anteil”, Schmiergeld is a little too specific. But it depends on context.
Oh, like getting your cut of something. Could you give an example with “Anteil”? My Google-fu is failing me.
Hmm, actually you give me an example with kickback and I’ll work my translation-fu :)
Fine!! No, for real though, it’s fun this way. :)
Here’s an example from a recent article about the new abortion law in Texas. Two sentences for context.
Okay, in that case “Schmiergeld” is definitely the best choice. Or “ließen sich bestechen”. Or “bekamen einen Anteil am “Gewinn””.
Thinking more about it, I think I’d go with “bekamen einen Anteil”. The verb “nehmen” sounds too proactive to me in German.
Interesting. Thanks!
First time I came across this word was as a euphemism for nailing someone and now it seems to pop up left and right. Denkanstoß is one I see in forums sometimes (Ich hoffe, ihr könnt mir ein paar Denkanstöße und Ratschläge geben).
I was curious if the Yiddish word shtup had any connection. Didn’t find a clear answer, but I did read that stupsen is related to stoßen. (I know exactly 0 Yiddish, but I had a professor who liked to make jokes about shtupping and used a very efficient hand gesture to explain what it means.)
Oh, and a link in case anyone is interested in seeing the wacky English family tree for this root.
Holy crap, this link is AWESOME!!! I looks like garbage on mobile, but the content is just 5 stars!
I’ll totally add that website to my sources.
Neither German nor English etymological sources mentioned the connection to “type” for example.
And boy oh boy are there many words.
I also wasn’t aware that “stupsen” fits in here, too. But it does make sense, as it is basically a small “Stoß”.
And yes, I am pretty sure “shtup” should be related as well… but I don’t know for a fact. So… load grainofsalt.exe.
Etymonline connects it to stupfen, which looks to be just a southern dialect variant of stupsen, so I think that’s right. Apparently it first meant “bother, annoy” in Yiddish.
Die Frau hatte also Kopfschmerzen, als das Wort erfunden wurde.
XDXDXD
oy vey
When I hit a toe on something I say “I stubbed my toe”. Don’t know if that translates the same in German.
Of course it does. It’s the same thing :).
Fabulous article, thank you! Very entertaining and informative. Btw, it’s a snooker (UK) or billiards cue (not queue..sigh, the joys of English!)
Wait, the stick is called “snooker”?? Like the game “snooker”? So I’d be playing snooker with a snooker?
No, he just means it is a cue.
I’m pretty sure Bogolino wants the word “cue” to distributes over the “or” in his sentence above: that is, you’d be “playing snooker with a snooker *cue*” (also known as a pool cue or a billiards cue).