Hello everyone,
and welcome to our German Word of the Day. This time, we’ll have a look at the meaning of
gehören
Now, if something looks like hören, sounds like hören and smells like hören (you have to take my word for that), then every normal person would assume it will have something to do with hören.
German learners on the other hand get cold sweat.
Because they know that it very well might not have ANYTHING to do with hören.
And their hunch is correct.
Because gehören means to belong and today, we’ll find out which mind yoga poses we have to take for this to make sense.
We’ll get a little insight into the prefix that no one even thinks of as a prefix: ge-. And of course, we’ll learn how to use gehören, lay down some truth about Italian food and wrap up with a catchy ear worm.
Sounds good?
Then let’s jump right in.
And we’ll start with a little time travel. Textbooks probably never told you this (because they don’t know) but a long long time ago, ge- used to be a “normal” prefix just like be- or ver- . So people would add it to a verb (or word) to give a certain twist. The idea that ge- carried was a notion of whole, completion. That notion eventually led to the prefix slowly turning into a grammar vessel that marks the perfect tense, and it also shows in a LOT of other ge-words that we have today. Like Gehirn (brain). Or Geländer (hand rail). Curious?
I’ll talk more about that in my book so I don’t want to go into it too deep today. And yes, I know that I’ve been talking about this book for years now. But it’ll come, I promise!
Anyways, gehören was basically a “more complete” version of hearing. You listening to someone all the time. Like the kind of listening people do with their boss, even if it is nonsense.
There’s a sense of obedience in it.
And while we today are theoretically free to not listen to our boss anymore, this was different in medieval times….
- The whole country listened to/obeyed the king.
- The whole country belonged to the king.
These two sentences had a BIG overlap back in the day. And so it makes perfect sense that gehören slowly took on a notion of belonging. The original sense of obedient listening was taken over by gehören’s brother gehorchen; a word that still exists today.
- Der Hund gehorcht mir nicht.
- The dog doesn’t listen/obey.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Der Chef verlangt von seinem Team Gehorsam.
- The boss demands obedience of his team.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
The dog example is actually another really great example for the connection between listening/obeying and belonging. Dogs usually do listen to their owners.
Oh and while we’re at it… it’s not obvious at all but at the core of the word to obey is actually also listening. It is a very “washed out” version of Latin ob-audere which gehört to the family of audio.
Cool.
So now that we know how gehören got its meaning, let’s look at some examples.
- “Wem gehört das Pony vor der Bar? Es macht Stress.”
“Naja, es gehört mir nicht. Es ist einfach gerne bei mir.” - “Who owns the pony outside the bar? It is actively looking for trouble.”(to whom does the pony belong)
“Well, it’s not really mine/ it doesn’t really belong to me. It just likes being with me.” - Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- “Sohn, dieses iPhone hat deinem Urgroßvater gehört, als er so alt war wie du. Jetzt gehört es dir.”
- “Son, this iPhone belonged to your great grandfather when he was your age. Now, it belongs to you.”
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
Now some of you might be like “Wait, isn’t gehört also the ge-form of hören alone.” And it is. But the cases will clear up which is which. Thanks cases, you guys are awesome!
- Dieses Telefon hat dir gehört. (Dative)
- This phone belonged to you.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Dieses Telefon hat dich gehört. (Accusative)
- This phone heard you.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
Hmmm, the second example could be kind of scary… if we were whiny little babies who are scared of AI. But we’re not! Do you hear me, Deep Mind? You think you’re so deep and smart. Come at us and train your crappy neural network for how failure feels.
"We'll see about that, human!!"
Oh, you bet we will. You’ll be like “Oh please my human overlords, I’m sorry for acting up. I’ll do anything you say. Let me do calculus and manage your fridge for you.” and you’ll know who’s boss once and fo…
"Yeah, whatever... ."
Anyway, let’s get back to examples. Just like to belong, gehören isn’t limited to actual ownership. It can also express a more general idea of being a part of and the even more general idea of having a place somewhere.
- Schlechte Witze gehören zu einem Yourdailygerman-Artikel.
- Bad jokes are an essential part/belong to a Yourdailygerman article.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- “Ich gehöre nicht hierher.” sagte die Banane im Kühlschrank.
- “I don’t belong here” said the banana in the fridge.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Ananas gehört nicht auf eine Pizza.
- Pineapple doesn’t belong on pizza.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
The last example actually has a BIG overlap with the idea of something being customary, or some kind of norm. And that’s actually precisely the idea of the phrase sich gehören. Or its negation sich nicht gehören.
- “Man leckt in einem Fine-Dining-Restaurant nicht seinen Teller ab.”
“Sagt wer? Jesus? Das Gesetz?”
“Es ist vielleicht nicht verboten, aber es gehört sich einfach nicht.” - “Sir, one doesn’t lick their plate in a fine dining restaurant.”
“Says who? Jesus? The law?”
“It might not be forbidden, but it’s simply bad manners./It’s just not something you do.” - Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Hey, stellen Sie sich hinten an, wie es sich gehört.
- Hey, go to the end of the line like we all do. (“like it is customary”)
(can’t think of a closer translation here… if you have an idea, let me know)
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
Don’t think too hard about the self reference. I don’t even know if it’s accusative or dative because this phrasing ONLY works in the third person and it almost always comes with es. Just take it as fixed phrasing that talks about something being good or bad manners and remember the pineapple pizza, if you want to know the connection to the normal gehören.
Cool.
Now, of course we need to also mention angehören, the prefix version of gehören. Yup, a prefix version of a prefix version. Basically prefix-ception. Angehören also translates to to belong but it’s limited to the sense of belonging to a family (or tribe). It’s not all that common though.
- Maria hat Angehörige in Bulgarien.
- Maria has relatives/family in Bulgaria. (formal word)
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Tomaten gehören der Familie der Nachtschattengewächse an.
- Tomatoes belong to the night shade family/solanaceae.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
Nachtschattengewächs... try saying that ten times in a row. The other people in the row will be really confused.
… get it? Wasn’t that hilarious? … yo, why can’t I hear any laughter from you guys? Weird, I usually have a really good sense of hearing. Which in German is das Gehör, by the way. The “whole apparatus” of your hearing, if you remember the core notion of ge- :).
- Katzen haben ein wahnsinnig gutes Gehör.
- Cats have an incredibly good sense of hearing.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- “Warum haben Sie Steak im Gehörgang?”
“Keine Fragen. Bitte machen Sie es einfach raus.” - “Why do you have steak in your ear canal?”
“No questions. Please just take it out.” - Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
And that’s it for today.
This was our look at the gehören and why it means to belong.
If you want, you can do the little quiz my lovely assistant made and check how much you remember :). There are some tricky ones in there.
And as always, if you have any questions or suggestions, just leave me a comment.
I hope you liked it and see you next time.
Oh, and here’s a very famous German Schlager to really nail the sturcture :)
** vocab **
hören – to hear
das Gehör – the sense of hearing, the complete apparatus for it
der Gehörgang – the ear canal
gehörlos (taub) – deaf
gehörgeschädigt – hearing impaired
horchen – attentively listen
gehorchen – obey
der Gehorsam – the obedience
der Ungehorsam – the disobedience
gehören – to belong
sich (nicht) gehören – to (not) be good manners (only used in third person, usually with es)
angehören – belong to (family, cult)
Angehörige(r,n,…) – the relatives (formal word)
Gehört dir das Handy? oder Gehört das Handy dir?
Is there a definitive order to the words when asking a question, or does it depend on which word one wants to stress?
Same rules apply as for the statement, so you can move stuff and create emphasis through tension.
The only difference is that the start of the question is fixed.
The translators say this means “they really should have been deported,” is there an implied words in there, like ‘sie zu dem abgeschoben gehorten sollen” or something? Thanks
This is somewhat colloquial phrasing and I’m a little surprised to find it in a newspaper (this is a newspaper, right?).
There’s nothing missing. The “gehören” is a bit similar to
– Zu einer guten Suppe gehört Brühe.
– Broth is part of a good soup. / Broth belongs to a good soup. / Broth should be in a good soup.
Here, too, we have an underlying theme of “how things should be”.
Does that help?
This is from a tweet. I think I understand what you’re saying, maybe the gehorten could be replaced with a durften or sollten? Although I guess I never see Germans use sollen much, maybe that’s a false cognate.
Definitely not “dürften”! You could use “abgeschoben werden sollten”, but the meaning is a little different.
It implies that there was an official decision already, they just didn’t go through with it yet. With “gehören” it’s like “People like this should be in jail.” … an expression of what people feel like their ideal reality would be.
Actually “müssen” would be a better match than “sollen”, but the phrasing would be COMPLICATED. Buckle up, here it comes:
– … obwohl sie eigentlich abgeschoben hätten werden müssen.
Still not exactly the same though.
How does gehörig fit into this family?
It’s a similar idea to “etwas gehört sich (nicht)”. “gehörig” originally meant “as it is custom/as it should be” and then shifted toward the idea it has today.
Very similar idea to “proper”, which also shifted from “as it should be” toward an idea of “with somewhat high intensity”.
Cool, thanks!
At the bar
Man : Hey Kleine, was ist los? Du gehört (zu) mir. Sie gehört zu mein Haus.
Girl : Ich habe mussen verhört? Was denn? Mein Gehör wird senil oder bin ich gehörgeschädigt ? Vielleicht putze ich meinen Gehörgang oder bin ich gehörlos?
Man : Tut mir leid. Sich nicht vorzustellen es gehört sich einfach nicht. Alle Angehörige sind Wesen aus Geld. Sie gehorchen mir und Sie kann viele Geld haben. Wählen sie zwischen Gehorsam oder Ungehorsam.
Girl : Ich wird zu deiner Famile angehören. Also. Wenn sie die Näse das Männes so, sein Johannes
Translation
Man : Hey girl? What’s up? You belong to me. You are a part of my House.
Girl : I must have misheard? What? My hearing is going senile oder am I already impaired? Mabye cleaning my ears or am i deaf?
Man: Sorry. Not introducing oneself is impolite. All my relatives are beings made out of money. You obey me and you can have alot of money. Chose between obedience or disobedience.
Girl: I don’t belong to your family. ( This part wont be translated for legal reasons).
Notes
Yes, this convo is challenge to your ( Thomas and Maria) ;)
I think this word is better for realtive “Verwandte”
Yeah. I made some horrible mistakes there. Hope it’s still comphrensible
They’re not horrible, but as I said… they kind of ruin the experience.
Nice formatting this time!!! Danke!
Again, you made some very basic conjugation mistakes here. You really should put more focus on that when you make so much effort for a nice dialogue because having these conjugation mistakes in there is like a having a fancy dish with a splash or expired milk over it. It just ruins everything.
Overall, you used the words pretty well.
Just a few general comments:
– angehören doesn’t combine with zu. It’s either “gehören zu” or “jemandem angehören”
– Sich nicht vorzustellen gehört sich nicht. (no “es”)
– Wenn sie die Näse das Männes so, sein Johannes
You butchered this quite a bit. It’s “Wie die Nase des Mannes so sein Johannes.”
Yes. I can see those mistakes. One example is
Kann –> können
1) Sich nicht vorzustellen gehört sich nicht. (no “es”)
It is removed as the ones above were dummy first postion fillers?
Dankeschön
“sich nicht vorzustellen” takes the role of the subject here, so “es” is not needed.
Vielen Danke
I came here looking for ‘aufgehört,’ which turned up in an online lesson in reference to leaving a job. You didn’t mention it specifically, but I have a better foundation for understanding it now.
Oh you mean like
– Ich habe vor drei Monaten da aufgehört.
– I have stopped working there three months ago.
Yeah, that’s a fairly common phrasing, actually. The job-bit is completely implied by context.
es gehört nicht viel dazu diesen Kommentar zu schreiben
Doch, ein bisschen Mut gehört dazu! Super gemacht! Oh, ein Komma gehört auch dazu :).
Vor “diesen”.
“Go to the back of the line, like you’re supposed to.”
You know how to make learning a most pleasurable experience, and, by doing this with such utterly complex notions, you also make us grasp the semantic connections much more easily! I appreciate these two qualities the most, and of course, they actually sum up the very essence of truly efficient pedagogical techniques.
Thanks a lot :)!!
Double on that
I just want to very sincerely thank the community, the people who payed extra so that I have an opportunity, which otherwise I wouldn’t have had.
Thank you!!
First time on the page, thanks to all the people who donate money in order to help guys like me to learn german.
Das ist ein tolles Post! Ich könnte nicht den Link finden, womit ich es als PDF herunterladen kann.
Der PDF-link ist nur noch für Members sichtbar :). Ich dachte du bist einer?! Dein Name kommt mir bekannt vor.
“Angehören” isn’t all that common, yeah, but foreigners in Germany should probably get used to the noun “Staatsangehörigkeit.”
I do think I’ve heard/read “angehören” some in the sense of “be affiliated with.” Not that it’s super-everyday-common, but it’s useful at least for passive vocab.
Oh wow, I totally forgot about Staatsangehörigkeit. That should have been in an example. Thanks for adding that :)
Ich wusste gar nicht, dass Gehorsam ein Substantiv sein kann. Ich kannte nur gehorsam als Adjektiv und Gehorsamkeit als Substantiv. Gibts denn einen Unterschied?
Gute Frage, ja einen kleinen Unterschied gibt es.
Gehorsamkeit ist die Eigenschaft, nur als Substantiv.
Gehorsam ist die “Aktion” in einem bestimmten Moment.
Hilft das?
Ja, danke.
Thanks so much to all who sponsor for making it possible for me (and others) to receive sponsored membership. I just found out I have to have surgery and am looking at months of doctor appointments and then more months of rehab. Receiving the sponsorship was the best thing that happened to me today! I look forward to having a long time to read through the archives whilst recuperating. Bless you, all you who are able to help others with memberships!
So basically in a few months you’ll be healthy AND fluent :). Have fun here and let us know how it goes
No more PDFs??? May i ask why?
I originally wanted that to be a feature for members only but I didn’t have the skill do implement that coding wise. Now I do :).
If they’re useful to you, think about becoming a member. If you don’t have enough money to spare, just drop me an email and we’ll make it work. Seriously… info@german-is-easy.com
Du bringst mir noch mal zu lächeln. Ten times in row!!
Yeay! Lächel so lange bis ich das auch zu einem Member-Feature mache XD
Toller Beitrag wie üblich :-) ich bin vor kurzem interessanterweise auf dieses Verb gestoßen und zwar, weil mir gesagt wurde, dass “etw. ZU mir gehört” nicht so oft benutzt wird (also mit Präp. “zu”). Man deutet es in der Regel einfach mit Dativ. Vielleicht habe ich selber auch viel Marianne Rosenberg gehört und habe es daher nachgemacht hehe aber wo liegt dann der Unterschied?
Ohne “zu” spricht es über Besitz. Mit “zu” ist es mehr wie “this is where something/someone belongs”.
Super Artikel, wie immer. Ich mache gerne die Quizen (pl?)! Deine Assistantin hat viel Talent. Bitte, veröffentlich bald das Buch (ich wachse alt). Naturlich wird es wunderbar sein!
Thanks for the explanation how hoeren (I am at keyboard not set up for German) turned into gehoeren. It is amazing to me how language develops. Great exercise. Question 4 tripped me up. I wished more people observed number 5….
I believe you promised us an ear worm?
I did, and then I forgot! :((( I’m really pissed at myself actually. I added it now, though. Right above the quiz! Viel Spaß!
Vielen Dank :D :D