Hello everyone,
and welcome to a new episode of our series German Prepositions Explained. And you know how series have these episodes that are kind of slow.
Like… people talk and a thing or two happens but at the end you kind feel like there was no real progression.
Today is gonna be one of those episodes because we’ll take a look at the meaning of
mit
Okay, of course I don’t mean it’s going to be boring.
But mit just isn’t all that difficult.
I think all of you know that it means with.
- Ich komme mit dem Fahrrad.
- I’ll come by bike.
Okay… I… I guess that examples was kind of a fail. So mit CAN have other translations from time to time, but that’s just normal and overall the idea of with is pretty clear.
And case-wise mit goes with Dative which is also easy to remember because mit starts with m and Dative kind of ends with it… I mean, the article dem does… you know what I mean.
But yeah, the reason we’re even doing an episode about mit are the prefix verbs. Because there are quite a few colloquial ones that textbooks miss out on and people sometimes struggle to pin down.
So, today we’ll basically explore mit as a prefix.
Here are the sections if you want to jump around:
- “mit” – The Idea of “joining”
- “mit” – The Idea of “taking along”
- Why it’s kind of the same stuff
- “damit” – A Quick look at the meaning
And now let’s jump right in :).
Now, if we take a prefix verb with mit and just try to translate it as with, that’s going to sound a bit odd. But it gets much clearer if we think of it as along(side).
That perfectly fits the different themes that mit-verbs can have. I mean… they’re not that different, but still.
And one of the things that can is often expressed through mit-verbs is the idea of joining.
“mit” – The idea of “joining”
Adding mit to a verb can express that you do whatever the verb is alongside with others. And the most generic example for it is mitmachen. Which basically means… to join.
- Wie kann ich bei dem Projekt mitmachen?
- How can I join in on the project.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- “Mach mit!”
- “Join us/in!
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
And while mitmachen can be found for all kinds of activities, we can of course also use a more specific verb.
- Wer den Film nicht gesehen hat, kann nicht mitreden.
- Who hasn’t seen the movie cannot talk/join the discussion (as in: should shut up)
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Kann ich mitspielen?
- Can I join your playing?
(Super common among kids. What’s the standard sand box phrasing in English?) - Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Meine Freundin ist voll der Gillmore Girls -Fan und ich hab gestern mal mitgeguckt und ich fand es echt überraschend gut.
- My girlfriend is such a big fan of Gilmore Girls and yesterday I joined her and watched an episode and it was surprisingly good.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Wir gehen was trinken. Willst du mitkommen?
- We’re going for a few drinks. Wanne come along/join us?
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- “Oh das riecht aber lecker.”
“Ja, ist ein Chili. Willst du mitessen?”
“Gerne.” - “Oh that smells really good.”
“Yeah, it’s a chili. Do you want some? (“Do you want to join the eating?”)
“Definitely, thanks.” - Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
Oh, and speaking of mitessen… do you know these little brown or black spots on the skin that release some greasy matter when you pinch them? They’re mostly on the nose? In English they’re sometimes called blackheads, just like on the 2020 expansion pack of COD – Warzone: Blackheads – Mission nasal wing.”
Anyway, the “official” name for those things is comedo and guess where that comes from: the Latin word for eating. Because it was believed that those black things are in fact little worms that live off of us. And now guess what they’re called in German… exactly Mitesser.
We eat, they join right in.
“Äh… ich glaub ich will grad doch kein Chili.”
Cool :).
Now, the theme of joining is pretty clear, I think, so let’s move on to the next one.
And that is the idea of … well… along in a sense of with you.
Yeah… as I said in the intro… it’s really not all that difficult :)
“mit” – The idea of “bringing along”
And the best example for this one is probably the verb mitbringen.
- Ich bringe dir dein Buch mit.
- I’ll bring (along) your book (with me).
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
In English, you wouldn’t even necessarily translate the mit but in German, the sentence feels weird without it.
For one thing, without mit it sounds like I come ONLY to bring you the book. The mit makes it clear, that the bringing is a “side effect” of the fact that I am coming anyway. And also, it gives the sentences this nice prefix at the end, that German loves so much.
Here’s another example…
- Bring Bier mit!
- Bring some beer!
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
And here’s the same idea but with nehmen
- Liebe Grillfreunde… bitte nehmt euren Müll mit.
- Dear BBQ-Fans… please take you trash with you.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
Without the mit, the sentence would sound incomplete. Just like in English actually, if you take out “with you”.
Oh and another REALLY common verb is mithaben, which is about the idea of having something with you.
- Thomas hatte sein Handy nicht mit.
- Thomas hadn’t taken his phone with him.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Der Wanderer hatte Glück, dass er Einhornspray mithatte.
- The hiker was lucky that he had the unicorn spray with him.
This mithaben is definitely one of those verbs that’ll make you sound super native so you should definitely add it to your active vocabulary.
Cool.
Now, if we wanted to, I guess we could make up a couple of more somewhat distinct themes for usage but honestly…. we might as well just look over a few more examples.
Why it’s really all the same stuff
Actually, the distinctions we’ve made might be more limiting than they’re helpful. Like… we already had mitmachen and mitessen with the sense of joining. But they can show up in other contexts as well.
- Die Schale kannst du mitessen. Das sind Bio-Kartoffeln.
- You can eat the peel. These are organic potatoes.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- “Ich mache mir einen Cappuccino.”
“Oh, kannst du mir einen mitmachen?” - “I’m gonna make myself a cappuccino.”
“Oh can you make me one, too?”
Here, the idea of mit is a sense of as well, but the core idea is still very much a sense of along.
And that goes for all mit-verbs… some are a bit abstract and the translations might seem a little odd at first glance, but with the sense of along in mind, they make perfect sense.
- Ich schreibe im Unterricht nie mit.
- I never take notes in class.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Die Erklärung war zu schnell. Ich bin nicht mitgekommen.
- The explanation was too fast. I couldn’t follow/keep up.
The most abstract ones I could think of are mitkriegen and mitbekommen … which are the same, essentially, because kriegen and bekommen are synonyms
So yeah, mitkriegen and mitbekommen are a colloquial option for noticing or realizing, and the idea is that you, as well, get a share of the information.
- Wenn mein Fenster zu ist, kriege ich von der Party draußen fast nichts mit.
- When my window is closed I don’t hear much from the party outside.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Hast du mitbekommen, dass Maria ganz schön dick geworden ist. Vielleicht ist sie schwanger.
- Have you noticed that Maria has grown somewhat large. Maybe she’s pregnant.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
But that’s really about as abstract as it gets with mit.
Not much mind yoga needed for once.
Still, mit-verbs are pretty common in colloquial daily German, and there are also some really nice nouns.
Like das Mitleid for example, which is the German noun for pity. Or the very famous Mitbewohner, which roughly translates to person who never cleans up the kitchen after cooking.
There are plenty more but I think you can understand all of them from context.
There is one thing about mit, though, that does confuse students. And that’s the infamous da-word… damit.
Using “damit” – A Quick Look
Now, we’ve talked about the da-words some other time but since – in all those text books and courses – damit totally seems to be a thing let’s have a peek at it real quick.
Damit is often talked about under the headline “final clause”. I don’t really know what that is though. I’m a little clausetrophobic … ahem… get it? I just made a pun… … … …. okay, never mind.
So, here’s the deal. For many of the things we do in daily life we need a tool… a bike to bike, a key to pass the test, a lighter to lighten up. So we have a tool, and we do what we want to do with it. With it. Damit. Tadah… so damit has the built in idea of help with accomplishing a goal. Now, not only tools can be a means to an end. Also an activity. And over time damit developed into a functional word that can connect activities or … verbs.
The “normal” use is this:
- Ich habe ein Fahrrad. Damit kann ich zur Arbeit fahren.
- I have a bike. With it I can go to work
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
and the functional use is this:
- Ich habe ein Fahrrad, damit ich zur Arbeit fahren kann.
- I have a bike so (that) I can go to work.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
In the first sentence the bike is my tool, in the second having a bike is the tool. The structures are totally different but the content is kind of similar, albeit not identical. So, this is where the functional damit comes from. The so that meaning.
And what about um zu? Well, that expresses the same idea with a different grammar. And it is more limited,because it only works if the subject in both parts of the sentence is the same. Just like in the bike-example.
Let’s look at another example with both ways back to back and then we’ll finish, all right?
- Thomas … , damit er Maria nicht weckt.
- Thomas steht sehr leise auf, um Maria nicht zu wecken.
- Thomas gets up very quietly, so that he doesn’t/so as to not wake Maria.
- Thomas steht sehr leise auf, damit Maria nicht aufwacht.
- Thomas gets up very quietly so that Maria doesn’t wake up.
In the first example, Thomas is the subject in both parts, so I can use um zu. In the second example, Thomas is the subject in the first part, while Maria is the subject in the second part and hence, um zu is not an option and damit is what we need.
And speaking of what we need… I don’t know about you, but I need a nice cold beer now. And it’s well deserved because we’re done for today :). Hooray.
This was our look at the meaning and use of the preposition mit,in particular as a prefix. And even though it wasn’t all that mind blowing, I hope you learned a few useful things.
At least verbs like mithaben or mitmachen are really worth adding to your active vocabulary.
As usual, if you have any questions about today, just leave a comment.
I hope you liked it and see you next time.
Oh … by the way… here’s a common German idiom. Our teachers used that in elementary school after some of us had done something stupid during lunch break … can you guess what it means?
- Mitgegangen, mitgefangen, mitgehangen.
Hint: they used it to legitimize their unjust collective reprimands … that’s right!! I have not forgotten!!!!
further reading:
** vocab **
mit = with
mitmachen = to join (an activity); make something for another person (while you’re making it for yourself); put up with (usually used with a negation)
mitreden = to talk, to join the discussion
mitessen = join eating, eat with someone
der Mitesser = the blackhead
mitbringen = bring along (doesn’t work if bringing is the only purpose of your going somewhere)
mitnehmen = take with you
mithaben = have with you, have on you (colloquial)
mitschreiben = write along (as someone is talking)
mitdenken = to think along
mitteilen = to let someone know something
mitkommen = to come with someone, to join (very common in context of inviting friends for events)
mitbekommen = to hear, to learn (in the sense of picking up a piece of information, usually “mitkriegen” in spoken)
mitkriegen = to hear, to learn (in the sense of picking up a piece of information, fancy version is “mitbekommen”)
der Mitarbeiter = the employee, the coworker
das Mitleid = the compassion
das Selbstmitleid = the self pity
die Mitteilung = the notification, the message
der Mitbewohner = the flat mate
damit = with that; so that (conjunction)
mitgegangen, mitgefangen, mitgehangen = In for a penny, in for a pound (idiom)
Vielen Dank für die Erklärung des Unterschieds zwischen damit und um zu!
Ein weiterer Zweifel, der mich zwei Tage lang geplagt hat, weil Mit manchmal nicht am Ende ist?
z.b.
Ich komme mit in die Berge(warum nicht
Ich komme in die Berge mit ??)
Help
Sorry, I only saw this now 2 months late!!
“mit in die Berge” vs “in die Berge mit”
Both are possible and idiomatic, and the first one is more common.
Part of the reason is the current trend in German to “externalize” prepositional phrases to behind the prefix slot at the end.
But I think more important here is that “mit in die Berge” kind of blends into one “thing”. You could maybe see it as “mit (someone) in die Berge kommen” but the someone has been skipped.
It’s a bit like “hin” and “her” which also tend to just jump around and connect to and disconnect from the verb at “will”.
Hope that helps a bit!
Hey Emanuel!
I was reading the article and stumbled upon this sentence:
And my question is: why is it “kann” and not “können” here?
I probably miss something here to understand that completely.
Thanks in advance
The subject of the damit-sentence is “ich” – “ich kann”.
– Ich kann zur Arbeit fahren.
– …, damit ich zur Arbeit fahren kann.
Why would you use “können” here?
I see my mistake now, I thought that the subject for “fahren” is “Ich” (Don’t even ask me how)
Now I have another question, why is “kann” sent all the way to the end in this sentence? I haven’t completely covered the word order yet so tut mir leid if this question sounds stupid.
Thanks again
Not sure why I never saw this comment until now.
“damit” creates what I call “side sentence”. The official term is “subordinate clause”.
The common feature is that they have all the verbs pile up at home (at the end).
The verb that was on position 2 just goes to the end.
“kann” just moved to the rear and queued up.
Hope that helps.
Komischerweise I haven’t used this site for a month too and you replied most likely exactly when I stopped because I mostly practice math now
I thought you didn’t reply cause the question was stupid, I actually recall I did research the same day and found out that I hadn’t covered the word order by that moment yet so I just didn’t have this knowledge of side sentence as something firm in my mind yet but I did completely dip my head into this then. Thanks for a late reply though! Better late than never as they say, could help somebody else on the same way as me :D
The only reason I don’t reply is because I forget or didn’t see the comment. If I think a question is stupid or lazy, I’ll usually reply by saying that, but it doesn’t happen often :)
Hi Emmanuel,
Can you give an example with “mitmachen” with the meaning of “put up with” (usually used with a negation) as you mentioned, please.
Thanks!
Check out my entry for the verb in my dictionary :).
Third meaning has the examples
https://yourdailygerman.com/meaning/mag/machen/mitmachen/
Thank you very much Emanuel for the access of the subscription
“Meine Katze will auf meinem Bett bei mir liegen.”
I thought I was using bei correctly as the cat loves to snuggle right next to wherever I am…it’s a big bed.. However, the Google wants:
Meine Katze will mit mir auf meinem Bett liegen
Phrase order aside, why is Mit a better choice? Is it?
thanks
“bei” sounds a little off.
For your context, I would use “neben mir”, or “direkt neben mir” to make it clear that she can also be one the bed but NOT directly next to you.
Would the closeness be implied in English when you say just “with me on the bed”?
Actually, on second thought:
Sounds okay. Or “dicht/direkt bei mir”. I think it was more the word order and the double use of possessive that made your original version sound weird.
Overly possessive Americans create overly possessive German sentences :)
“Mir tun die Beine weh” – my brain really wants ‘meine Beine’. Else it could mean Mir tun deine Beine weh or seine Beine – and my brain is asking whose hands are hurting me? :)
My word order choice for the two inner phrases ‘auf meinem Bett’ und ‘bei Mir’ were chosen because I thought in your German word order article (that debunks Time Manner Place / TMP) you hinted that putting the important thing last gave it emphasis. Thus I placed ‘bei Mir’ at the end to make that more important. I will re-read, as I got it wrong.
And not to make this a tome, but this (BEI vs MIT) has been an issue for me since a few months ago and I was on Zwift (a global internet cycling system). I commented to an international group of fellow riders (many whom were German) that:
“Ich muss immer mit Diego bleiben” Diego is the virtual pace-rider who sets the tempo (on this particular ride). A German speaker commented “bei” – which I took to mean “Hey Yank, use BEI in these kinds of sentences”
I read your Bei entry and article, and I read the Mit entry and article. If you have nothing to do, a Mit gegen Bei guide would be great. Thanks again
Ha, I think it’s not just Americans that want a “my legs” there. I think, German is a little odd with these phrasings.
As for sentence structure:
It actually makes sense what you’re saying but then you’d have to emphasize “mir” either vocally or with spelling (all caps), so I know you really want to stress there.
Also, you’d really only do that, when you want to contrast it with an implied alternative.
Otherwise, “bei mir auf dem Bett” is pretty much one unit to a German mind. Together it forms the “where” box.
As for “mit” vs “bei”… “bei” is used to express being with someone at a location/life phase. “mit” is used in contexts where you join someone doing an activity.
In your context, the focus is on WHERE you are riding, so it’s about location, not that you’re cycling together.
Very brief, but does that help?
Yes, it does help. Thank you. Bei with the cat, and Bei with my virtual cycling partner as we cruise down the road.
But since we are here…I have another question. I make flashcards for myself that have common daily phrases. Many of these repeat with variations of the verb or noun. Today I wanted to work “Gestern war es _________” and thus, I started with: “Gestern war es schön draußen” – I was going to make variations of temperature, cloudy, hot, vorgestern, et al. However on the first variation, when I checked in Google “Gestern war es heiß draußen”, it was corrected to “Gestern war es draußen heiß” inverting the position of draußen. But then Google flipped back to “Gestern war es kalt draußen” when cold was used!
Wet, dry, cloudy, and more cause the position of draußen to move to the end or not.
Does this mean it doesn’t matter? Is there something special about some of these adjectives?
Very interesting!
That is an example where Google seems to know what’s more or less idiomatic, without there being ANY rules. I agree with its choices, but the alternatives are not wrong and don’t sound really weird.
There’s no rule there, I think “draußen” at the end the overall the better choice.
This is one of the paralyzing aspects of learning German and checking with Google; you think you have a phrase working, but unless someone (like you) says explicitly “This is the best way to say it” one never knows.
For another example – I’m quizzing myself on floors or levels:
“Unterwäsche ist im zweiten Stock” but when I change the noun to “My studio” Google shifts everything to “Mein Atelier befindet sich im zweiten Stock” – ?!?!? Why not just “Mein Studio ist im zweiten Stock”? If the sentence structure is good enough for underwear, it has to be good enough for my studio, right?
It makes me think that the basic “WHATEVER ist im zweiten Stock” is a bad sentence structure to learn.
Also – can I make a website request? The ability to find one’s comment – which right now means to find the gear looking icon found near the comments of an article. I usually drop into the home page which has no comments. The Members tab in the Nav bar already has My Profile and My Notes. It seems My Comments would be a logical companion to these, and it would help me find your responses to all the questions I ask. Thanks
Great suggestion, I’ll put the “my comments” thing on the list.
As for the examples… Google switches here between super colloquial and more high register German.
This is totally fine and it could also be “liegt”.
I think it’s better to learn these things through exposure (reading, listening).
You’ll hear how people express it in different contexts and you’ll pick it up over time.
Hallo Emanuel –
Dein Thema war wieder einmal goldrichtig! Ich war neugierig auf die Konstruktion mit “voll”….(Meine Freundin ist voll der Gillmore Girls -Fan und ich hab gestern mal mitgeguckt und ich fand es echt überraschend gut.) Ich habe versucht, meinen Verstand zu beugen, um zu sehen, wie “voll” sich darauf bezieht, etwas zu mögen/ein Fan zu sein?
Außerdem scheint es so, als ob mithaben und dabeihaben einige Überschneidungen haben?
Mit freundlichen Grüßen
Ja, “mithaben” und “dabei haben” are very very very similar. Like… the same pretty much :).
As for “voll”… the whole liking part here is expressed by “fan”, not by “voll”. “voll” is just an intensifier here.
For more about that you can check out my article on “voll” here:
https://yourdailygerman.com/voll-meaning/
Hi Emanuel,
Thank you for the great article!
A couple of quick questions if I may:
1) if I want to join some colleagues who are already eating their lunch, does „kann ich mitessen?“ work if I am going to bring my own food? Or would it suggest that I want to share their food?
2) can one add „mit“ to any verb where appropriate, or are there a specific list of mit-verbs? e.g., picking up on your coffee example above, if a friend said s/he was going to get (holen) a coffee, could I say „kannst du mir einen mitholen“ (to mean “can you please get one for me too?”)
Many thanks in advance
Ade
Nice questions!!
1) “mitessen” does imply that you eat their food, so I wouldn’t use that in this contexts. Idiomatic options would be this:
2) “mit” is pretty “productive” so you can definitely make up new verbs and you have a high chance of them working. “mitholen” would work perfectly, though most people would say “mitbringen”, just because it already exists.
That’s not a 100% guarantee though. Some of the made up ones might sound weird, but there’s no list, so feel free to play around!
“Can I join your playing?”
I would say “Can I play along?” (US English)
Even if it’s not music? Like, for hide and seek, would that work?
My two cents if I was joining a pre-established group playing hide and go seek:
Can I play (understood that it is joining the group)
Can I play with you / y’all
Can i play too
Can I play also (bad English I know but it is real)
Can I join
Can I join the game
”can I join your playing” sounds like Data from Star Trek. That is a nerdy kid who wants to join.
Join the discussion…
Nette “Böse Tote”-Schilderung ;)
Woran kann man denn “mit” *nicht* anfügen? Ich glaub, es geht sogar mit werden:
– Wir gehen ins Kino.
– Ich würd gerne mit.
Wenn es geht, dann ist es ja “mitwerden” (wie “hinsollen” und andere “elliptische” umgangsprachliche Verben).
Immerhin: man hätte hier wahrscheinlich auch das Adverb-“mit” erwähnen sollen, weil es eigentlich nicht so selten vorkommt. “Man darf keine Tiere mit ins Flugzeug nehmen” usw.
In dem Satz “Ich würde gerne mit.” läst man Umgangssprachlich ein Wort weg, nähmlich “kommen” was dann “mitkommen” daraus mach. “mitwerden” gibt es nicht.
“Mitwerden” ist wirklich ein extremes Beispiel aber fr “mitkönnen”findet sich im Netz schon mancher Treffer.
Du hast halt was ich gesagt habe anders ausgedrückt.
“elliptische” umgangsprachliche” bedeutet eben derartige umgangssprachliche Abkürzungen, die die Form der Verben annehmen. Und da es sie eigentlich gibt (z.B. hinsollen), wieso soll es – auch wenn nur tgeoretisch – nicht “mitwerden” geben?
Interessanterweise kommt eigentlich das Substantiv “Mitwerden” in manchen Büchern vor. Und ein paar Treffer ergeben sich für “mitzuwerden”.
Also es klingt bei “schlafen” aber sonst geht echt fast alles. Wahrscheinlich gerade weil es noch so sehr stark “adverbig” ist. In der Umganssprache kommen mitkönnen, mitsollen und sogar mitsein definitiv vor. Aber offiziell noch nicht. Da ist der Duden dann doch nicht progressiv genug für.
Oh…hab’ grad gesehen, dass “mitkönnen” im Duden is… never mind also :)
“mitsollen” und “mitsein” gibt es meiner Meinung nach nicht. Sätze die mit diesen gebildet werden, sind eigentlich immer verkürzt. Zum Beispiel der Satz “Du bist mit.” ist meiner Meinung nach “Du bist mit gekommen.”
Heh, wem soll ich nämlich trauen – deiner Meinung oder dem Duden? ;)
http://www.duden. de/rechtschreibung/mitsollen
mitsollen
Wortart: unregelmäßiges Verb
Worttrennung:
mit|sol|len
Beispiel:
weil der Hund mitsoll
Deiner eigenen Meinung :)… was spielt es denn für eine Rolle ob es das “gibt”, oder nicht, wenn man nicht grade eine linguistische Arbeit schreibt. Wenn du es als Wort siehst, okay, wenn du es nicht als Wort siehst, ebenso okay. Die Trennung ist bei Präfixverben eh unscharf.
Ja, ist ja auch so… für mich ist auch
– Ich bin einkaufen.
verkürzt. Alles eine Definitionssache, im Endeffekt :)
OK cool, verstehe! Vielen Dank :-)
Ja, “Ich komme dir mit” klingt mir total komisch, aber ich verstehe immer noch nicht den Unterschied zwischen “Ich komme mit dir mit” und bloß “Ich komme mit dir”. Gibt es überhaupt einen?
Danke :)
“Ich komme mit dir” klingt für meine Ohren nicht komplett. Oder ein bisschen alt, je nachdem. Das Problem ist, dass die wo-Box in diesen Satz fehlt. In English ist das ok
– I’m coming with you.
In Deutsch ist das so nicht idiomatisch und ich hätte den Impuls zu fragen:
– Wohin?? Wohin kommst du mit mir.
Natürlich weiß ich es, denn ich gehe ja dahin, aber trotzdem… es klingt für mich so wie
– I give you.
What?
Ich komme mit dir.
is absolutly correct and just means the same as
Ich komme mit dir mit.
but i think it’s a phrase and therefore an exception from the rules.
Ich finde den Blog super. Weiter so.
Grüße
mio991
Hey Emanuel, first off thanks so much for this blog, I always enjoy reading the entries and learning new quirks of German (and English, for that matter).
I wanted to ask about the doubled use of “mit” in certain situations; I can’t think of a good example off the top of my head, but I’m sure I’ve heard people say things like “Nimm das mit dir mit” or something similar. I suppose the first one is needed to connect with the dative object and the last one as the separable prefix. I’m just wondering whether this is standard usage or colloquial?
Good question… this kind of doubling of what look like prepositions does occur quite a bit and not only with “mit”.
You’re interpretation is perfect
– Ich komme mit.
This is a correct sentence. But we might ask “with whom”… and that’s what the other “mit” does. It connects the thing (object) and demands Dative. And if you want to specify the person you accompany you must use it.
– Ich komme dir/dich mit…. is wrong
And that’s why it’s definitely standard, so even if it feels stupid to you …don’t worry, it’s totally fine.
Danke. Ich dachte, dass “andere” in diesem Satz stehen kann, weil sie beide Frauen sind.
Ne eben nich :)… das eine ist ein Mädchen, das andere eine Frau. Das liegt auch nicht am Artikel.
– Der Mann ist ein Eis und der andere Junge einen Apfel
Das klingt genauso komisch
Gestern sah ich eine Werbung im Fernseher, in der eine Frau zu anderem Mädchen sagte:
Kann ich deine E-mail MITLESEN :)
Kleine Korrektur:
– … im Fernsehen… zu einem Mädchen …
Man nimmt “Fernsehen” als Abstraktum und nicht das Gerät. Und es ist ja nur ein Mädchen da, daher passt “anderem” hier nicht.
Sind aber echt nur Kleinigkeiten.
(Make that “eingerostet.” Told you…)
Love this blog! We’re freshly returned to Berlin after 4 years back in the States and trying to rehabilitate our eingeröstetes German, and this is wonderfully helpful.
More a comment on English dialect than German, but are you aware that some American speakers actually use “with” rather like a German separable prefix? As in:
– We’re heading out for dinner and a movie. You wanna come with?
I think you see that most often in places like Wisconsin with a pretty significant German heritage, and I always got a kick out of it.
Thanks again for blogging! I’ll definitely be throwing some questions your way at some point.
Yeah…. American English seems to be closer to German in some structural features, namely prefixes.
– Eat your pizza up
– Eat up your pizza.
The first one is 100% the structure of German and I belive that this would be used in the US and Australia while the second is British. And there are quiet a few examples where prefixes are put in final position.
– I turned the radio on.
– I got the pill down.
…
I’ve read (or heard) somewhere that American English is “older” than British English and if that is true it would make sense for it to be a bit more German.
A friend once also told me that Southern accents like Texan are closer to German than Northern ones… I don’t really see that though :).
Anyway… danke für das liebe Feedback und willkommen zurück in Berlin!
You’re definitely right about prepositions in final position in American English, though I think most of us would be more likely to say “finish your pizza” than “eat your pizza up” (although if you’re trying to get everybody to finish their meal, you might just say “Eat up!”).
There are also lots of phrases that can go either way:
– Put your toys away and put your pajamas on.
– Put away your toys and put on your pajamas.
(I hear parents here use the plain infinitive for commands to their kids fairly often: “Spielsachen aufräumen und Schlafanzug anziehen!” in place of “Räum deine Spielsachen auf” usw. I guess that’s similar?)
I think Texas dialect could have some Germanisms, but if so it’s less because it’s related to Southern accents and more because there were tons of German and Bohemian settlers in central Texas historically. There are towns called Fredericksburg, New Braunfels, and Gruene down there.
Vielen Dank fürs nette willkommen Heißen!
This infinitive used as imperative is actually quite common. I think the underlying construction or idea is a list of instructions…
– boil water
– pour water over tea
– wait
– enjoy
In German, this would be
– Wasser zum Kochen bringen
– über den Tee gießen
– warten
– genießen
The du-imperative would work but of course you can’t use it for a user manual. The polite imperative would require a “Sie” though… like…
– Gießen sie das es (das Wasser) über den Tee
And that is pretty long, boring and sounds super formal.
If I had to convert these infinitives into real sentences I would use “müssen” and “man”
– Erst muss man das Wasser zum Kochen bringen.
– Dann muss man es über den Tee gießen.
…
But then again, in context of “Schlafanzug anziehen” that doesn’t work well. That is really just a spoken To do list.
Gut!
Ich habe immer an den Unterschied zwischen “damit” und “um zu” nachgedacht. Natürlich dachte ich, dass es ähnlich wie Englisch wäre, aber das ist auf jeden Fall nicht ein guter Grund, was zu glauben… Sicherlich nicht bei Deutsch…
Ja, die Ähnlichkeiten sind oft trügerisch.
What a fantastic blog this is, I just stumbled upon it the other day looking searching online for resources. I’m hoping to teach my son and start using German at home. I studied German in school and later lived in Austria but that was over 10 years ago so I’m a bit rusty. I can’t wait to read through the archives here and look forward to future posts!
Danke für die lieben Worte. And good luck kissing awake the sleeping beauty German… or was it a monster? Wahrscheinlich beides :D
Thanks for the post I always enjoy learning the German here in all of its different meanings and contexts. Keep writing and I will keep reading!