Word of the Day

“One word says more then 1.000 grammars”
(Buddah)

Uh…. I’m not 100%  sure about this quote but what I am sure about is that words are THE key.

And here you get lots of them. Like … a LOT!!!

There are like 300+ articles here, and an article is usually not about just one word, but a whole family. Like… verbs, noun, adjectives.

We look at where they come from, why they mean what they mean and of course how to use them. All that with lots of (audio) examples and fun.
If you read all articles here, I think you’ll be familiar with like 1.500 words or so, and the most important ones, too. So jump right in :).

As I said,there’s quite a big archive so I offer different ways to go about it.
The categories gives you an impression of what to expect in terms of style and level. 

Looking at it by word type is probably the fastest way to find a particular word. And since some people have said they’d like to read it in sequence, I also have them ordered by date. Have fun :)

click to expand

 (note that many posts fit into more than one category)

A-Level

a-levelThis category gathers all the articles that should be easily understandable at a beginner’s level once you’ve learned the absolute essentials.
You might find that a certain article is too advanced for you. Don’t feel bad or stupid then… I just put it in the wrong category then. It’s not always easy to tell. If you think one really doesn’t belong here… just leave me a comment.

B-Level

b-levelAll the posts in this category are best if you’re already at an intermediate level. They’re not all super advanced but they usually contain at least some stuff that’ll sound intimidating if you’re really just a fledgling. Still, you can give a go of course :).
Also, all the stuff in here (words and grammar) is stuff you should know well at the end of a B level course.

Quick Reads

quick-reads
If you need a German quickie then these are the right articles for you. Quick, fun and all around a 1000 words. Perfect for a train ride to work or the morning number 2.

Audio Examples

audio-examples

If you want to have all examples read out – here are all the posts that have audio (I’m adding more bit by bit)

Must Have Words

This category compiles all the words that you absolutely, totally, undeniably, 100%edly haaaaave to know because they’re so useful and important.

Spoken German

spoken-german

These posts focus on the things that people use in their every day language. Colloquial expressions, slang, weird grammar, idioms… if you’re interested in this stuff, then this category is perfect for you.

Particles

particles

The infamous particles – doch, noch, schon, eben and plenty more of these short little words that Germans throw in all the time but that are hard to translate.

Prefix Verbs

Learning German without prefix verbs is like drawing with only lines… pointless. Wow, that was bad. But the stuff in this category is awesome. All about prefix verbs and prefixes, what they mean, how they work and the differences between aufmachen and raufmachen and all the others…

Differences

differences

“Verschieden vs. anders”, “wenn vs. falls”, “kennen vs wissen” – these and other pairs make almost every learner at some point wonder “What the hell is the difference.”
This category collects them all.

Broad Vocab

broad-vocabThis category gathers all the articles that are about generally useful words or words with interesting families and back stories but that aren’t really essential. If you want to be all efficient and get the stuff that really matters, then this is not the category to pick from. But it’s a rainy day and you need a fun read that broadens your vocabulary – then these articles are perfect. And hey… you can have the essentials down all you want. Having a broad, divers Wortschatz really makes all the difference.

/b/ Random

Random stuff you won’t find anywhere else.
Now headlines 14% more random – guaranteed ;)
But … I think it’s worth a look ;).

click to expand

Verbs

Style-Specials:

click to expand

** Get this post as a pdf **

677 responses to “Word of the Day”

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  1. Aaron | February 3, 2012 at 1:27 pm | Reply

    Hey Emanuel, any chance you could a word of the day on Sachen some time?

    • German-is-easy | February 10, 2012 at 10:06 am | Reply

      I’ll look into it, just gotta wait till I “feel” it :)

    • Karl Cassle | May 30, 2012 at 8:41 pm | Reply

      I am seeing a german joke that shows usually 4 frames with pictures and subtitles. Schlecht fur die knocken, Schlecht furs Fahrrad.Schlecht furs die image, The last frame usually says Doch Leider Heil. I know Schlecht is bad for the subject. But at the end it seems to say Nevertheless we Heil, Kyle,Steil, or something that rhymes with it. Can you help me understand these jokes?
      Thanks,
      Linguist student

      • German-is-easy | May 31, 2012 at 2:30 pm | Reply

        Hi Karl,

        so I looked it up online and it seems to be a song by the band Deichkind (which I think sucks) … the song is called “leider geil”… geil literally means horny but it is used as cool or fly quite a lot. It is on the edge between slang and common. It has made its way into the claim of a major eletronic retailer (Saturn – “Geiz is geil” -“stinginess rocks”) … so Deichkind lists lots of things that are bad for something and yet… basically fun.
        here is the link to the lyrics:

        http://www.songtextemania.com/leider_geil_songtext_deichkind.html

        I do not know whether it was them to come up with this contradiction… I doubt it actually…. but yeah… I think that’s the joke… like

        Driving an SUV, bad for global temperature. However, it’s fun.

      • Aaron | June 4, 2012 at 9:23 am | Reply

        Are there any that say “Leider geil?” then it would sound like this awesome Deichkind song…

        • German-is-easy | June 5, 2012 at 4:44 pm | Reply

          I don’t know… I didn’t know the expression before Karl brought it up and I think I would not have understood it unless context had been string enough… anyway… Deichkind is kind of successful especially amongst young people… they won the Jägermeister Rock league once I think and they know which buttons to push to create a catchy tune/phrase that has a good chance to be picked up into “school yard talk”… so people who know the song might use it in daily life and friends of theirs will probably understand even without knowing the song… that is IF the phrase was invented by Deichkind in the first place…
          Anyway… long story short… I don’t think it’s mainstream enough yet, and people will very likely miss the joke

    • Duha | November 26, 2012 at 1:23 pm | Reply

      zugeben, aufgeben, angeben please :)

    • Cornilus Pumber nickel | October 9, 2014 at 7:11 pm | Reply

      I guess German is hard for a 12 year old………..

  2. Will | April 12, 2012 at 1:30 pm | Reply

    If you could explain the differences between deshalb/deswegen/daher that would be awesome. I asked one of my German friends yesterday, and she replied with “There are not the same…but it is difficult to explain.”

    • German-is-easy | April 12, 2012 at 2:09 pm | Reply

      Good question… so deshalb and deswegen are definitely the same pretty much… if someone perceives a difference… well than that is correct too but to me they are the same and many web sources about this indicate that they are … as far as daher is concerned it is indeed a little different. Yet it can be/is used synonymously in MANY occasions. Some regions might favor daher and others won’t ever use it. I don’t really use it for example. What makes daher special is its locational undertone… it is built with the pointer da and the word her, that indicates an origin. “Woher kommst du?”, “Wo hast du deine Hose her?”… daher is appropriate whenever you want to say “from there” be it literally or abstract… so daher is maybe a bit more “from that perspective” or coming from there”. Deshalb and deswegen don’t have this undertone of location/origin, although the des is technically the da pointer too, just in a different dress. I think I’ll make daher a WotD but I hope this helps a bit… oh… apparently there is a rule that requires you to use daher in certain constructions but except for linguists I don’t think many people are aware of it and it is a new rule too so no need to know it :)

  3. Will | April 12, 2012 at 2:45 pm | Reply

    I look forward to the “daher” WotD. I really dig your “molecular” explanatory approach!

  4. Jan | April 26, 2012 at 7:54 am | Reply

    How about “unheimlich”? I kinda struggled when I tried to explain it to some friends in the U.S.

  5. Shayne | April 30, 2012 at 2:04 pm | Reply

    This is probably very basic but what is the difference between auf, in and an?

    • German-is-easy | April 30, 2012 at 2:26 pm | Reply

      Hi Shane, yes this is basic in that you need it basically every day… the problem with German prepositions is that they mostly have 2 to 4 possible English counterparts which might contradict one another… the general idea, the main gist of the three is this:

      in – inside
      auf – on top of, for and unfortunately also open
      an – at, on

      Note that these are not ALL possible translations… or they are if you will but in German we say “A letter at god.” instead of “to god” … so you can either say that an means to at times or you can say… whatever to means in German… I don’t need it in that situation because Germans say “an” whatever that means :)… either way… in and auf would make less sense than “at” does, so just get the notion of prepositions and when in doubt go for the least weird one… hope that helped a bit. I could add that you gotta get used to it and stuff but I think you know that :)

  6. Natalie | June 17, 2012 at 8:09 am | Reply

    Maybe you could do one on the particles (or adverbs, whatever you would call it) da and wo… like how they modify prepositions, like dabei, davon, wozu, etc. Do they go in the normal spot of a preposition? I understand the basic concept of these but find it hard when using them in speech!! I don’t like them.

    • German-is-easy | June 18, 2012 at 8:06 pm | Reply

      Ha, that is funny… I have started writing an article about damit, davon daraus etc. a few days ago… I had lots of work but I am positive that I will get to finish within the next few days… I can see that you don’t like them, because they are a new concept (at least in one way they are used) but they save you the trouble of thinking of case and gender and once you are used to it, they can be a nice tool to put emphasis in your sentences :)

      • Natalie | June 19, 2012 at 10:22 am | Reply

        Ha, anything that saves you from thinking about case and gender can’t be all bad… in fact, in could be amazing!

  7. Mjsielerjr | June 19, 2012 at 5:15 am | Reply

    Hey Emanuel,

    Great blog! All your posts are really entertaining and educational (Wow! Who knew that was possible?) :)

    Macht’s gut!
    – Michael

  8. tony martin | July 15, 2012 at 8:09 am | Reply

    Hi Emmanuel, thanks so much for your cracking blog. What a great job! Funny and informative educashun for all.
    You have done doch as a wotd. What about its counterpart Eben?
    thanks, Tony

    • German-is-easy | July 15, 2012 at 9:49 pm | Reply

      Hi Tony, thanks for your feedback… I really appreciate that :).
      I have been pondering “eben” for a while now and it is on my to do list. It is a hard one to grasp however. I kind of have issues to find a common denominator. But I’ll go for it soon. Anyway, it is not the counterpart of “doch”… at least not, if by counterpart you mean some sort of opposite… they are kind of on the same side (as far as the modal particle meaning is concerned)… but I don’t want to spoil it yet :)

      • Tony Martin | July 15, 2012 at 11:43 pm | Reply

        Thanks Em,
        I’m basically self-taught, but learnt a while ago that whilst doch is a positive answer to a negative question, eben is a positive answer to a positive question. Does it really get more complicated?

        • German-is-easy | July 16, 2012 at 12:00 am | Reply

          oh I see… well, kind of… actually, “eben” is an affirmative re-enforcing statement if someone states or claims something that you consider correct… something like “exactly”… only less exact. It can NOT be used as a kind of “yes” and often “genau” is the better choice.
          And other than that there are the meanings: even, straight, just now, and another flavoring power that is kind of giving in into a initially unwanted compromise without having been entirely against it (that would be doch) … so I guess there is more to it :)

  9. Geethika | July 15, 2012 at 4:04 pm | Reply

    Hi Emmanuel,
    Your posts really clarify things that learners of the language find confusing. Could you please explain the many uses of ‘werden’? Also the so called particles – doch, mal, etc. That would be real helpful.

    • German-is-easy | July 15, 2012 at 9:53 pm | Reply

      Hi Geethika,

      thank for your nice feedback, which is really motivating to hear.
      Werden is a good idea and I will do it soon, I think. As for doch, I have done it already… you can find it under “small but useful”. I am definitely planning to do all particles… they are just some tough words and I… well… let’s say I have some respect for the :)… so I have to think about them thoroughly before I write something… anyway… I’ll do ’em :)

  10. Geethika | July 16, 2012 at 12:26 pm | Reply

    Vielen Dank :-)

  11. Ankit Khandelwal | August 13, 2012 at 12:17 pm | Reply

    What confuse me all the time is some words like ‘eigentlich, endlich’ . May be you can have a look on it :)

  12. Filipe | August 17, 2012 at 7:56 pm | Reply

    Hello, Emanuel

    I’ve been following your blog for the last three months, and I would like to thank you for being so precise in your explanations.
    I would like to make a request for you, it’s about the verb bleiben. I always confuse bleiben with liegen (by the way, the explanation of liegen that you did was pretty good) and I can’t find a good place where I can find how to differenciate them.

    Therefore, I would appreciate if you get some free time to talk about “bleiben”.

    Vielen Dank :)

    • German-is-easy | August 18, 2012 at 2:55 pm | Reply

      Thanks for the compliment. That is really nice to hear :).
      As for bleiben … it is quite straightforward to the English to stay. Does that help? What’s you mothertongue?

      • Jacob Lee-Hart | October 28, 2016 at 7:44 pm | Reply

        This is an old comment, but I was looking to see if you had talked about bleiben at all.. You see the one thing I don’t get is the use of bleiben in phrases like ‘wo ist meine Liebe geblieben’?
        Danke im Voraus :)

        • German-is-easy | October 31, 2016 at 12:31 pm | Reply

          I haven’t talked about “bleiben” but I can help you out… the translation would be “Where has my love gone?”.
          This is not to far from “Where is it?” which is not too far from “Where is it staying?” or “Where has it stayed” and that is the literal translation of the German phrase.
          So you use “bleiben” to express the idea of “sein”, basically.
          A common example for that is when someone comes too late to a meeting. People might then say:

          – Wo bleibt denn Thomas?
          – I wonder where’s Thomas?

          They just want to know where he is.
          Hope that helps.

  13. Filipe | August 19, 2012 at 5:15 am | Reply

    Hello, again

    My mother tongue is Portuguese. I’ve created a thread in the wordreference forum asking for an explanation about this subject, if you would like to see it in order to understand better my problem, this is the link: http://forum.wordreference.com/showthread.php?t=2471976
    As you can see, the people who posted just said that it was wrong, but didn’t explain me why. It’s completely clear to me that I should (must) use liegen, but I don’t understand why I can’t use bleiben too. In short, I don’t know how to use bleiben…

    Thank you :)

    • German-is-easy | August 23, 2012 at 11:29 am | Reply

      Hi Filipe, so I looked at the thread and some of the examples are not so bad I have to say.
      You are right that you can use “bleiben” as well… but it doesn’t mean the same:

      – Das Buch liegt auf dem Tisch – means that the book IS on the table (answers to the question “where is the book”)
      – Das Buch bleibt auf dem Tisch – means that the book will remain on the table so it will not/should not be taken away (answers to the question “What will happen to the book? or Can I take the book and put it on a shelf?”

      I think your confusion comes from “ficar” which can mean both “to stay” and to “be located”.
      Well stay and bleiben are more narrow in meaning than ficar.
      The “opposite” of “bleiben” is “go somewhere else/be taken somewhere else”.
      The opposite of “ficar-sein (location)” is “to be somewhere else” or simply “not to be there”.

      Das Hotel liegt (ist) am Strand – das Hotel liegt (ist) nicht am Strand sondern in den Bergen.
      Das Hotel bleibt (will be at the beach for some time) am Strand – das Hotel ist jetzt noch am Strand, aber wir machen es kaputt und bauen es woanders hin.

      Does that help??? :)

      • Daniel | September 9, 2015 at 9:19 am | Reply

        Hi,
        don’t want to confuse, but there is another meaning of both words used together, which I can imagine, is quite confusing for someone learning german.

        “liegen bleiben” could mean to stay in bed, or sth. broke down.

        e.g.

        “Ich werde liegen bleiben.” – I will stay laying.
        “Das Auto blieb liegen.” – The car broke down.

        Hopefully this will be some help.

  14. swati | August 23, 2012 at 5:54 am | Reply

    can you explain everything regarding adjectives !! i have been facing many problems in this particular topic.there are some subdivisions under adjectives , like , adjective ending of the nouns without articles , and then there is, adjectives as nouns !! i was doing some exercises on these topics !! but have encountered many doubts !! so could you please explain with the help of sentences on how to apply the rules especially for genetive and dative ??

  15. Doug Schultz | August 24, 2012 at 4:35 am | Reply

    I would like a lesson on the various ways to say “it” in a sentence once we have established what It is. Also the several choices for the word “stop” I know them when I read them, but never seem to know which one one is best when I’m on my own.
    Thanks

    • German-is-easy | August 24, 2012 at 11:30 am | Reply

      Wow… “it”. I don’t know if I could put that into a concise and non-boring article… I mean it quite the same as in English, only it is used in some different expressions and things you call “it” in English will be “er” or “sie” in German. I know this probably doesn’t answer your questions so if you have any specific problem I’d be happy to try to explain those… but it in general … hmmmm :)
      As for “to stop” – I have written an article on aufhören which is one possible translation of to stop. In there you can find some info about the other translations and the differences between all of them, but you may want to also check this out:

      http://german.stackexchange.com/questions/4226/of-starting-and-stopping

      It is a discussion board with a rather high quality I have to say. I have written an answer for that question there which focuses a bit more on the differences between “aufhören”, “anhalten”, “einstellen” and “stoppen” and I think you will find what you want to know there :)

  16. Joe | September 6, 2012 at 6:52 pm | Reply

    Could you do a word of the day post about the word “denn?” I thought it just meant because/for, but I’ve been seeing it in some readings where it seems to be used more like a particle (like doch) so I’ve been having a hard time translating its exact meaning in some sentences. Your explanations have helped me quite a bit so I figured I’d throw out a request.

  17. Brittany Deitz | September 18, 2012 at 10:56 pm | Reply

    I have alot of ideas for German words of the day :) but I will just give a small list (source- Very eager German student)
    der Arzt- The doctor
    das Kind- The child
    die Freunde- The friends
    das Volk- The people (citizens), Singular
    die Menschen- people
    die Frau- The woman
    Es geht mir schlecht- I am very bad
    Es geht mir nicht so gut- I am bad
    Sehr gut- Very well
    Ich wohne in- I live in
    Es geht mir okay- I am okay
    Woher kommen sie?- Where are you from?
    Wie Heiben sie?- What is your name?
    Danke- Thank you
    Tschau- Ciao
    Tschub- Bye
    Bis bald- See you soon
    Ich komme aus- I am from
    Auf Wiedersehen- Good-bye (formal)
    Bis spater- See you later
    Guten Morgen- Good morning
    Guten Tag- Good afternoon, Good day
    Guten abend- Good evening
    Und du?- And you?
    Ich Heibe- My name is
    Hallo- Hi (used any time of the day to say a casual “hi”)
    Es freut mich!- Nice to meet you!

  18. Bananach | September 30, 2012 at 3:18 pm | Reply

    could you do “schon”? “ich bin schon wieder zu spät” “es ist schon 22 Uhr” “sie ist schon nett” “ich bin ganz sicher schon mal hier gewesen” “schon allein deswegen bin ich dagegen” “findest du ihn süß? -schon” “er hat den pokal schon drei mal gewonnen” “nicht den hier und schon gar nicht den dort” “was hat sie schon damit erreicht” “was kann der denn schon?” “hast du schon deine hausaufgaben gemacht?” i’m native german, but still i like your blog and i think this needs some clarification for our foreign friends :)

    • German-is-easy | October 1, 2012 at 5:44 pm | Reply

      Yep, schon is definitely schon on the list. I just didn’t dare so far. But I think I’ll be ready soon. Thanks for your examples… I will have a look at them to see whether I thought of every meaning :)

  19. Soophie | October 1, 2012 at 4:45 am | Reply

    PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE teach us how to use “tun” and “machen.” Thank you!

    • German-is-easy | October 1, 2012 at 5:43 pm | Reply

      Oh that :)… I will do it soon, promise

        • German-is-easy | June 8, 2016 at 6:30 pm | Reply

          Damn, I really did. And I’ve thought about it repeatedly but I never really got the feel that I have a handle on it. Sometimes things just need to ripen. That’s how it’s been with cases for example, or with “eben”. There are other unfulfilled promises buried in the comments. I hope you can forgive me :).
          If you have a specific question about this… like… a specific use or something, then you can ask in a comment. I’ll try my best then.

          • Jake | December 31, 2016 at 2:40 am |

            Along these lines, I would love to see articles built around an English word or phrase, with all the possible meanings and corresponding German words and phrases. I guess this is similar to a “what’s the difference” series, but more in-depth.

            What about “overcome”, e.g., to overcome obstacles, to overcome one’s fear, to be overcome with joy. German words that come to mind are überwinden, überwältigen, bewältigen, bezwingen, etc.

            Happy New Year!

          • German-is-easy | January 2, 2017 at 9:22 pm |

            Hi Jake, you’re not the first one to request this but the issue I have with this is that not everybody reading this blog is an English native speaker. That’s why I’ve always kept German as a topic base and I’m trying to explain them in words that are understandable even if you’re not that familiar with the English translation.
            Do you know the Youtube channel “German with Jenny” though? She does exactly these kinds of videos … “How to say X” in German. She doesn’t go into the history of the words that much but she gives a lot of examples. You definitely should check her out, if you don’t know her yet.
            Frohes neues Jahr dir :)

  20. Tofer | October 22, 2012 at 1:07 am | Reply

    I just have to say, I really appreciate all the work you put into this site. Your post on the “da-words” is the only reason why I no longer get into the fetal position and start crying whenever I come across them.

    I realize it’s asking a lot, but I would really love to see a post on ‘lassen’. It’s one verb that trips me up almost every time. It just seems to have too many uses.

    • German-is-easy | October 22, 2012 at 7:39 pm | Reply

      Hi Tofer,

      thanks, that is great to hear, because I honestly think German is not that difficult or at least it is explainable for the most part but what to me is clear might be confusing to others. So… cool you got the da-words straight. As for lassen, it is definitely on my list (which doesn’t exist) but seriously… I have it in mind and I will do it at some point :)

  21. Mark | November 13, 2012 at 10:34 pm | Reply

    Hi! I’m British and just finished doing my A1.1 integration course in Hamburg, which is great! I’m now into my 2nd week of A1.2 and the grammar doesn’t seem to be too bad to understand…aside from the obvious der, die und das that we don’t have in English!

    Anyway, I just wanted to let you know how great I think your blog is and how incredibly helpful it is going to be to me as I continue on with my German journey to C2! I really hope you find the time to continue sharing with us your wealth of knowledge and you have such a talent of being able to make the most confusing things just click and fall into place!

    Thank you!!

  22. Jose Maria da Silva | November 19, 2012 at 4:01 pm | Reply

    This is a great blog. Keep it up.

  23. jeremy | November 24, 2012 at 8:31 pm | Reply

    Thank you for the help. I look forward to reviewing your past posts to catch up while waiting on the new ones.

  24. Jerry | November 29, 2012 at 6:19 pm | Reply

    Great blog. I have been studying german for a few years and have really not understood the proper use of “als” as a conjunction. I wasn’t sure that I would find anything on line, but then I read your Word of the Day blog on this term and it made a great deal of sense. Thank you. I will be returning often to your site.

    • German-is-easy | November 30, 2012 at 2:06 pm | Reply

      Cool I could help clear that up… it is odd. You’re definitely not the only one who had had problems with als although the rule is actually pretty simple… at least I think so… but textbooks really fail at explaining very often because they treat their readers like children that can’t comprehend logically structured info… I am beginning to rant about textbooks, must stop immediately or else this will be pages long :)

  25. Mayank | December 2, 2012 at 11:37 pm | Reply

    Hi! Thanks Emanuel for this wonderful blog for non-German German speakers. I found this a couple of days ago and now constantly following it so that I don’t miss anything . Again Vielen Dank :)
    I recently came across these similar words for “to feel or sense” in German which are giving me hard time during uses which are : empfinden, fühlen, spüren. Online dictionaries aren’t much help, so I had to turn up to you ;) Could you please do it in your “Word Of The Day” section sometime or may be help me somehow. Thanks in advance :)

  26. boundforplaces | December 7, 2012 at 10:34 pm | Reply

    Hi! Maybe you could explain the difference between strong ending for adjectives and a weak ending? Because no freaking website in the world can seem to explain it. :|

  27. Anonymous | December 15, 2012 at 4:30 pm | Reply

    This probably isn’t worth its own post so I’ll just ask it here (although things never end up being as simple as I envision them). In my lessons I’ve come to the following two sentences:

    Das Auto fährt auf das Tunnel zu.
    Die Kinder rennen auf das Meer zu.

    I’ve tried to look up what exactly is being conveyed by the auf…zu construction. It almost looks like “into” but I’m used to seeing simply “in” for that. Any help is appreciated.

    • German-is-easy | December 15, 2012 at 4:51 pm | Reply

      Good question… this double preposition is confusing I bet… I never noticed it.
      So auf etwas zu means a movement of the own body directly toward something…

      Ich renne/fahre/gehe/komme auf dich zu.

      I cannot geben a plate auf dich zu because the plate is not moving itself.

      In an abstract sense it also means to approach someone in some way with a specific subject in mind… like

      Wegen der Bücher komme ich nochmal auf dich zu.
      As for the books, I will get at you at some point.

      Hope that clears it up… if not, feel free to ask more :)

  28. Joe | December 15, 2012 at 4:37 pm | Reply

    Hopefully the answer to this question is simple and doesn’t need its own post. In my lessons I’ve now come to the following two sentences:

    Das Auto fährt auf einen Tunnel zu.
    Die Kinder rennen auf das Meer zu.

    I can’t seem to find any rules for this auf…zu construction. It seems like its trying to convey “into” but I’m used to seeing simply “in.” Any help would be much appreciated.

  29. Duha | December 18, 2012 at 3:15 pm | Reply

    What is the difference between denn and weil?

  30. Suha | December 18, 2012 at 6:43 pm | Reply

    Can you tell me the difference between lernen and erlernen?

    • German-is-easy | December 19, 2012 at 10:43 pm | Reply

      Ok so… the er prefix often gives the word a more divine feel…. so erlernen sounds a bit like more.
      Then, erlernen implies that you are done. You know it. You achieved mastery kind of. Lernen lacks that notion. You can lernen German for decades without erlernen it.
      Lernen is also the translation of to study in the context of sitting in the library or read a textbook.

      I did 2 hours of studying. would be Ich habe 2 Stunden gerlernt.

      Erlernen can’t be used that way.

      And than finally I think erlernen sounds best with nouns, whereas lernen can be used for all kinds of things.

      Ich habe gelernt, dass/wie/zu/wo etc…. all this doesn’t sound very good with erlernen.

      I think lernen is way more common and erlernen is really limited to a craft or something.

      I hope that helps :)

  31. Anonymous | December 23, 2012 at 7:21 pm | Reply

    What does allerdings mean exactly?

  32. Anonymous | December 26, 2012 at 8:26 pm | Reply

    What’s the difference between trauen and vertrauen?

    • German-is-easy | December 28, 2012 at 10:30 pm | Reply

      That would probably be worth a WotD too… I just have such a long list that I don’t think I can fit it in… in short vertrauen is to trust, trauen is to have the courage, with a side meaning of to trust that is mostly used in negative phrasings with nicht (don’t trust)

  33. Duha | December 27, 2012 at 8:18 pm | Reply

    obgleich, obschon, obwohl what is the difference between them?

    • German-is-easy | December 27, 2012 at 10:38 pm | Reply

      Oh those are exactly the same :)… obwohl is used pretty much always, obgleich sounds very educated and obschon sounds dated… I did use obschon in my masters thesis a lot but more as a little joke (I don’t think anyone got it)… I never use it in spoken

  34. Anonymous | December 28, 2012 at 4:10 pm | Reply

    What does zwar mean?

    • German-is-easy | December 28, 2012 at 8:14 pm | Reply

      Zwar comes from the same root as Wahrheit (truth) but it has shifted in meaning over time… I think the best translation is a phrasing like “Conceded that …., I nevertheless….”

  35. boundforplaces | January 6, 2013 at 5:48 pm | Reply

    Make your word of the day “trotzdem”!

  36. Anonymous | January 13, 2013 at 7:45 pm | Reply

    What’s the difference between mieten and vermieten?

  37. Anonymous | January 20, 2013 at 9:23 pm | Reply

    Any chance of getting a Word of the day on the reflex verb “sich”?

    • German-is-easy | January 21, 2013 at 10:22 am | Reply

      Hmmm “sich ” doesn’t really carry much meaning … I mean there is certainly a lot to say but it is all grammar… I’ll have to think about

      The core of it is that “sich” can be any SELF referential pronoun in third person so it can be:

      himself, itself, herself, oneself, themselves and in also each other or one another at times.

      • Craig | April 28, 2015 at 4:35 am | Reply

        How about just a post on the consequences of adding in reflexive pronouns to verbs that don’t necessarily require them? I don’t know if there’s a general rule or if it’s just outright wrong… or if it’s a case by case basis. For example how would the meaning of something like “Verstehst du?” be changed if you say “Verstehst du dich?”

        • Kat | April 28, 2015 at 1:16 pm | Reply

          You can’t really say “verstehst du dich”. That doesn’t make any sense. That would be like saying “do you understand yourself”

          • Craig | April 28, 2015 at 3:59 pm |

            Why would that not make sense? You can say that in English in a few different contexts. Like, “How much of it do you understand yourself (as opposed to with the help of a translator)?”

          • German-is-easy | April 30, 2015 at 7:50 pm |

            Oh that’s a different “yourself” then the one in “You wash yourself.” The one here just emphasizes that it is YOU who did it … like

            – “Nice book.”
            – “I wrote it myself.”

            I don’t know right now what the jargon term is but as far as function goes it is more like an adverb, not reflexive.

            – I wrote this quickly/alone/myself.

            English uses the reflexive forms for that but German (and I guess other languages too) doesn’t. In German you’d use “selbst”

            – Wieviel verstehst du selbst?
            – How much do YOU (yourself) understand?

            (I’ll answer the other question tomorrow :)

          • German-is-easy | May 1, 2015 at 7:45 pm |

            Exactly. I think I might use that when I do sound check with someone or if someone has to listen to a crackling recording of themselves.
            If you want to go for the “get along”-verstehen you’d need to whole program… so the preposition and an entity of sorts

            – verstehst du dich mit jemandem?
            – Do you get along with someone?

        • German-is-easy | May 1, 2015 at 7:39 pm | Reply

          That would be more of a listing than a post… but I have done a post on “reflexive” and I think it might actually answer most of your questions (it’s kind of hidden so here’s the link)

          https://yourdailygerman.wordpress.com/2013/11/13/german-reflexive-verbs/

          Let me know if that helps.

  38. gökhan | January 24, 2013 at 11:55 am | Reply

    schon und eben ….. bitte!!!

  39. Chris Biggs | January 26, 2013 at 11:27 pm | Reply

    Could you do a word of the day on the word bloß.

    • German-is-easy | January 27, 2013 at 9:11 am | Reply

      Ohhh good word! I never would have thought of that although it is so common :)

    • Kat | April 28, 2015 at 1:18 pm | Reply

      I know some people will disagree, but for me, “bloss” is interchangeable with “nur”

      • German-is-easy | May 1, 2015 at 7:54 pm | Reply

        I think you’re right in so far as that any “nur” can be replaced by “bloss”… but it doesn’t always work the other way around.

        – “Wollen wir Never Say Never von Justin Bieber gucken?”
        “Bloss nicht!”

        This doesn’t work with “nur”… or least to me it doesn’t. I feel like there might be a couple other of these more idiomatic uses but they don’t come to my mind right now.

  40. Joe | January 29, 2013 at 10:02 pm | Reply

    I’d like to throw out a suggestion to your presumably long list of WotD topics: perhaps an article on amplifiers. I find myself knowing very few ways to amplify adjectives and such in German. I know sehr, and then voll, echt and tierisch from some of your posts, but I always feel at a loss for words when I’m trying to sound passionate or incredibly frustrated about something.

  41. Anonymous | February 4, 2013 at 10:31 am | Reply

    Can you explain mal? It seems like it gets thrown into sentences all the time but I don’t know why.

  42. BILLig | February 9, 2013 at 6:10 am | Reply

    How about Sonst? (hope im not repeating a suggestion) Sonst confuses the crap out of me!
    I thought at first, that it just meant “or eles”
    Gebe das Rauchen auf sonst du ungesund werden konntest.
    Does it have other meanings too. My dictionary says it means like 10 different things.

    • German-is-easy | February 9, 2013 at 8:21 pm | Reply

      Yep, I will do sonst since it is one of these small functional words that one really needs. But “else” is pretty much it. I don’t know what language you are translating it to. Maybe there are in fact 10 different concepts but to me it is pretty clear cut… I mean in comparison with things like eben or doch :)

  43. froschi | February 12, 2013 at 5:16 pm | Reply

    i don’t understand why u all want to learn german i mean english is a way more beautiful and usefull language
    btw my mothertongue is german

  44. Liu | February 16, 2013 at 6:12 pm | Reply

    hello, I would like to ask, can you please explain the adverbs like : miteinander, beinander…and all the words that contain EINANDER ? thanks.

  45. TheHillma | February 18, 2013 at 4:01 pm | Reply

    hey do you know why verbs such as zahlen, antworten and zweifeln add be to the front? does it change meanings at all, because if I’m not mistaken it doesn’t drastically alter the meaning of the verb…

    • German-is-easy | February 18, 2013 at 6:36 pm | Reply

      yep it does… I am actually planning to do a post on be as a prefix soon so this is just the basic asnwer:

      be kind of means something like “to inflict the verb on sth”… I’ll elaborate in the post to come :)
      Oh and then it also changes the grammar a great deal… check out the article on antworten vs. beantworten for more on that

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