Hello everyone,
and welcome to another episode of Prefix Verb Shorts.
Whether you have to fill out a form or impress your friends… today’s word will help you with that. Ladies and gentlemen… get ready for a quick look at the super useful meanings of
angeben
An has two notions that it can add to a verb: “on-ness” (as in going/not off, ) and “at-ness” (or its directed sister toward-ness). In case of geben which means to give we’re only dealing with one of them… the latter.
And if not that one then it’s the former. Yap, I actually have no idea.
But it doesn’t really matter in this case. The only thing an does with geben is making it more specific.
Geben is for giving all kinds of things… cups, glasses, plates or sh*ts.
Angeben is for: information.
“angeben” for “giving information”
angeben means as much as
to give information in response to an inquiry
And if you’re wondering why the definition sounds so formal … well that is because angeben is a rather formal term. You use it in context of filling out a form or a survey, or talking to a police officer or the press. Not if you inform your loved about what you’d like for dinner.
So, let’s look at some examples
- Sie sind verpflichtet, ihren vollen Namen sowie eine gültige Addresse anzugeben.
- You’re obliged to provide/enter/give us your full name and a valid address
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Muss ich bei einer Überweisung immer einen Verwendungszweck angeben?
- Do I always have to enter/supply a payment reference/purpose when doing bank transfer?
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Auf Fragebögen gibt Thomas als Beruf immer “Ponyflüsterer” an.
- On surveys Thomas always enters pony whisperer as profession.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Als Grund für seinen Rücktritt gab der Politiker seine generelle Resignation an.
- As a reason for his resignation the politician named his general resignation.
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- Sie haben angegeben, die AGB gelesen zu haben. Die Kosten einer Stornierung sollten Ihnen demnach bekannt gewesen sein.
- You claimed/stated to have read the GTC/Terms of Use. You should thus have been aware of the costs of a cancellation.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
That last one was a little taste of how the more bureaucratic German “sounds” like. There’s much much worse though :).
Just as important as the verb is the noun die Angabe. It often comes as a plural (die Angaben) referring to information supplied, and if you fill out a form or if you ever listen to news in German you’ll definitely comes across that word.
- Hiermit bestätige ich, dass die von mir gemachten Angaben korrekt sind. (note that it’s plural!)
- I hereby certify that the information provided is correct.
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- Wie formatiert man Quellenangaben?
- How to format the bibliography?
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- Über ein Drittel machen falsche Angaben, wenn sie sich bei Online-Diensten anmelden.
- Over one third of the people give false information when registering for online services.
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- Nach Angaben der Deutschen Bahn waren im letzten Jahr 99,98 Prozent aller Züge pünktlich.
- According to information supplied by/according to the Deutsche Bahn (like Amtrak) 99.98 percent of all trains were on time.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
Now, especially the last two examples made it clear… angeben is really just saying something and Angaben might very well be false. And this possibility for doubt is pretty much the core of angeblich.
The Meaning of “angeblich”
It can mean supposedly, allegedly, purportedly… English has quite a few translations for it actually.
But angeblich is much less fancy sounding and people use it a lot in daily life for anything that someone says but that they doubt to some extent.
- “Der Akku vom nächsten iPhone hält angeblich 2 Wochen.”
“Ja. Genau.” - “They say the battery of the next iPhone will last 2 weeks.”
“Yeah. Right.” - Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Hier gibt es angeblich das beste Bier der Stadt.
- Here you supposedly get best beer in town.
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- Das Unternehmen hat angeblich erst vor einer Woche von dem Datendiebstahl erfahren.
- The company claims to have learned about the data theft only a week ago.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Goji, Chia, Matcha- viele der angeblichen Superfoods sind vor allem eins: superteuer.
- Goji, Chia, Matcha – many of the purported/so called super foods are one thing above all: super expensive.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
All right. So this is was angeben in sense of giving information.
But that’s not all there is to say. Angeben has a second meaning and at first glance that second one seems to be quite different.
- Der kleine Tim gibt mit seinem Handy an.
- Little Tim is showing off with his phone.
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That’s right. Angeben means to show off, to brag.
“angeben” as “to brag”
Now, it does feel like a completely distinct meaning to a German native speaker but it’s not really all that distinct from the other one when you think about it. Showing off how cool you are, how smart, how pretty, how much money you have… this is essentially giving information about yourself, you’re saying things, making claims. Just like in the other meaning, only that this time the focus is on giving information that makes you look good.
Here are some examples for the use. Note that if you use a particular item to show off you’d connect that with mit. You cannot angeben something directly. That would be the other meaning then.
- Thomas nimmt seine neue mit zur Party um mit ihr anzugeben.
- Thomas takes his new girlfriend to the party to show her off.
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- Thomas trainiert jeden Tag, um vor seinen Freunden mit seinen Bauchmuskeln anzugeben.
- Thomas works out every day to show off his abs to his friends.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- “Pfff… Deutsch. Hab’ ich in 3 Monaten gelernt.”
“Gib nicht so an.” - “Pfff… German. Learned that in 3 months.”
“Stop bragging.” - Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- “Der neue ist eigentlich ganz nett, oder.”
“Was?! Der ist voll der Angeber.” - “The new guy is nice, don’t you think?””
“Whaaaat?! He’s a real showoff/blowhard. - Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Ein Porsche ist ein klassisches Angeberauto.
- A Porsche is a classic poser car.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
All right. And that’s pretty much it.
There are a few uses in fixed expressions that don’t exactly fit in with the others…
- In der Start Up Firma geben die Frauen den Ton an.
- At the start up women are calling the shots/says what’s up/are in charge.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Thomas hat Angabe. (for Tennis and ping pong )
- Thomas is serving.
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…. but they are not too crazy either. So… I think we’re done here. That was our look a… what? Oh, the r-version? Well… I don’t know… it doesn’t really feel like it’s that well established. I mean, I’ve found some instances where people used it it in sense of giving oneself to a task but I’ve never heard of that so I’m pretty sure this is a regional thing. And of course there’s the almost mandatory kitchen use in sense of adding stuff to something but meh… I don’t know. Just doesn’t feel idiomatic to me so I can’t give you any examples.
Cool. So this was our quick look at angeben. It’s used a lot in a formal sense of giving information, like in surveys or press conferences but it can also mean to show off. And if you’re looking for a connection between the meanings… just think of an average CV.
German near perfect (just passed B1),- French intermediate (can say Merci
and ordered wine once), - programming experience (one semester of JAVA at
school) - accomplished event manager (that one birthday party where you
organized beer) - author of three successful novels (“The mysterious Mr. Shaggosaurus”, “On top of Triceratops”, “My dinosaur bones… a lot.”)
- voluntary work for a non profit organization (did the dishes
after thanks giving dinner once) - … (not really anything, actually)
As always, if you have any questions or suggestions, if you want to try out some examples or if you just want to angeben a bit with your German just leave me a comment.
I hope you liked it and see you next time.
** angeben – fact sheet **
meaning:
1) formal word for giving information (context of forms, surveys, press conferences, etc.)
2) to show off
structures:
1) Ich gebe an, …
Ich gebe etwas an.
2) Ich gebe (mit etwas) (vor jemandem) an.
spoken past
haben+ angegeben
related words:
die Angabe(n) – the information given; common phrasing: Angaben machen
angeblich – supposedly, people say/so called, … expresses that some information is someone’s claim
die Angabe – the serve (for tennis and ping pong)
Wud? I this a joke i don’t understand, please explain Emanuel!
I’m happy to help but I have absolutely no idea what you’re asking about. Please be a little more clear what it is that you want me to explain.
I’m sorry, I meant that I don’t understand what this sentence means.
I understand all the words but not the meaning
I want to know what a ‘general resignation’ is and why it can be the reason for a person’s resignation.
thanks, and yes, i already duckduckgo-ed it to no avail.
German “resignation” is something like “giving up due to disillusionment”.
The person is feeling like “OH boy, my work makes no sense.” and so resigns.
Let me know if that helps.
Yes, that was very helpful, i didnt even think about putting ‘resignation’ into a translator bc i was so sure it was just an english word
there was smth like a ‘general resignation letter’ in search suggestions and since i have never worked for a company, i thought this was some corporate jargon or smth.
dankeschön!
*o mighty Emanuel, destroyer of compoundconfusions.
That’s not helping :). I really don’t know what you want to know.
I don’t English good enough to be able to think of a way to say this politely but I think that you accidentally marked the 3rd question’s answer as the wrong one (since you explicitly said that angeblich is used often irl (option 2) and nach angaben is not the same thing (option 1))
Also this was probably the funniest post I’ve read until now, i really had fun.
Fixed it, thank you :)!
Oh and don’t worry about being polite. I’m German… I like bluntness :D
Kann mann auch ‘angeberisch’ sagen, im Sinne von pretenzioes?
To me “angeberisch” is more about being a show-off, being braggy. So not sure, if “pretencious” is a good fit.
Gib mir bitte mal das Buch an, ___ auf dem Tisch liegt.
a) dass
b) das
I see this example on DW Facebook page. Why is it angeben in this case?
Very good question! To me, “angeben” makes no sense here, but it might be a Southern dialect thing. I feel like i have heard Austrians or Bavarians use “angeben” in the sense of just “geben”, but it’s not standard for sure. At least not in Germany.
Wow! Vielen dank!
Gerne, gerne :)
Could you just answer with “angeblich”. Like:
“Er hat gesagt dass er hat das Haus allein gekauft.”
“Angeblich.“ ?
great question, but nope, that would sound odd.
A bit like saying “Allegedly” in English in that context.
Er hat gesagt, dass er das Haus allein gekauft hat.”-“Angeblich.” yes u can, it would mean that u don’t think that his statement is true and that he actually didn’t buy it alone.
Actually, I agree with you. I don’t know why I was so against it in the other comments. It’s quite a while ago.
It’s HUGELY dependent on how you say it though. With the wrong intonation, it will sound completely out of place.
Hi,
Is it possible that angeblich can be used where eigentlich is used? My 5-year old daughter speaks German and she often uses a word sounded like “anklich” or “anglich”, which I thought she just learned something wrong for “eigentlich” according to the situations where she uses this word. However, her German is much much better than mine so I am not sure if it is just a word I don’t know, like angeblich .
Hmm… I don’t have kids of my own but I think “angeblich” would sounds a bit strange to me from a 5 year old. Maybe I’m wrong but I think this whole notion of
“someone said something and I’m reporting it while at the same time making clear that I do doubt it to some extent” is something they don’t need to express yet.
What I do know for a fact is that “eigentlich” gets shortened to something like “eingkich”, especially by kids. The combination of sounds in the proper “eigentlich” is a bit of a pain.
And “eingkich” might sound like a slurred “angeblich” to the untrained ear.
Anyway… it’s hard to tell for sure. Do you have an example, maybe? When put in context, I think I could tell for sure which it is.
Oh and have you read the post on “eigentlich”? Because it’s not the same word as the English “actually”
Hi
Just checking… in the example “Thomas nimmt seine neue…” there is no word “Freundin”. Is this a typo or could you actually drop the word “girlfriend” from the sentence?
Thanks!
That’s actually correct :). In general, in German you can just skip a noun and have the adjective take its place if the noun is well established. English uses “one” there but German doesn’T need it (in fact it wouldn’t work, if you tried)
– Ich habe zwei Bier…. willst du das warme oder das kalte?
– I have two beers… do you want the warm one or the cold one.
And if there’s only so much as a whiff of relationship context then “seine Neue”, “sein Neuer”, “ihr Neuer”, “ihre Neue” mean the new “partner/fling”. Of course you could say “Freundin” as well… it would sound more respectful. But then again… maybe it is in the “complicated”-stage still, so not having a noun there is more true to the situation :).
Actually… it’s kind of interesting that it doesn’t work in English except in one case…. the ex.
Even that’s not really the same, since “ex” is a prefix, not an adjective unto itself.
There really is some use of adjectives as abstract nouns in English, but because we don’t have grammatical gender, they tend to feel plural or non-count, and gender-neutral if there’s no further context:
– Out with the old, in with the new!
– Fortune favors the bold.
– Which bottle of wine should I open – the red or the white?
You can use indefinite articles with some things – “a red” or “a white” when talking about wine, for example – but it’s much rarer than in German, I’d say.
Actually, there are a couple of examples that do refer specifically to romance/relationships: “his/her beloved” and “his/her intended” (“intended” sounds more like a fiancé[e]). A little more serious than “seine Neue,” though… :)
I someone gave me pretty much this wine example a few months ago when I asked about this in an English language forum. Because I was wondering when it is actually possible and if there was a rule but nope… the usual English “You just have to know what’s idiomatic and what isn’t”-system :D Thanks for the insights!
Hi I think this is awesome. I would like to translate this into korean and share on my blog..is it okay?? of course I will put your name on the text as a orginal source..
That’d be great :). Thank you for thinking about this. If there’s a link and my name I’m all in…. oh could you post a link here? Then I can Google-translate it and see ho Google fails :D. Thanks again.
something seems to be missing missing… ” for anything that someone but that they doubt to some extent” doesn’t make sense
Not at all :)… the missing word was “says”. That’s what happens if I over edit one sentence. Thanks for making the article a bit less confusing.
As always, good stuff. I especially like the “fact sheet” summary.
One minor note: der Poliker should be der Politiker
Ha… I hope you’re not just scrolling down to the fact sheet :). As for the Poliker… I think it was a drunk Politiker. He’s sober now, though.
Is the word “Angebot” related ?
Nope, that comes from “anbieten”…. the “ge” in there is the same one that we see in the ge-forms… gekauft, geschlafen, gefragt and so on. Hope that helps
hi I have been taking German classes since secondary school and I have to say that it was only until I came across your website that I truly began to feel that I was learning German.Thanks for the good work.
Thanks for the nice feedback. Hope the learning goes better from now on :)
Hi,
Thanks for another wonder word description.
You sure the plural of die Angabe is ‘angeben’? Leo seems to differ
https://dict.leo.org/ende/index_en.html#/search=Angaben&searchLoc=0&resultOrder=basic&multiwordShowSingle=on
Oh ops, that was a typo… of course “Angaben” is correct. Nice catch! Danke
fantastic, both angeben and your new Prefix Verb Shorts. Thank you so much !!
Could you explain a little about the double prefix ‘anzugeben’ please.
There’s not much to explain…. it’s “angeben” used in a “zu”-construction
– Thomas hört nicht auf, mit seinem neuen Auto anzugeben.
– Thomas doesn’t stop showing off with his new car.
If you’re unsure about zu-constructions… check out the post on those over in the course section :)
“That last one was a little taste of how the more bureaucratic German “sounds” like. There’s much much worse though :).”
Come. On. That sentence sounds almost poetic.
;)
Okay, I admit it… it’s Goethe.
Ich mag einfach diese deutschen Wortanhäufungen wie “bekannt gewesen sein”, “gelesen zu haben”, “worden sein können”, “wollen haben werden sollen sein hätte”… ;)
Tut mir leid aber es muss heißen “wollen haben werden sollen GEsein hätte.” Da musst du nochmal nachgucken unter Unsinnitiv 2 ;)
Ne, das ist ja ein Zitat. ;)