Hello everyone,
and welcome our German Word of the Day. And this time, we’ll take a thorough look at the meaning of
drücken
Actually, this is kind of the second part of our look at “der Druck“.
In the first part, we talked about the core idea of the family and then focused on the verb drucken and its prefix versions.
If you haven’t read it, you can find it here:
Today, we’ll go over the prefix versions of drücken, because there are quite a few that are absolute must haves. I mean… no pressure. But you really NEED those.
So are you ready to jump in?
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Small question. After subscription is expired and if i re subscribe again in the future, would be my study record still left ?
Yes, the account doesn’t go away, so all your notes and progress are still there, you just can’t see some of it.
I never delete accounts, unless the user explicitly asks for it.
When you said abdrücken means to pull the trigger i kind of imagined the idea of detachment expressed by “ab” referring to the bullet flying off. I mean in colloquial english i think its a think where you could say you “squeezed off a couple of shots”, and thats pretty similar. I mean “let off” is probably more common maybe.. just a thought…. i wouldn’t use it though to describe a shooting, it sounds lkke something from a crime novel or something
I’ve been looking at drängen / drängeln / dringen etc this weekend which shares along with drücken a range of words in english to do with pressure. i wonder if the “dr” has something going on here or its just a cooincidence..
I never thought of it that way, but it makes perfect sense.
The root for “dringen” might be related to the root of “drehen”, a subroot of which is the one for “drohen”, but the connection is listed as “questionable”, so I included them as separate roots.
https://yourdailygerman.com/meaning/trenk/#wordfamily-anchor
https://yourdailygerman.com/meaning/treuk/drohen/#wordfamily-anchor
thanks!
Well, in French, German, and sometimes English, to express yourself and squeeze are the same.
Like, I express myself well. And to “express a wound” (technical).
Related, expeller-pressed olive oil
Unfortunately, squeezing a lemon and expressing oneself are not the same in Spanish.
So, I recently told a lady that I had trouble “squeezing myself” in Spanish, like I was a lemon or something
OOPS.
She should have given you a nice embrace :)
Hi guys, I am Arpan and I would like to thank each one of you who donated extra so that someone who could not afford the course is able to. I am one them. Thank you very much to Emanuel for this platform and all of you. Cheers
1) Wir sind ja Spät, aber unsere Folge heute ist aber gut.
Hören sie das Folgendes
Gespräch 1
E1 : Ich habe auf Peters Auge anstatt sein Nase verdrückt und er hat sich selbst zerstört. Die Explosion hat mich ein Loch runtergedrückt. Ich habe ihn nie gedrückt
E2 : Der Sturz hat aber dein Gehirn zerdrückt.
E1 : Du veräppelt mich, dann ich erdrücke dich
E2 : HILFEEEE… tot
E1 : Gut. Ich soll verdrücken. Die Polizei sind auf dem weg. Sie zögern nicht abzudrücken
Gespräch 2
E1 : Er verdrückt den Ganzen Käse. Warum soll das mich beeindrücken?
E2 : Es gibt keinen Fur…..
E1 : WIRKLICH
E2 : JA
E1 : WOW UNGLAUBLICH
Gespräch 3
E1 : Diese Lexikon hat uns (Studenten) unterdrückt. Es hat alle diesen Informationen im Kopf reingedrückt
E(alle) : Jaaaa
2) Question
I have a quick Question
can the combination
sich einfallen lassen
replace either sich ausdenken/überlegen.
I did skim through your other article (Comment soon) but einfallen on it’s own doesn’t seem to fit. Vielen Dank.
3) Emfehlung
Werfen
gang ( umgang, zugang Abgang,….)
4) Beitrag
durchdrücken
which seems to mean, you guessed.
I think it’s used when you push your way against sth, used fig too
Very violent dialogue, number 1 :).
Generally, pay a little more attention to whether a phrasing has a self reference or not. You keep making mistakes with that.
About your questions:
2) yup, “sich einfallen lassen” can express the same as “sich ausdenken/sich überlegen”. But it’s always something new, so it doesn’t work for memory or decisions (“überlegen does)
3) “werfen” … yup, good idea
Gang… nope, too big a topic. Too many prefix versions of gehen with too many meanings. You can find some in the respective articles for the verbs like “umgehen” or “Abgehen”
4) Yup, “durchdrücken” is mainly used in sense of pushing through your agenda.
I’m surprised no one is demanding the r-verb article!! Let me put in an urgent request for it!
In the last quiz, you matched erdrücken with crush. I thought it should be zerdrücken. Is it right?
They can both be “crush”. “erdrücken” literally is “squeeze to death” but that can totally also be “crush”, for instance if someone gives a little too strong hug.
“Zerdrücken” has a focus in destroying by squeezing, but doesn’t imply “killing”. You can “zerdrücken” a lemon, not “erdrücken”.
Maybe I should have added that bit to the post, that’s actually kind of helpful :D
Hallo Emanuel! Vielen Dank für deinen tollen Artikel! Ich finde ihm sehr lustig und nützlich, so wie immer! Ich bin sehr entspannt auf den nächsten, Tschüss!
Another good one is “bei etwas ein Auge zudrücken”, to turn a blind eye to something.
Oh stimmt, das hab ich komplett vergessen!! Das wird relativ oft benutzt :)
Is this used more in a positive or negative way, or both? I saw one of the definitions is to turn a blind eye and the first thing that came to mind is a situation where you can and should help someone, but you ignore the problem instead. Then I saw an example where you’re sometimes late to work but your boss lets it go. So I guess a better question is, how serious is the thing that you’re closing an eye to? Is it different if you close both eyes?
Actually, it’s mostly used in positive contexts of letting something slide.
Like, you wouldn’t use it if someone turns a blind eye on an actual major injustice. It’s more this “I’m not mad, for this time.” kind of vibe.
“Turn a blind eye” definitely tends to sound negative to me. I’d probably use “let it slide” as a dynamic equivalent for “bei etw. ein Auge zudrücken”.
Actually, there’s also “to wink at something,” which is probably the closest equivalent – although I think the (by now) normal use of “wink” makes it sound more approving than it is.
Toller Artikel! Aber jetzt hab ich so viel Lust, den Artikel über R-Version zu lesen. :) :) ;)
DEn gibt’s leider noch nicht :). Aber wenn du ein paar Artikel aus der Serie “Prefix Verbs Explained” liest, dann wirst du verstehen.
Ein ausgezeichneter Artikel über eines der schwierigsten Wörter, die mir während meines Studiums der deutschen Sprache begegnet sind. Herr Schuchart erklärt die Präfixverben von “drücken” in einer sehr logischen und einnehmenden Weise. Wie immer macht sein charakteristischer humorvoller Stil den Artikel zu einer Freude beim Lesen. Ich danke Ihnen sehr, Herr Schuchart, dass Sie mein richtungsweisendes Licht sind.
Oh, vielen Dank für die lieben Worte :)!! War “drücken” eins der schwierigsten Wörter? Warum denn genau? Konnten Sie sich nicht gut daran erinnern, oder waren die Variationen zu viele?
Ja, die Variationen von „drücken“ waren für mich manchmal schwer zu handhaben.
Very in detail article, Emanuel. I’d also like to express my gratitude and thanks for those who donated so that I can have a membership account here on this blog.
Thank you so much, donators and Emanuel for letting me have the chance to learn, read and hopefully master the German language.
Danke schön! Bis bald!
Viel Erfolg beim Lernen :)
I learned another new one today, rausdrücken. You’re right, it was easy to tell the meaning from context (pressing/squeezing the water out of grated potatoes).
Yeay…. the r-versions are generally really easy to grasp :)
Ich mag die Einhörner und die Eichhörnchen!
I just now realized how similar the spellings actually are, and that both animals are based on “Horn” :D. Not joking!!
(Disclaimer: the comment mentions unicorns as if they’re a real existing species. That is contested. Emanuel is a unicorn truther, but he has yet to back that up with evidence)
Good article. In English we often say “to PRESS the trigger”. And this is more in line with the common meaning of drücken.
Oh really? I’ve actually never heard that… what region of the English speaking world are you from, if I may ask :)
Agreed! Shooting accurately requires gradually increasing PRESSURE on the trigger until the shot goes OFF. While this trigger action may appear very quick, when done properly, it should be as Dennis describes (even if done in fraction of a second). Instructors drill it into you to not JERK the trigger (causing inaccuracy), and they will often avoid the word PULL to avoid the student conflating pulling and jerking the trigger. The German verb conveys this concept well! Plus 1 for German! It could also stem from the age of matchlock firearms when you would press a lever holding a burning wick onto a flash hole in order to fire the weapon.
That’s interesting! For laymen, though, “pull the trigger” is definitely the idiomatic phrase.
Dear Emanuel, this article is just great, especially for those of us who are perpetually confused by (yet also attracted to) German prefixes. It is just dastardly how disparate the meanings of words with the same stem become with the addition of just a few letters at the front end. I know you have some individual articles about some of the prefixes, but is there somewhere where you give a description of all of them? Or, is there some collection of articles under one heading that is only about prefixes? There seem to be only a limited number of word stems in German, but when one adds in those multi-meaning prefixes, kaBLAM! Thanks!
Well Ihave a series called “Prefix Verbs Explained” in which we talk about one verb per episode. I think at this point I have covered like the 40 most common ones.
You can find them in the “by word type” archive under verbs… just pick the prefix verb you are interested in from the list.
You can also use my dictionary (in beta version) and search for a specific prefix (advanced options) to see all entries for that one.
https://yourdailygerman.com/glossary-beta/
And I highly recommend my series about prefix verbs in general. It’s three parts talking about language in general and I think it’ll be very enlightening :)
Here’s part one:
https://yourdailygerman.com/function-prefixes-languages/
Thank you Thank you! Wonderful. Much appreciated.
Benutzt man lieber „Lass dich mal drücken“ als „Lass mich dich mal umarmen“?
Wenn man idiomatisch schreibt, soll man einen Apostroph am Ende des Wortes geben, um den Platz für das „E“ zu füllen?
Z.B. Ich verdrück‘ mich.
Noch ein toller Artikel – dank‘ dir!
Ohhhhhh, where have you been :D?!
Glad to see you back!!!
– Lass dich mal umarmen.
This one is also common, but your version (with the reflexive) is a bit too complicated to say. Like… this “mich dich” is confusing to us native speakers and trips us up here.
As for the apostrophe… yup, I should put one here. “Officially”, you don’t have to I think, but for learners it’s better to have it :)
The examples today were extra full of useful phrases to add to my daily rotation and made me laugh to boot :)
A question about Ausdrücke when it’s used to mean swear words. Is this used in the plural, or does singular work too? I was just on dict.cc and got better results when I searched for Ausdrücke as opposed to Ausdruck. This doesn’t usually make a difference, but every so often it does.
I was listening to a podcast today and came across wegdrücken. Seine Hilferufe über die Sprechanlage wurden weggedrückt.
Good question about “Ausdrücke”… already the plural needs a bit of context to be immediately understood and that’s even harder in singular. The other meaning of “Ausdruck” is just too strong. I think people usually use “Kraftausdruck” in singular. That is unambiguous and only means “strong word”/swear word.
Nice you mentioned “wegdrücken” :). I wanted to include it in the quiz, but then I didn’t really know how and I figured you can get the meaning from context anyway.
It’s pretty much only used for that… denying a call by pressing a button.
It’s NOT for ending a call (just mentioning this to make sure :)
Got it, thanks!
BTW it was nice to see you in the latest Easy German video! I was listening with my eyes closed and then went, wait, I know that voice :)
Hahaha :). I was surprised to be in it, as well. We were talking SUPER short and I was really struggling to express myself.
Hello,
Typos first:
“If oyu want to talk to an operator” (If you…)
“these r-version almost always carry” (these r-versions almost always carry)
“and it’s various prefix versions,” (and its various prefix versions.)
“Ich verdrück mich” (Ich verdrücke mich) (or am I wrong and you’re using the colloquial version of German verbs in the 1st person singular?)
BTW, pushing someone’s buttons in English means to purposefully irritate or annoy someone, not much to do with pressure. Would that apply in German? Or does it only have the pressure-related meaning?
Is verdrücken in the sense of pressing the wrong button also reflexive?
Thanks for another great article and bis nächstes Mal!
Man verwählt sich auch, wenn man die falschen Telefonnummer angerufen hat. Aber ich empfinde, dass man sich verdrückt, wenn man z.B. eine Fahrkarte am Automat kauft, und an den falschen Knopf drückt, vielleicht für Hin- und Rückfahrt statt für nur Einfach.
Ja, “sich verdrücken” ist nur für EINEN Knopf oder eine “Wahl”. Wie wenn die Stimme sagt “drücken sie die 2” und man drückt die 3.
“Misdial” ist definitiv “sich verwählen”
Danke wie immer für die Korrekturen :).
About “pushing the buttons”… it’s the same metaphorical meaning in German, actually.
And yes, “mispress” would be “sich verdrücken”… you clearly know your “ver-” :)
As for the missing ‘ …. you’re totally right, I should put it there, just so learners don’t get confused. But a while ago, I read (much to my surprise) that you don’t actually have to put it. So it seems like German is ready to let go of one ending, after all :)
Aber muss man nicht einen Apostrophe dazugeben? Ich verdrück’ mich? Kinda like, “Ich hab’ etwas”?
Ich glaube, ich habe im Duden gelesen, dass es nicht sein muss. Ich war selber überrascht :)
Yeah, I think your answer for the last question is incorrect.
I like the Ausdruck “sich vor etwas drücken”, to duck/weasel out of something. Vielleicht so: Der Wichser hat sich gedrückt und ich musste ganz allein nach der Party aufräumen.
Yeah, I forgot to mark the answer :).
Du hast “sich vor etwas drücken” gut verwendet, aber “Wichser” ist sehr sehr stark und vulgär. Nur als Warnung :)
Verstehe. Es war eine megagroße Party und seine Ausrede war ganz dünn. ;-)