Hello everyone,
and welcome to our German Word of the Day. Today we will have a look at the meaning of:
gewöhnen
And I think I am gonna need your help today… not so much because it so difficult but…the thing is… I went running yesterday, as I usually do on yesterdays, and it was quite a long and now my fingers are sore so I can’t really talk non stop or… uh …or think for that matter. But matter it does not and for you it is a chance to be live on the show so if you want to help me explain gewöhnen go right ahead, the number is 0800- 414-german-4-u, I repeat 0800-414-german-4-u and our first call comes from .. oh wow.. Lithuania … Svajoné, welcome to the show…
“Heeeeeyyyy… wow can’t believe I made it through.. this is sooo cool… “
Well, it is cool to have someone from Lithuania here… what city are you from? Vilnius?
“Haha… no, I am from Panevėžys… .”
Oh… uh… Pe… Panevezys …?
“Nah … it is Panevėžys… like … Pa – ne- vė – žys “
Pa – ne – vez – ys…
“Hahaha… kind of…”
How big is it?
“Oh… it’s a small town in the central north of Lithuania in comparison to Berlin… but it’s really pretty and we have really great theaters here…”
Oh that’s cool… and why are you learning German?
“Well… I am actually an actress and recently I partook in a play where we had to say all those lines from Goethe’s “A Fistful of dynamite” in the original German version. Most of us did it just by hearing but I was like … uhg… I have to know what that means and how it is build and so I started studying … I’m still a beginner but so far I love it.”
Cool… so will you help me explain gewöhnen?
“Definitely… I’ll be asking question mostly though (laughs)…”
That’s fine… but let me start with a question on my part… do you know the word gewöhnen?
“Yeah… I think like it is something like to get used to or something… “
Exactly. Gewöhnen is a verb and one of the meanings is to get used to … now… do you have any idea where it comes from?
“Hmmm… not really… looks like wohnen with dots and a ge- but that’s probably wrong.”
Not at all.. that was spot on, in fact… gewöhnen is related to wohnen and just has a ge-form.
“Doesn’t the ge stand for past… like… geschlafen?“
Yes, that’s true in a way. Ge is added to many verbs to build the participle 2 form that you need for the spoken past but before ge was this kind of past marker it was a regular prefix just like ver or ent or the others…
“Oh god, thoooose…”
… yeah… and there are other verbs that have the ge as a regular prefix… like gefallen or gewinnen… the ge used to just add a notion of completeness or for-good-ness to the verb but anyway… let’s get talk about wohnen for a second… do you know what that means?
“It is to live in sense of to live in a place right?”
Yap… wohnen is to life in sense of to inhabit and it can also be to stay if you talk about vacation.
- Ich wohne in Berlin.
- I live in Berlin.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- In Paris habe ich erst im Hotel und dann bei einer Freundin gewohnt.
- In Paris I stayed in a hotel at first and with a friend of mine.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
There are some related words, too, for example Wohnung which is flat, wohnlich which is cozy in context of a flat and Mitbewohner which is flatmate. But let’s not stay at wohnen for too long since there is plenty to say about gewöhnen. So… gewöhnen and wohnen are somewhat closely related and they come from the Uber-Ancient Indo-Germanic root u̯en(ə) and that root originally meant something like to strive for. And you know what else is related to that root?
“No..”
Gewinnen or to win and wünschen or to wish and even the name Venus.
“Oh wow…”
Yep, that’s what I thought, too… so the root u̯en(ə) meant to strive but was also used in variations for to seek, to desire and to be satisfied… so basically the whole process. You as a hunter gatherer wish for new hunting grounds, you strive towards it, you win it, you’ve won it and you’re happy with it and you life there or in German wohnen… sounds crazy but here’s a link to check it (origin of win,wish and others) … so … basically wohnen used to be more like to be satisfied at a place. Now… this whole idea of satisfied is also the key to the first meaning of gewöhnen…
As you said earlier, gewöhnen means to get used to something. This gewöhnen needs 2 things… a self reference and the preposition an… so it is actually sich gewöhnen an. Let’s look at some examples
- Ich muss mich an die Kälte gewöhnen.
- I have to get used to the cold.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Ich habe mich an dein Zuspätkommen gewöhnt.
- I have gotten used to your being late.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- “Berlin ist ja echt schön und so aber das Wetter wechselt die ganze Zeit… heute warm, morgen kalt, dann wieder warm… nervt dich das nicht auch?”
“Ach da gewöhnt man sich dran.” - “You know, Berlin is really nice and all that but the weather is changing ALL the time… one day warm, the next day cold, then warm again… doesn’t that bother you, too?”
“Beh… you’ll get used to it.” - Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
“Ahhhh oh my god, oh my god, I think I get it…”
Get what?
“The connection to the origins and to the satisfied-idea… gewöhnen is to get used to something because you kind of learn to be satisfied with something or you win yourself over for something… or you could even think of it as to learn to “wohnen” somewhere … like a new city with a different climate or so… I don’t know if that is correct sense but to me it does.”
I think it does… I especially like the idea of to win yourself over for something because that reflects the self reference that you need in the German version… you could also say to adept yourself if you want to…
- Maria hatte am Anfang große Probleme damit, dass ihre Katze Foucault zitiert, aber sie hat sich inzwischen daran gewöhnt.
- At first, Maria had a serious problem with the fact that her cat is citing Foucault, but she is used/adapted to it by now.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
Now… Gewöhnt is also often used as an adjective… then, the self reference is missing.
- Thomas ist daran gewöhnt, früh aufzustehen.
- Thomas is used to getting up early.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
because you d…
“Can I ask a question?”
Sure, sure go ahead…
“So… how would you translate Thomas used to get up early…would that be like : Thomas gewöhnt daran früh aufzustehen?”
Oh great question… but no… those 2 sentences are totally different when you look at the meaning.
- Thomas used to get up early.
- Thomas is used to getting up early.
The first one means that it was Thomas’ custom to get up early some time ago but it also at least to an extend implies that he doesn’t do it anymore now… or at least it doesn’t matter what he does now. The second sentence says that Thomas is … well used to it at the moment, presumably because he does it a lot. So the first sentence talks about what Thomas did back then, the second says how Thomas is now and that is pretty different.
“So I can’t use gewöhnen for the first version…”
No absolutely not… gewöhnen won’t work.
“And …how would you say it then?”
Well, there are different options but the best is using immer and maybe add a time word to set it in past.
- Thomas ist (früher) immer früh aufgestanden.
- Thomas used to get up early (back then, back in the days).
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
Immer doesn’t literally mean always here but rather something like normally or mostly.
“Cool… that makes sense…”
All right… so far we have gewöhnen which means to get used to something. But since we’re learning German here it is no surprise that gewöhnen can have prefixes. And the especially the first one might be a little… annoying… do you want to venture a guess?
“I don’t know…. auf?”
Close but no (no pun intended)… the first prefix is an… so we have angewöhnen…
“sich angewöhnen” and “sich gewöhnen an”
And sich angewöhnen means to make a habit of something.
- Thomas hat sich angewöhnt früh aufzustehen.
- Thomas has made a habit of getting up early.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
Depending on context to get used to can also be a translation.
- Gewöhn dir bitte mal an, den Klodeckel zu schließen!
- Please get used to closing the toilet lid!
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
Now, I believe this can be really confusing. First of all the 2 verbs looks very similar since both use an and both have need a self reference …
- sich angewöhnen – to make a habit
- sich gewöhnen an– to get used to
And besides the the looks they also share common idea and they might have only one translation in a language. However, they are NEVER interchangeable… firstly because the grammar is in fact very different and secondly because there is also a difference in meaning.
So let’s try to flesh this out a little starting with the meaning… what exactly is ich gewöhne mich an? Let’s say there is a situation that I can’t change but I can’t run away either, then it would be best to just get used to it or to adapt. And that is sich gewöhnen an. The preposition an means something like at. So let’s think of it this way: when you gewöhnen dich an something you kind of take yourself and you move yourself toward that, you adjust yourself to that.
Now, what is sich angewöhnen? Sich angewöhnen works the other way around. The situation IS under your control, you can decide what you do. And now imagine there is a habit you like… you take that habit and you move it toward yourself, habituate it at yourself so the habit then lives at you… it is your habit. Am I being to abstract?
“Maybe a little…”
Then let’s take an example… getting up early. Imagine you have a new job which compels you to getting up early every day. You must get up early or you’ll lose the job. So you can’t change the fact that you have to get up early. You adjust yourself to it, you get used to it.…. you gewöhnen yourself daran.
Now, imagine you’re rich and you can sleep as much as you please. But you are kind of sad that you never get to see the sunrise and you never go running in the morning. That is a situation that is under your control. There is something desirable – the habit of getting up early. But it is not where you are yet. So you take it and you move it to you and you slowly make it part of your own…. you gewöhnst it yourself an. Here’s the direct comparison:
- Ich muss mich daran gewöhnen, früh aufzustehen, denn meine neue Arbeit beginnt um 6.
- I have to get used to getting up early because my new job starts at 6.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Ich will mir angewöhnen, früh aufzustehen, denn ich will Morgentau von den Blättern in meinem Garten trinken.
- I want to start/form a habit of getting up early, because I want to drink morning dew from leaves in my garden.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
And here we also see the difference in grammar… for gewöhnen you yourself are the direct object. Like… I see myself in the mirror. That’s why you need the accusative case… like: mich, dich sich…
For angewöhnen, the direct object is whatever you make a habit of. You are just sort of the receiver… like in I bought myself a book. So here you need Dative or: mir, dir, sich…
Let’s do another example, this time with a noun.
- Ich gewöhne mich an Höflichkeit.
- I’m getting used to politeness.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Ich gewöhne mir Höflichkeit an.
- I take politeness as a habit for myself. (lit.)
- I take to being friendly. I start being friendly.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
In the first example, there is politeness all around me while I come from Berlin where people bark at you all the time. So everyone being friendly irritates me and I have to get used to it first. There is nothing said about whether I am unfriendly or not.
In the second example, I am an impolite person wanting to change that. There is nothing said about how other people around me are. So with all their similarities in looks… sich gewöhnen an and sich angewöhnen are 2 very different things in the mind of a native speaker of German. Now.. Svajoné, does that make any sense at all or am I just talking nonsense?
“Hahaha… no it makes sense.. I can’t repeat it but I think I understood… “
Cool, and there is another help… sich angewöhnen has a reverse… can you guess what it is?
“Hmmmm… we have an so it is either aus or ab… maybe ab????”
Perfect … abgewöhnen means to break a habit or just to give up something. For instance smoking.
- Ich habe mir das Rauchen abgewöhnt.
- I gave up smoking.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
However, sich abgewöhnen is more of a process than just a full stop.
- Ich will mir abgewöhnen, so spät ins Bett zu gehen.
- Ich will mir angewöhnen, früher ins Bett zu gehen.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
Both these sentences express the same idea, just from different sides.
“Does sich gewöhnen an have any antonyms?”
Anto-what?
“Oh uh… opposite words..”
Not directly… you can’t really get UNused to something. But there is umgewöhnen which means that you were used to something before and you are used to something else after.
- In meinen alten Job habe ich immer Abends gearbeitet. Beim neuen muss ich früh anfangen. Da muss ich mich auf jeden Fall umgewöhnen.
- In my old job, I was working the evenings. My new job has early hours. I’ll definitely have to readjust.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
And since we’re at related words… let’s maybe play a short jingle so people know where they are…
gewöhnen – other related words
… alright… so… There is also eingewöhnen which is very close to sich gewöhnen an BUT sich eingewöhnen needs no an-part… so you can use it without saying what exactly you are getting used to and that is practical sometimes.
- Ich bin letzte Woche nach Rom gezogen und muss mich erstmal eingewöhnen.
- I moved to Rom last week and I have to settle in/acclimatize.
“Ohhh… I have read Eingewöhnungsphase the other day… now that makes sense… are more related words?“
Oh yes, actually there are many. I hope you have your notebook ready.
“Right in front of me…”
I somehow figured. So let’s maybe start with verbs. We’ve learned that gewöhnen comes from something like wonen and the ge– was just a prefix. So naturally other prefixes were used too. And an important one is ver. Verwöhnen has several translations at Leo most of which are negative (to spoil), sound funny (to pamper) or are somewhat rare (to cosset). However, verwöhnen as a verb is something nice, something positive and marketing uses the word a lot. So the translation the best captures that is to treat like a king or queen.
- Lassen Sie sich von unseren Masseusen verwöhnen.
- Enjoy our masseuses.
Let yourself be pampered by our masseuses (lit.) - Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Ich verwöhne meine Freundin.
- I give my girlfriend a treat.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Gönnen Sie sich ein Verwöhnwochenende in unserer Wellness-Oase.
- Treat yourself/Allow yourself a relax and beauty weekend at our wellness oasis.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
Then, of course when you treat someone especially kids like a king ALL the time chances are that the person starts feeling a little too special and then we get to the negative side.
- Das Kind ist total verwöhnt.
- This kid is spoiled.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
So verwöhnen itself is a good thing… just the effect of over-verwöhnen can be negative.
Now, as far as prefixes go there is also the word entwöhnen but that is really rare and useless so let’s get back to gewöhnen and check out some other related words to that.
A very very useful one is ungewöhnlich which means unusually, strange or out of the ordinary.
- Es ist schon um 10 und Thomas hat noch keine Pause gemacht… wie ungewöhnlich.
- It is already 10 am and Thomas hasn’t had a break yet.. how unusual/strange.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Lebe lieber ungewöhnlich.
- A life less ordinary. (movie title)
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Für um 6 ist es ungewöhnlich früh.
- It is unusually early for 6 am.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
“You’re last example was ungewöhnlich stupid…”
Indeed… I’d even say it was aussergewöhnlich stupid.
“Oh.. like extraordinarily?”
Yep…
“Ah cool… so gewöhnlich without any prefixes means usual or ordinary?”
Uhhhh… yes but no… the problem is that gewöhnlich has a negative touch to it… at least as an adjective… like…
- Blue jeans und ein T-shirt… also bitttttttte… das ist SOOO gewöhnlich.
- Blue jeans and a t-shirt… pleaaaaase… that is SOOO normal/basic.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
You can find examples where gewöhnlich is used without this subtext and dictionaries will list it as a translation for ordinary/common BUT…. no matter what the situation… I think I would always prefer a synonym. I rarely use or hear gewöhnlich without un or ausser… except in the negative sense.
- Thomas hat einen normalen Job.
- Thomas has an ordinary/normal job.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Für gewöhnlich/normalerweise gehe ich um 1 ins Bett.
- Usually, I go to bed at 1.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
As far as nouns go, we have die Angewohnheit and die Gewohnheit..
“Without Umlaut?”
Yeah, without Umlaut… Those 2 remind of the verbs sich gewöhnen an and sich angewöhnen but the meaning of the nouns is very similar. It basically is just custom or habit. I think Angewohnheit is a little more negative… I mean… it is not the word itself… it is just… you can often find it in combination with schlecht.
- Eine schlechte Angewohnheit von mir ist, dass ich immer ohne anzustoßen trinke.
- A bad habit of mine is that I always eat butter without waiting for the toast.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
“Huh?… why butte.. oh ohhhhh… now, that was dumb.”
I know, I’m sorry… I am just getting tired.
“Oh me too… are there many more?”
Well, not many… maybe a few but I think we can wrap up here. So folks… this was our German Word of the Day gewöhnen. It is closely related to wohnen and comes from the same root as win, wish and wean. The core idea is “used-to-ness” so whatever word you see with gewöhn/gewohn in it.. it probably has something to do with that.
The verb mich gewöhnen an means to get used to something… something you can’t change something exterior to which you have to adapt not so much your ways but your perception, attitude or being. Mir angewöhnen means to make something a habit. There, you do change your ways.
Svajoné.. thank you sooo so much for your call your patience and your questions. It was really great to have you on the show…
“Well, thanks for having me… it was really interesting…”
How do you say Thank you in Lithuanian?
“Ačiū”
Well then… atchoo a lot and keep on studying.”
“Hahaha… I will … bye.”
And to all the rest of you… thanks for staying with us, I know it was long but I hope you learned something useful. If you have any questions or suggestions just leave me a comment. I hope you liked it and see you next time.
I came back to this article, dug a little deeper, and realized that English has a rarely-used verb / noun / adjective for ‘accustomed’ …. wont!
Wow, yeah… that’s pretty much “gewohnt”, just without the “ge-“.
Oh my God Emanuel, thanks God I checked your olders Articles, all of them are gold!
I struggle always with how to translate “he used to…” and now I get it :)
Thank you for beeing you!
Much appreciated, thanks :)
Occasionally and moreso in the past “live with it” would be common instead of got used to it for example.
Hi Emanuel. The internet is awash with stuff about the difference between gewohnt and gewöhnt. It seems most people think that the adjectival form is without the umlaut (i.e. https://hinative.com/questions/13052999) and the umlauted version is the conjugated verb. But here you use the two interchangeably.
Is it the case that it used to be separate but now in usage are interchangeable? Is the internet wrong? Would appreciate your thoughts. Thanks as ever.
“You use the two interchangeably”
Could you point me to some examples, actually? I just skimmed the article and I don’t think I am using “gewohnt” at all.
The comments on Hinative are a bit meh.
“gewohnt”:
For one thing, this can be the ge-form of “wohnen” (to live)
– Ich habe in Greensboro gewohnt.
This one will NEVERn be “gewöhnt”.
“gewohnt” can also be a form of “gewöhnen”, but then ONLY as an “adjective”.
– Ich esse mein gewohntes Abendessen.
You can also find it in the phrase “Ich bin XYZ gewohnt.” but here, “gewöhnt” would also work.
– Ich bin Hitze gewöhnt/gewohnt.
This is the same to me, and I prefer “gewöhnt”.
Yes, sorry I didn’t phrase myself well: I meant you were using ‘gewöhnt’ as both verb and adjective. You’re right that you don’t use ‘gewohnt’. And I like your explanation here. And I like your blog and trust you more than the random internet so I’ll just take your lead and basically go with adjective “gewöhnt” :-)
The only instance where you really need “gewohnt” is as a “proper” adjective… so in front of the noun.
– Meine Katze ist gestress, weil sie nicht in ihrer gewohnten Umgebung ist.
– My cat is stressed because it is not in the surroundings it’s used to.
ich will mir angewöhnen, täglich Deutsch zu lernen, weil ich mich an deutsche Grammatik gewöhnen möchte. ich soll auch mir abgewöhnen, in meinem Kopf aus Englisch zu Deutsch übersetzen.
Perfekt!! Das war ungewöhnlich gut!
Ups, ich meine außergewöhnlich, nicht ungewöhnlich.
Thanks for the article, as always :)
May I suggest “basic” for the following sentence:
Blue jeans and a t-shirt… pleaaaaase… that is SOOO basic.
You’re right, basic is the better choice and match :)!
or if you want to say ” i’m used to…” you can go with ” ich bin es gewöhnt, ” right?
You mean instead of “daran” gewöhnt? Yes, that works.
It is already 10 am and Thomas hasn’t made a break yet.. how unusual/strange
In english we ‘have’ breaks so that sentence should say ‘hasn’t had a break yet’.
A question that i have not been able to find an answer to is about aber and when it is used and why. Like this sentence…
Dein Blog ist aber witzig.
How would that translate?
This kind of “aber” only works in spoken German (or in a sort of dialogue written down) and only in combination with tone and melody. The combination expresses a mix between surprise and being impressed.
English has a similar “but”, but I think it’s rather old fashioned. In the very first episode of Game of Thrones, Cercei says at one point “But aren’t you pretty” (or something along those lines) without there being a discussion before. She sees her (Sansa) and says this with an impressed tone. The “but” doesn’t really do anything here other than marking the statement as more than a simple statement.
In every day English you wouldn’t translate it… maybe as “wow” if you really want to.
Hiya
Q1: But what about “ich bin es gewohnt” which as far as i can tell is the same as “ich bin daran gewöhnt” to say I´m used to it….?? When would i use one or the other?
And Q2: what would be the basic present of I get into the habit of? Would it be `Ich angewöhne mir`? or `Ich gewöhne mir an`?
Many thanks,
Laura
Q1… honestly… no idea :). To me “Ich bin es gewohnt” sounds a little more bossy and you’d use it in contexts that includes other people’s behavior. But the two are really close and that might just my impression
Q2: it’s trennbar so it would be
– Ich gewöhne mir an…
Hope that helps :)
Amazing blog! I´m learning German since November, directly in Germany… and I have so often the same questions about the language which are here exactly answered! My partner is German, but he can never help me in explaining the meaning of the words or the smooth differences. It´s just natural for him to use his language.
Can you please help me to understand the meaning of a word, which occured in this post a few times? It´s “aufzustehen”. I mean… I understand the meaning, but not the real difference between aufzustehen and aufstehen. Can I use aufstehen always when I can use aufzustehen.
And I have actually one more thing… which already doesn´t let me sleep :) It´s the article of the words with – teil (der Stadteil, das Gegenteil…). Why the difference in der/das? Doesn´t it refer in bothy cases to the part of something?
I would be very very grateful of you could find some time to help me out from this labyrinth.
Hi Julia,
so “aufzustehen” is just a sort of form of “aufstehen”
– Ich will früh aufstehen.
– I want to get up early.
– Ich versuche früh aufzustehen.
– I try to get up early.
So it’s a question of what verb you combine it with. Check out this article for more:
https://yourdailygerman.wordpress.com/2012/03/01/use-of-zu-and-um-zu/
As for “der/das Teil”… that is a good question. You’re totally right that it’s one and the same word. But there are a few here and there that do have two articles even in standard speech and “Teil” is one of them. Think of it as a carrot that looks like 2 legs. It’s odd but it just grew that way :). It’s hard to pin down the difference. “Das Teil” sounds a bit like a piece of hardware while “der Teil” is for more abstract parts (part of a movie, part of a city, part of the money) but also in context of food. The word “das Gegenteil” and I guess a bunch of others doesn’t really fit the logic though.
Anyway, I hope that helps a bit :)
One note. You said “Thomas used to get up early.” can be translated as “Thomas ist (früher) immer früh aufgestanden.”. My question is, isnt in fact also “Thomas hat sich angewöhnt früh aufzustehen” a correct translatoin for that? Because when somebody made a habit of something, that basically means he used to to it, oder?
As far as I know “I used to do something” is a pretty fixed construction describing a habit I once had. Of course, in order to have a habit, you have to “make” it at some point but that’s not what the sentence is about. The German sentence you mentioned means something slightly different:
– Thomas hat sich angewöhnt früh aufzustehen.
– Thomas has made a habit of getting up early.
It’s similar to
– Thomas is used to getting up early
But this is not the same as
– Thomas used to get up early.
because that talks about the past.
Hope that helps.
Hey Emanuel! I love your blog. I’ve only seriously learned German for 4 years, but I am always practicing by speaking to native speakers and watching films and listening to songs in German. Languages are awesome. I keep learning new words everyday and your blog is a big help.
I do have one question I hope you can clear up for me. I was told by native speakers that “Wie früh verlassen Sie für gewöhnlich die Schule?” is wrong without the für. However, this is the first time I’ve seen gewöhnlich with a für in front. I googled the two cases and hoped I would see a certain pattern, but I saw similar usages for both.
Für gewöhnlich gehe ich um 5 Uhr ins Bett
Ich gehe gewöhnlich um 5 Uhr ins Bett..
This made me think it was just a matter of preference. The native speakers were not able to explain to me why it is right with the für, and I will never learn to use it correctly if I don’t understand why I should use it. Could you be of any assistance?
Hey Yvonne, thanks for your nice feedback :)… and I have good news. I think I can help out with the question. I also prefer “für gewöhnlich”. For one thing it is a fixed phrase and I know it and I’m used to its being used in exactly those situations. But also “gewöhnlich” alone could be misunderstood as an adverb answering to “How do you go?”… so it could be an adverb that describes the activity rather directly or even an adjective referring to me.
– Ich gehe schnell/geduscht/gerne um 5 ins Bett.
“Für gewöhnlich” is clear in that it does not DIRECTLY describe the verb but it comments on the whole thing. Another example is “normalerweise” and there I can make it more obvious maybe
– Der Kaffee ist normal heiß.
– The coffee is decently hot.
I know that this is not idiomatic English but the “normal” does describe the “heiß” here. “Normalerweise” cannot be understood that way. It comments and on the whole thing and nothing else.
In the sentence:
– Wie früh verlassen sie (für) gewöhnlich die Schule.
the verb is somewhere else so the “gewöhnlich” is less likely to be mistaken for a direct description. That’s why in that example, both versions seem fine to me whereas in the first one I much prefer “für gewöhnlich”. And that might also be the reason why you can find either version online. Generally, “gewöhnlich” isn’t a very common word for describing how someone does something.
– Ich singe gewöhnlich.
I wouldn’t really know what that’s supposed to mean. So the need to clarify is less strong than it is with “normal”. And again that explains why you can find examples for either.
Let me know if that helps :)
Thanks! It is much more clear to me now. :)
Excellent article! Thanks for the in depth description of the difference between sich gewöhnen an and sich angewöhnen. Just a quick question, I’ve encountered both the adjectives ungewöhnlich and ungewohnt, and both seem to translate to something like unusual or strange. Is there any difference between these?
Good question… they are indeed pretty close but I think they are not really interchangeable… “ungewöhnlich” is shifted toward “extraordinary” while “ungewohnt” is closer to “unaccustomed, unfamiliar”…
– Das war ein ungewöhnlicher Film.
– That was a strange/odd/out of the ordinary movie”
– Das war eine ungewohnte Erfahrung für mich.
– That was an unfamiliar experience/something kind of new.
You can’t exchange one for the other in these examples as that would change the meaning.
– Der Pullover fühlt sich ungewohnt an.
– The pullover feels unusual … as in, not the way it usually feels, I am not used to how it feels… maybe because it was starched
– Der Pullover fühlt sich ungewöhnlich an.
– The pullover feels weird/intruiging/interesting/a little strange… as in… not how A pullover usually feels… maybe because it is shot through with iron
So… the difference is subtle but enough to say that they are not synonyms.
Also.. “ungewöhnlich” works as a general statement.
– Etwas ist ungewöhnlich.
“Ungewohnt” kind of requires a personal reference… that is why you’ll often find it in combination with “für mich/dich/…”
– Etwas ist ungewohnt.
This sparks raises the question “for whom?”
– Etwas ist ungewohnt für jemand.
Anyway… As adverbs they are really close…
– Ich bin heute ungewöhnlich/ungewohnt früh aufgestanden.
– Today, I got up unusually early.
The difference is still there in theory, but it is hard to rephrase it to make it clear so I’d say ultimately the adverbs are synonyms.
Hope that helps and glad to hear that the depth isn’t too much… I always worry about being too detailed and having articles that are too long…
Thank you again for your wonderful articles, they really stand out. I have a little question about the preposition “zu” in this example:
-Thomas ist daran gewöhnt, früh aufzustehen
I had never seen or noticed that before. I assume that you can insert the preposition in a prefix verb. Does this example make any sense?
– Schatz, ich habe keine Lust, deine Mutter nach Hause einzuladen.
If I am correct in my assumption (I may not), do you have to insert the preposition in the verb? Can you say?
– Thomas ist daran gewöhnt, früh zu aufstehen.
In case they are both correct, does any of them sound better/more natural to you?
Thank you and keep up the great work!
Oh the good old “zu”… I think in this example it is not called preposition. I am not sure what name it has but it is part of the so called Infinitivsatz or infinitive construction… such a construct exists in English too:
– I have forgotten *to* close the window.
The rules when to use “zu” are a little tricky but this post should clear up all your questions and the things you didn’t want to know ;)…
https://yourdailygerman.wordpress.com/2012/03/01/use-of-zu-and-um-zu/
and just to be save… you must not put the zu in front… it is really really wrong :)
I love youre site but please, stop using that awful English transliteration for the pronounciation, it looks horrible to me, as I’m not an English speaker.
Make a post about the way you pronounce words in German instead; it has such a wonderful and easy pronounciation :-)
A friend of mine actually recently mentioned that the “advice” is of little help if you’re not a native speaker … I’ll see if I can include audio from somewhere … as for the pronunciation article… well I think that is a difficult subject to talk about when you’re strictly limited to writing but then I thought that I could do a post on the most common myths about German pronunciation so… thanks for the hint :)
Argh. Major typo in my previous comment: “…so I just understand the need for another reference…” should be “…so I just DON’T understand…”
oh god, I hate it when those kind of mistakes happen to me… I’m always like “NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO” :D
Great explanation! I quite liked the format of this one as it it felt more entertaining and interesting to read instead of just feeling obligated to reach the end.
If it’s not too much trouble, I have a question involving your use of the word “da” in your example about getting used to the changing weather in Berlin, where the reply is “Ach da gewöhnt man sich dran.” What’s the purpose of “da” here? The way I see it is “dran” references the thing you’ll get used to, i.e., the ever-changing Berlin weather, so I just understand the need for another reference using “da”. The only thing I can think of is “da” means Berlin (would it mean the same thing if you used “dort” instead?) So, in comparison, what would “Ach man gewöhnt sich dran” mean? Am I just being pedantic?
Thanks a lot!
Great question… so I think this is called something like split prepositional adverb or something… it doesn’t really matter. The point is that you can take a da-word and split it in 2 parts. The first part then comes very early on and the rest remains with the verb. It is very common to do that with hin.
– Da fahre ich gerne hin.
– Dahin fahre ich gerne.
When you do it with a da-word that has a second part that starts with a vowel then you double the dar-part for… reasons I don’t know… so instead of :
– da ran/rin
you say
-da dran/drin
If the da-word has a preposition that starts with a consonant you don’t have to double the da.
– Da hab’ ich Respekt vor.
Now… why the hell do we do this???
My personal theory is this:
Having the da very early on makes for a nice connection to the stuff that came before. The text feels “joined”.
– Einen Marathon laufen… da hab’ ich Respekt vor.
This would be kind of generic:
– einen Marathon laufen… ich habe Respekt davor.
and this sounds “cut off”
– einen Marathon laufen… davor habe ich Respekt.
So… the early da makes our text smooth while having the preposition final fits with the German pattern of having these little words at the very end for they are the most important thing. Of course… with Respekt haben, the vor comes as no surprise for native speaker but saying the “vor” last feels very right by rhythm. Germans LOVE their final little thing :)
So… is there a difference between all these sentences:
– Daran gewöhnt man sich.
– Da gewöhnt man sich dran.
– Man gewöhnt sich daran/dran.
– Man gewöhnt sich da dran.
No… just the flow. The first one sounds most formal and is most likely for writing… but as soon as people start talking… they do this split not a lot but every now and then.
Hope that helped :)
It did help. Thanks for taking the time to respond! That’s an interesting theory why Germans do that.
I forgot one aspect so here it comes :)… there are some configurations (namely in passive), where the sentence does not have a subject:
– Davor wird immer wieder gewarnt.
If you don’t use the davor in position 1 here, you could use “immer wieder” or “gewarnt” or a filler “es” which is called Expletivum.
– Es wird immer wieder davor gewarnt.
This sounds stilted and official. So, avoiding this filler-es is one more reason to have the da-part first :)
And can you still split it in that case?
– Da wird immer wieder vor gewarnt.
I caught that as well but I think it was just a typo. Go easy on the guy :)
I also a big fan of your blog, it really helps me with understanding “why” things are the way they are. Which for me is very important when learning anything, especially a language. When someone just say “hey memorize this” and I don’t have any background info, I barely retain any of it. So thanks!
What I would love for you to write about though, would be prepositional adverbs i.e. damit, daran, davon, somit, etc….when I see them in text, I can usually figure out the meaning from the context, but no teacher I’ve had or any course book I have seen really goes into these. I’ve even looked online for a “master table” of some sort and had no luck. Therefore, I don’t really know how to use them and subsequently never use them in speaking or in writing. But they seem to be a pretty important part of the language, so I would love to gain a better understanding of them
Thanks and keep up the good work!
Andy
Good news for you… I already did that :)… you’re right in that they are an important part so I hope this clears it up a little :
https://yourdailygerman.wordpress.com/2012/06/19/da-words-meaning-german/
It was somewhat hidden in the course section.
I love your entries! Thank you so much for the time you put into these. I love learning the linguistic history and the beautiful and interesting uses of German words and phonemes.
As a native English speaker, I have one bit of constructive criticism– there is a difference between the noun “life” and the verb “to live.” For example, in your first example of “Ich wohne in Berlin,” the English sentence should actually be “I live in Berlin,” not “I life in Berlin.” “Life” with an F can only be used as a noun. “Live,” however, depending on the pronunciation, can either be a verb (pronounced “L-IH-V”) or an adjective (“L-IE-V,” as in Bill O’Reilly’s famous explosion of “Fuck it, let’s do it live,” meaning not pre-recorded or rehearsed).
OH what a stupid mistake:D… thanks for clarifying. But I can’t guarantee it won’t happen again… sometimes I type the weirdest things (I recently typed “may” instead of “my”)… anyway… thanks for your nice feedback :)