Hello everyone,
And welcome to a new episode of
Learning Quiz
Yeay!
If you don’t know what a Learning Quiz is, it’s basically a lesson about a topic, but instead of me info-dumping on you, we’ll discover the stuff step by step together.
I mean… I know this stuff, of course. But we’ll learn in an interactive Q&A mode. I ask a question, you can think about the answer and pick an option, and then I give you the solution along with an explanation of “the key learning” as managers would say.
So the goal of this is not that you get every question right. For some questions, you can’t really know unless you know.
I’m trying to make it intuitive though and just so you know… I sometimes drop little foreshadowing clues, so make sure you actually read my explanations.
Anyway, these learning quizzes are a GREAT way to learn the key things about a topic and today, we’ll learn about
The Meanings and Use of “klappen”
So if you’re ready, let’s jump right in.
***
Oh, I do have a “normal” lesson about klappen as well with lots of examples. I’ll leave the link below, but I actually recommend you do the quiz first.
And remember… the goal here is that you LEARN, not that you PERFORM.
Viel Spaß :)
***
***
So, how did you do?
I actually kind of stopped thinking the quizzes are hard or easy because the last few times what I thought was way off base.
But let me know how you did this time and how well you think you knew this topic going in.
And if you didn’t score so well, please please do NOT think “Oh, I guess I’m not ready yet.”
What matters is that you understood the answers. Just do the quiz again right now, and then again in a couple of days and I think you’ll be surprised how much of it will stick.
If you do want to dig deeper and see more examples for klappen in context, check out my article about it which I recently updated.
I’d actually .. ahem… low-key recommend you do it.
You should klappen-maxx so you can native-mogg on other learners in your class.
Seriously, klappen is super duper common in daily life so if you want to blend in and sound authentic, it’s definitely one to add to your active rotation.
Let me know how you did and if you have any questions about any of this.
I hope you enjoyed it and learned something, have a great day and I’ll see you in the next one.
Bis dann!
Further reading:
Oh and if you want more Learning Quizzes, just klick the button above the headline at the top to get to the archive :)
Audio Speed
Dark Mode
Great Quiz.
What would be the more formal/business-friendly equivalent of klappen to say that something (an activity, a process) is going well? Verlaufen?
So what’s important is what you talk about.
“a process going well”… to me, that sounds more like an ongoing thing and then “klappen” is a bit weird, because it’s more momentary and result focused.
“verlaufen” is what a process does, basically. It can for instance “ohne Probleme verlaufen”. If you use it in past, then the process is complete, but if you use it in present, then it’s still going.
You wouldn’t really use “klappen” for a process though. “klappen” would be a fit for “trying to solve the problem (by using process A)”.
And then you could ask “Hat das geklappt, was ihr versucht habt?”, but you wouldn’t say “Hat der Prozess geklappt”.
The more formal version of “klappen” is funktionieren or gut gehen, depending on what the context is.
Let me know if this helps :)
I really like the learning quiz with the article as a follow up. Then I go back to the learning quiz and get a nice reinforcement to the lesson. Sehr gut.
I enjoy this format. I thought this one was easy. But, it could have been just luck or the hints you give in your explanations.
Wonderful lesson, Emanuel! The question I have is: does “Dieser Artikel hat für mich geklapped” sounds like “This article worked out for me”?
No, that doesn’t really work, because “der Artikel” is not an action or attempt you made.
You could say “den Artikel lesen hat geklappt” in a sense of it worked that you could read the article.
Does that help?
Totally! Thanks a lot for making it clear!
It’s truly wonderful to be able to learn German in a
structured way every day on this fantastic platform.
I’m also very grateful to the learning community for sponsoring me and letting me be part of this wonderful learning journey every day.
With warm regards
4 correct answers but I love your style of explaining even the most random or difficult concept in such a simple way.
I wanted to thank you and all this beautiful community for giving me the opportunity to lock in and study German every single day even if I couldn’t afford it. Thank you so much for what your doing and for creating an amazing community of members that help the others out!
7 of 9 the 1st time, and was somewhat familiar with the verb going in. Learned that something works out for somebody, not somebody ‘works out’ .. (duh!) .. that one helps quite a bit to reinforce the meaning. Also missed the Augenklappe (interesting in a very German way!) and the ‘yapping mouth’ (should have known that one). What’s helpful: it’s a great way to both learn and review – I think this type of quiz really helps drive the topic(s) home. Good stuff!
I went from a 4/10 to a 10/10 after doing the Word of the Day :). Es hat geklappt, nach ich der “Word of the day” Artikel gelesen habe.
So close to glory. 8/9. Es hat nicht geklappt weil ich «das» und nicht «es» geschrieben habe. Dummkopfpronomina.
Hmm, I was thinking if there were any alternative answers I should allow for and couldn’t think of any but this is definitely one :)
its me again-re:number 9 , maybe i just misread the corrections to my answers i.e. i missed one of the answers that does not work for klappen so it corrected all my answers (?). anyway I did the quiz again and got them all correct this time. I LOVE this sort of quizzes!!!! Vielen Dank!
Awesome, glad it worked out :)
Hi Emmanuel, for number 9 you asked which was WRONG, i.e you don’t use klappen, so i checked klappen means clapping, and klappen is for laundry, and i missed the other one, but the first two i checked are the right answers because they are wrong for klappen, richtig??
Immer Spaß!
I got 11/19 correct. I didn’t really know anything going in but knowing a little bit of how grammar works helped me with those 11 points.
That’s indeed pretty decent!
Now do it again and see how you score :)
I actually got all of them correct this time ( few days after I tried it first). And I was surprised to get the written question right since I wasn’t fully certain if I wrote it correctly.
That was a fun learning quiz. I forgot that “klatschen” is “to clap” and I didn’t know all the uses of “die Klappe”. I really have a much better idea of it all now.
What I like about your website is it gives much more of a feel for the language than most language learning websites do.
Thanks, I’m really happy to hear that :)
17 out of 19 without reading the article. I feel like using “Fresse” is more common than “Klappe” when telling someone to shut up. Do you agree? Am i right in thinking “halt die Fresse” is more rude”?
Yeah, “Fresse” is very rude. I do use it with friends sometimes, but only if we#re already in the “ironic” plane.
If they just say something and I say “halt mal kurz die Fresse” because I’m on the phone, that would “break the code”.
We’d then laugh about it and see it as an ironic break of custom, but I’d stay away from Fresse as a foreigner, unless you are in a legit argument with someone and want to fight.
Amen!
If somebody is insulting either you or another person in your group in a nasty way, you can say, “Du Alter, halt doch die Klappe, sonst hau’ ich Dir eine in die Fresse!”
Der Wert von „Klappen“ hat sich bereits bewährt! Eine englische Schlagzeile, die ich heute gesehen habe – und die ich sofort ins Deutsche übersetzt habe: Can the EU keep a secret? “Kann die EU die Klappe halten?” (US newspapers usually talk about of “the EU” as a monolith, so nur eine Klappe für alle.)
Just to make sure… that would be way to colloquial for an actual headline of a newspaper in Germany unless it’s celebrity gossip :)
I’m reminded of “The A Team” when Hannibal would say “II love it when a plan comes together!” He is absolutely talking about klappen there.
Actually… for a plan itself you’d use “funktionieren”. “klappen” could be the steps of the plan. Like “sneak into the building by dressing up like a janitor and hiding the guns in the water-bucket.”
Hello, you got no typos that I could find…
I failed only one, the one with the figures… I mean, the pirate patch is NOT solid?!?
I mean, not solid, but definitely rigid. Especially if made from leather like back in the day :)
That was helpful and I did better than I thought I would (78%). What’s really great about these quizzes, is that we can test the development of our intuition while we’re learning. Also, just a quick note about some English expressions and uses that align. With “halte die Klappe”- “shut your trap!” It also made me think of Claptrap. Anyway, vielen Dank!
In Austria, “Frau Wenninger auf der Klappe eins!'” = Ms. Wenninger on line one!
In Germany too “Es hat geklappt.” = It worked!
I got that “klappen doesn’t mean to clap” wrong because it “to clap something shut” is exactly what klappen means. It does not mean to applaud (clap the hands together to show support).
To clap one’s hands we use “klatschen”, which has other meanings as well.
Ah, I wasn’t aware that this “clap” existed. I changed it to “clap hands” now. Little thing, but frustrating if it costs you points :)
There’s that line in a children’s,poem/nursery rhyme
“Mit den Fuesschen tapp,tapp,tapp.
Mit den Haendchen klapp, klapp, klapp…..”
It’s ok. I just gave myself the points anyway. Also for question where we needed to pick the “not” uses for klappen. In my own head I got 100%
Haha, perfect!! That’s taking ownership of your score the right way :)