Hello everyone,
and welcome to our German Word of the Day. This time we’ll have a look at the meaning of
nämlich
Nämlich is one of those small little words that native speakers use a lot but that are a bit hard to grasp and that don’t really have a one word translation.
Some of you now might be like :
“Oh, so nämlich is one of those modal particles like doch?”
But, not really.
Technically, it isn’t and we’ll find out why later on today. It does have a particle vibe though.
Anyway, today, we’ll find out what it means, when and how to use it, and where to put it in a sentence, because it’s a bit specific about that.
So if you’re ready, let’s jump right in.
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Still no quiz as of January, 2026. :D
you might wanna check the news :D
Chickens call-out made it happen XD
Thank you a lot for the article. I would ask, what does “Es ist nämlich so, dass …” actually mean. Does it purely explain something or give also the reason?
“ich schreibe Ihnen in einer persönlichen Angelegenheit. Es ist nämlich so, dass viele Meetings in unserer Abteilung stattfinden.”
Is it correct, when it explains, what the issue is or should I firstly write, that I cannot focus on my work and then give the reason with it?
Thank you again and please forgive, if I put it all German-like in English, since the both languages are not my mother tongue.
To me, it feels like “because the thing is”
– I’m writing to you in a personal matter. Because the thing is that many meetings….
The “nämlich” here refers back to the sentence before it. You can take it out and not much would change but it glues things together a bit more.
Does that help?
Thank you. It makes now more sense.
If I understand correctly, “es ist so, dass” defines the matter and “nämlich” points out, that is the reason, why I am writing.
PS: Maybe it is not relevant to the topic, but I think, I should write: “Es ist nämlich so, dass in unserer Abteilung viele Meetings stattfinden.” Sorry.
Yusuf
Yeah, but it’s not really a “close connection” between the “nämlich” and the reason giving. Most native speakers would have a hard time telling what it’s even doing there, except adding a certain vibe. But yeah, what you said is pretty much at the core.
Thank you again. It was very helpful and kind of you.
„Hat Mama etwa heute Geburtstag und ich habe ihr Geschenk vergessen?” Nein, überlegt Lisa, Mama hat im Winter Geburtstag. Dann ist es nämlich immer ganz kalt draußen.
Is “nämlich” here “because”?
Great example!!
It does connect the sentences in a “causal” way.
– Mom has to have her birthday in winter, because it’s always cold outside.
– It’s always really cold outside when she has her birthday, so it has to be winter.
Technically, it is “I’m assuming that she has her birthday in winter BECAUSE it’s always cold.”
Does that help?
Yes, thank you very much, it makes perfect sense, how interesting that you found so many ways of translating in English what the “nämlich” is doing in there. It’s beautiful!
Great explanations. But although I understand it, I don’t know if I want to use it. for some reason nämlich is one of those words that sounds a bit cringe to me. it sounds just like namely in english which is incredibly formal and pretty rare. and so using it so casually feels really out of place to me and a bit forced since the sentence already seems complete without it. idk i’ll probably come around eventually lol
If you hear it often enough, it might lose the formal color. But yeah… you can be fluent without it :)
Oh Mein Got! all explanations are perfect. I can get it thru my mind and feeling..haha thank youuu
Oh, that was such a nice thing to hear, because that’s kind of the “ideal” I am working toward. I’m happy that it works for you :)
I have a quick question regarding this example sentence unrelated to nämlich at all:
Why is the second sentence not “Ich hab’ ihn …”? I thought that when using these types of pronouns (forget the exact term), you have to directly be referring to something in a relative clause (for example: Ich hab’ gestern den Film gesehen, den mein Freund dirigiert hat).
I was trying to come up with a fancy elaborate sentence where nämlich could be used BUT I will just type it plain and boring: YOUR explanations are the best! Loveee it! you summarize what could be a tedious and long explanation. Honestly, your work with this website is very helpful for us german learners. thnks
Danke for the great feedback :D
This article is at least 5 years old, and in Jan 26th there still wasn’t any quizzes, this made me smile xDD I would’ve done the same thing xDDDDD
God damnit, I completely forgot about this one. I actually didn’t really know what to ask and I was waiting for inspiration to set it. Still waiting XD
Hello, your website is really didactic and helpful! I just keep thinking, why is it “nämlich meine Schwester und meinEN (Akkusativ) Vater? Why not Nominativ? Vielen Dank!!
That’s because the main sentence was “Es gibt zwei Veganer”. “Es” is the subject and “veganer” is the direct object. This spans over to “Schwester” and “Vater” because they’re basically plugged in as the vegans.
Does that make sense :)?
Danke schön! :)
Finally I could understand the word. Danke!
Glad I could help :)!
Thank you for the explanation and examples. You explained the word nämlich clearly. I didn’t understand it before. Even my German teacher couldn’t give the class a clear explanation. She told us that there is no direct English translation. The students all thought it meant namely and couldn’t understand how to use it when it means “because”.
Very helpful post, as usual! I was having trouble to understand the “because” meaning exactly because of the weird position of “nämlich” in the middle of the sentence. Now I understood that there is no specific reason besides “that’s the way it is” and I have just accepted it.
Thanks!
Thanks a lot! That helped me to understand :).
Glad to hear that :) Danke!
If one word was ever able to capture the essence of a whole article it’s gotta be #reason! *^* ammmaaaazzzzingly cool! now I can accept the reason-nämlich as intuitive. Before it really bugged me whenever I heard it / read it but thanks to you that’ll be a thing of the past :D
Haha, glad I could help :)!
This page helps me a lot ! Will subscribe your blog, thank you again
Ayano, from Japan
Super, danke für das schöne Kompliment :). Grüße nach Japan
I love your blog so badly!. I am not a fan of languages but you always start with some funny remarks that just motivates me to learn and read the whole explanation.
I did understand nämlich finally, though I still don’t have the feeling to how to use it. I’ll pay more attention to how it sounds though with the austrian dialect going around me I don’t know if I’ll even notice it, hehe.
Thank you for this!
Hallo, German-is-easy
Ich habe an dich ein Frage:
Was ist der Unterschied zwischen “nämlich” und “wörtlich”? Ich frage dich das, weil ich bei mir allein dachte, dass sie beinahe das gleich wären. Kannst du eine Differenz ausnehmen?
Ich denke “wörtlich” ist hilfreich wenn man ein Satz “for real” sagen will, der regelmäßig bloß bildlich verwendet wird.
Ich lese dein Blog seit 2016 und es gefällt mir viel, aber ich hatte niemals der Mut, um dir was zu schrein. Deswegen ich genieß, diesen Moment dir zu sagen, daß du bist das Best! Gratuliere und mach’s weiter! ^^
Super, dass du dich getraut hast, zu schreiben. Und du schreibst echt richtig gut!! Bist du B2?
kleine Korrektur… nicht “Differenz ausnehmen” sonder “Unterschied ausmachen”
Zu deiner Frage… für einen Muttersprachler haben “nämlich” und “wörtlich” nicht viel gemeinsam und man kann sie NIE vertauschen.
“Wörtlich” benutzt man im Sinne von “literally”, also im Sinne von “NOT figuratively”
Sozusagen ein hashtag #nometaphor
Nämlich war #reason
Vielleicht hilft das, zu sehen, dass sie nicht viel gemeinsam haben.
Lass mich wissen, wenn du noch weiter Fragen hast.
Hi, mein guter Emanuel!
Hab meinen Namen auf Google gesucht und bin daher wieder zu diesem Post gekommen (:
…deine Antwort hab ich bedauerlicherweise nicht gesehen
Damals war ich gefühlt auf dem Niveau B1, ungefähr… Also, 5 lange Jahre später kommt ja die Danksagung: vielen Dank für deine Korrekturen! Heutzutage suche ich schon vom Anfang an die Wörter in DWDS und hab den Server “German Learning and Discussion” auf Discord gefunden, was mir enorm geholfen hat, mein Deutsch zu verbessern.
Hab mich auch dadurch dran erinnert, wie wunderbar deine Artikel sind <3
Ich hoffe, es geht Dir super!
Danke dir für den schönen Kommentar. Ich habe mich sehr gefreut :).
Und Glückwunsch zu deinem Erfolg mit Deutsch!
So for the first translation of nämlich , would be the any difference if we used “und zwar”?
Like for example
Dafür, dass ich nicht zur Party komme, gibt es zwei Gründe, umd zwar a) dass ich müde bin und b), dass Maria auch da ist, und die will ich nicht sehen.
Ps: I am not sure about the grammer here but what important for me is the idea :)
Ja, das funktioniert wunderbar :)
“weil ich nämlich…………” = “zumal ich……………” – passt das??
Ja, geht super und klingt sehr gut :).