Hello everyone,
and welcome to our German Word of the Day. This time we’ll have a look at the meaning of
regen
Now you’re like “Hey, we know that! That means rain.” but what you mean is the noun der Regen. We will talk about the verb regen.
“But doesn’t that just mean to rain?”
No, that would be regnen with an extra “n”.
Extra N ® – extra ConfusioN since 1856
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Hi Emanuel, I’m a little confused. You say that aufgeregt indicates general nervousness and not excitement, but in the section immediately before “ich bin schon ganz aufgeregt” is translated as “I’m already excited”?
Good question!
The German version has a bigger share of nervousness but it can at times be a translation for “excited”. It depends on the context.
But the English, or especially the American “excited” is way further on the positive, happy side.
Hallihallo lieber Emanuel
This doesn’t mean that she is looking forward to it. It means that she is nervous.
aber dann… wie kann man ausdrücken, dass man richtig “excited(positive)” ist?
Vor Kurzem ist mir Folgendes beim Bewerbungsgespräch passiert:
Wir waren im Aufzug und der RRHH fragte mich: “Sind Sie aufgeregt?” und ich wollte eigentlich ausdrücken, dass der Job mir gefällt und ich wollte ihn bekommen (i was “excited” about becoming the job), dann sagte ich “Ja, total :)” und er antwortete “Oh, einfach ruhig bleiben, es wird alles gut gehen” (oder etwas so)”
Wie könnte ich dann dem RRHH äußern mein echtes Gefühl hier??
Man würde das auf Deutsch nicht so formulieren. Wir haben diese Form von “excited” nicht.
Du kannst sagen “Ich freue mich sehr auf/über den Job.”, aber das passt nur, wenn du ihn schon hast.
Du könntest vielleicht sagen “vorfreudig aufgeregt” aber das klingt ein bisschen gescriptet.
Ich glaube, die beste Antwort in der Situation ist “ein bisschen, aber auch gespannt”. Wenn du sagst, du bist nicht aufgeregt, das klingt vielleicht “zu cool” :).
Ich hoffe, das hilft!
Hi there Emanuel! I remember that one of your articles (yep it doesn’t help saying it like that) you had a sentence that went like “the father prompts/motivates/brings the child to do his homework”. But the verb you used there wasn’t either motivieren, or regen, it was something else, like ‘bringen’, but couldn’t find it…how would you translate it? My bad for this weird question, but I’m wrecking my mind over it ahah
It’s either “bringen zu” or “bewegen zu”, with the latter being more “pleading” while the former can be also blackmail.
Does that help?
I was wondering if there is a difference between Ärgern and Aufregen?
ps. your dictionary is actually the best (I tried many) it’s insanely helpful
“your dictionary is actually the best (I tried many) it’s insanely helpful”
Wow, I’m really glad to hear that. I put a lot of work into it :).
And more is coming. I’ll actually make it a browser extension soon.
About your question:
“aufregen” is technically a more general term for getting “activated”. The ge-form “aufgeregt” for instance can also mean “positively excited”. “ärgern” on the other hand is limited to being pissed.
In practice, “sich ärgern über” and “sich aufregen über” are used in very similar contexts (for being pissed), but “aufregen” more often than not includes verbally complaining, so you “express” your agitation, while “sich ärgern” can be internal.
Let me know if that helps :)
Ye this clears it up
Danke ! Noch mal einen tollen Artikel
Gerne :)!
Ich stimme zu. Danke!
freut mich :)!
In dem Beispiel “Ich könnt’ mich nur aufregen ey.”, was heißt “ey”? Ich kann das in keine Wörterbuch finden…
Das ist einfach ein Exklamation. Wie “yo” oder “hey”.
Hello another big fan of your blog here & commeting for the first time! :D
You wrote that ‘aufgeregt’ is more like nervous. But doesn’t ‘aufregend’ actually mean exciting?
i.e. A: Ich fange bald mit meinem neuen Job an!
B:Oh, das ist ja aufregend! (as in, oh that’s exciting!, without any negative connotation)
If aufregend does include a bit nervousness, what word can we use to say ‘exciting’ only in positive sense?
i.e. A: I am getting married!
B: OMGOMGOMG that is SOOO EXCITING! (how would you say this kind of ‘exciting’ in German?)
Thanks!
I think I might have overemphasized the aspect of nervous a bit. You’re right, “aufregend” is pretty close to “exciting” though it more ambivalent as to how you feel. All the words based on “excite” have taken on a very positive, happy vibe, probably by how they have been used in the US. “aufregen” has stayed more neutral and can go in either direction.
– Das ist ja aufregend.
That would translate to “exciting” and match the tone, but at least I wouldn’t say that if someone else starts a new job. It is not exciting for me. I would say “das ist cool/super/toll/fantastisch”… but not “aufregend” (though people do say that, too).
I’ve looked around for examples for “das war aufregend” a bit and I did find many where exciting matches but I also found some like this one:
– Man fuhr mich schnell zum Arzt, auch das war aufregend, an den Schmerz erinnere ich mich nicht.
– They rushed me to doctor. That too was [exciting???], I don’t remember the pain.
Here, I feel like “exciting” sounds just to joyful, happy and “enthralling” might be a better fit.
In the marriage example however, “aufregend” works fine. But not combined with “sooo”. That would sound odd for some reason.
Hope that helps a bit.
Hi Emanuel,
Wonderful post! I too think as ‘aufgeregt’ is also could be in terms of exciting rather than just being nervous.
I remember one of my friend asked me before we were going to ‘Oktober Fest’ as it was my first time ever.
She asked me: ‘Bist du aufgeregt ? ‘
Also one more question Could ‘Aufgeregt’ and ‘Begeistert’ be interchangeable?
Yeah, “aufgeregt” CAN be “excited” but it’s definitely not used the same way as in English, not as frequently that is.
As for “begeistert”… I’d say no, they’re not interchangeable. “aufgeregt” in a positive way implies some sort of anticipation while “begeistert” is the result of something. “aufgeregt” could be before the event and “begeistert” after, if that makes sense.
One of your best posts since long ago!! (I don’t mean that the others are bad, they are really helpful and well written, but here you made an awesome job, veeeeery funny and easy to understand! :) ) Thanks a lot!!
Glad to hear that, danke :)
Thank you so much. Your posts are really helpful :)
Glad to hear that. Thanks.
I liked this word of the day. Aufregen and abregen are pretty useful for my friend group.
Hi, in the song “Alle Vögel Sind Schon Da”, there are the lines, “Wie sie alle lustig sind – Flink und froh sich regen’. I always assumed that “regen” here just meant ‘to move about’, but does it always mean ‘to stir’, or ‘to start moving after having been still for a while’, even here?
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/regen#German sense 3 says “to be active doing something”. I don’t know if that’s correct, but it seems to fit. “Nimble and glad, (they) dart about”?
I would not understand the word in that sense. That doesn’t mean that noone has ever used it that way, but it’s not common at all.
Well, to me it does at least. Like… in this particular verse I do picture birds that start getting active, and not birds that are crazy active. However, the song is old (I don’t know how old but I’d guess at least 100 years) so it’s not a good indicator for how the verb is used today.
Your blog came up in past google searches when i wanted to find out something in German and your texts always helped. From this day I am starting to read your blog on a daily basis, to keep me fresh with my German. Thank you for your effort, you are very good in passing knowledge and simplifying otherwise hard German language. Keep the great work it is appreciated and I hope it pays of in a way that you consider fulfilling.
Feedback like this is always great :). Vielen Dank
Hi, Emanuel! In the Toronto example (In einer Woche fahre ich nach Toronto. Ich bin schon ganz aufgeregt.) Is this person “much more nervous and much less euphoric” than excited? If someone said they were excited, I’d assume they were just really looking forward to it.
That’s completely dependent on context. It can be meant in a super positive sense, just like the north American “excited” but it can also mean nervous. Maybe if you’re flying for the first time.
Although… on second thought, the particular phrasing “schon ganz aufgeregt” does make it sound like it’s likely positive excitement.
I’d probably use the verb “to budge” on many occasions to translate “(sich) regen”. It is often used in conjunction with describing the transition between two snapshots in time and space, one in which the object or subject in question was motionless and the other one, where it is in motion, be it physically, emotionally or any other means of motion.
The only context I am familiar with for “budge” are sentences like “They won’t budge” in contexts of some sort of negotiations. There, German would use “bewegen” and “regen” would sound weird. I think mainly because “regen” doesn’t have a direction. “regen” doesn’t imply that you change your location but I feel like “budge” does do that to some extend. Would you translate some of the examples from the post using budge?
Same here, though “won’t budge” can also be perfectly literal. It can also be transitive: “He heaved and strained, but couldn’t budge the stuck lever.” (Or “couldn’t make the stuck lever budge.”)
I can’t say I’ve ever seen “budge” the way gogetthem is describing it. To me, it would always have sort of a passive meaning, “to allow oneself to be moved,” and it’s way, way more common in the negative (“can’t budge it,” “won’t budge”). As for change of location – maybe not necessarily, but definitely a change of position.
I’d say the best translation for “sich regen” is probably “stir,” at least in the literal sense. If you want to sound sort of old-timey and more German, you could even say “bestir oneself” (that also sounds more intentional, though, with some kind of goal).
But would you use it just without any object?
– I stir.
Or would you need a self reference as well?
Hopefully I won’t get a double post – last one got rejected “gateway error”.
Anyhow I don’t see it needing an object although it has a fairly limited use – probably about as limited as sich regen. I can’t think of any other use than third person singular and present tense would look odd (continuous less so).
– the lion stirred (and then either awoke fully or went back to sleep)
– the lion is stirring (from his slumbers)
– Mount Vesuvius stirs… (would sound better told to your little brother at night while pointing a torch up your face from beneath)
Cool, thanks for these examples.
You can “stir up a crowd”, which requires the object being stirred. I can’t think of an example in which there is no object. “Jessica stirred” just doesn’t work. However, “Jessica stirred up quite the controversy when she tried to marry her horse” is just fine. Well, you know what I mean.
I like the style of your example :). Just for completion… the stirring from your example would be “erregen” or “anregen” in German, not just “regen”… actually “anstoßen” or “lostreten” or something else would be more idiomatic.
“Jessica stirred” would be absolutely fine. It would mean she started to move after being still, especially if she’d been asleep or unconscious.
You’re right. I was thinking about it later and realized that it could work.
Another example: “His loins stirred when he watched Jessica get undressed”. (Yeah, just a little racy – hubba! hubba!)
“Gestern war hatte ich ein BlindDate.” I don’t understand why war is in this sentence?
Because I didn’t proofread. Sorry sorry sorry. No more war.
Haha. One advantage to not reading your blog the day it comes out. It gives you time to correct any typos so that I don’t learn the wrong thing :)
As others have said (and I’ve said in a previous post), I really enjoy your blog. You really do have a great way of explaining things. And because I love etymology, I REALLY love it when you delve into the history of the words. Thanks!
PS. Do please delete this post, it’s just to let you know there was a mistranslation:
Thomas versucht verzweifelt Marias Aufmerksamkeit zu erregen.
THE CAT desperately tries to get/stir up/ lit.: stimulate Maria’s attention.
This was amazing. Your way of explaining stuff is just brilliant. I think I have found exactly the blog I was looking for! Vielen Dank!
Glad you like it! Thanks for the great feedback.