Hello everyone,
and welcome to a brand new episode of “How to say in German?”.
In this series, we look at English words that learners are typically struggling with in German because they have multiple translations that shouldn’t be mixed up.
Today’s episode is a bit special though, because we’re not just looking at one single English word. Instead, we’ll look at a topic and go over all the ways you’ll need in daily life to talk about it.
And the topic is… drumroll…
Remembering things in German
That means we’ll of course talk about erinnnern and sich erinnern and sich merken.
But I’ll also tell you a couple other super common German ways to translate to remember that you might not have on your radar.
And then, to round it all off, we’ll talk about nouns and specifically, the difference between Gedächtnis and Erinnerung.
Oh and milk. I just remembered that we’ll talk about that too. Like, a latte.
Get it? I just made a pun about mi… okay never mind.
So if you’re ready to dive in, I’d say let’s go.
And we’ll start right away with the word erinnern as to remind.
“to remind” in German – erinnern
erinnern is the German word for to remind and I’ll start with a really important pronunciation tip:
There is a PAUSE after “er”.
er [silence] innern
As you can hear, I am basically just saying “a [pause] innan”, which is more or less standard pronunciation with a Berlin region color.
Many people get this wrong and bind the syllables together. It’s still understandable, and some German speaking regions also do it to an extent, but it’s better to try and really make the pause there, because having pause after a prefix is a very typical rhythm pattern in German.
And erinnern is indeed a prefix verb – the prefix er- combined with some variant of innen, which means inside.
Why er-?
Well, no deeper reason, actually. At some point, there also used to be geinnern and just innern, with the same meaning. erinnern just kind of came out on top and the other two do not exist anymore.
But in essence, erinnern is about something like “bring inside”.
Which is not that different from to remind, actually, which means bring back to the mind again, if you take it literally – to “re-mind”.
There are two key differences between German and English though that can be kind of tricky.
Let’s look at an example and see if you can spot the first one.
- Thomas erinnert mich an die Milch.
- Thomas reminds me about the milk.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
Did you catch it?
Yes, it’s the different prepositions. English says remind of/about, while in German it’s erinnern an.
Why?
Well, same reason why a creek winds its way around the left of a rock and not the right. There was some cause of course, maybe a moose dropped a pile on one side when the creek started forming. But it ultimately doesn’t matter. Could as well have gone the other way.
So yeah, it’s erinnern an in German.
- Der Film hat mich an all die Milch erinnert, die ich nie gekauft habe.
- The movie “reminded me of/made me think of” all the milk I never bought.
(For those of you who are familiar with the concept of two way prepositions – yes, the an goes with Accusative here.)
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
Cool.
So the preposition was the first difference, and the second one, which is a bit bigger, has to do with how to connect actions.
- Can you remind me about buying milk?
Here, I’m asking to be reminded about an activity, and the phrasing I use is essentially the same as before.
In German, that won’t really work. Instead, what we need is a zu-sentence and a da-word.
- Kannst du mich daran erinnern, Milch zu kaufen?
- Can you remind me about buying milk?
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Erinner’ mich daran, dich an den Termin zu erinnern.
- Remind me to remind you about the appointment.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
Cool.
Now, if you have questions about this so far, let’s actually talk about them in the comments later. But we have a lot to get to still, so let’s actually move on to the next verb – to remember.
“to remember” in German
And while German usually likes to have distinct verbs for all kinds of nuances, in this case, it’s different. German actually doesn’t have a distinct verb for to remember.
Instead, in German you simply use erinnern an, but with a self reference. So in essence you’re “reminding oneself”.
Let’s look at the two versions back to back:
- Ich erinnere mich an die Milch.
- I remember the milk.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Ich erinnere dich an die Milch.
- I remind you about the milk.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
As you can see, the German sentences are exactly the same. The only difference is the person being reminded – myself in the first one, you in the second one.
But we do need an in both examples. And consequently, we also need the da-word daran if we’re dealing with a pronoun.
- Das Konzert ist lange her, aber ich erinnere mich immer noch daran.
- The concert was a long time ago, but I still remember it.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Ich kann mich nicht daran erinnern, wie ich nach Hause gekommen bin.
- I can’t remember how I got home.
(You could skip the “daran” here, by the way) - Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
Now, I know that this construction is definitely a bit complicated compared to how simple remember is, but you really should try to get used to it because it sounds quite bad if you get it wrong and you might not even be understood.
That said, there are two other ways Germans express the idea of remembering in daily life that are actually oftentimes even more natural.
The first one is simply the verb wissen, combined with noch, if you still know something (remember), and combined with nicht mehr if you forgot (not remember).
- “Wow, ich weiß immer noch, wie Milch schmeckt, obwohl wir echt lange keine haben.”
“Wenn du willst, dass ich welche kaufe, dann sag es einfach.” - “Wow, I still remember how milk tastes even though we haven’t had any in a long time.”
“If you want me to by some then just say it.” - Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
Of course you could also use “still know” in English, but I feel like using this phrasing is a bit more common in German overall.
- Weißt du noch, was du letztes Jahr zu mir über Cappuccino gesagt hast ?
- Do you (still) remember what you said to me about cappuccino last year?
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
I feel like using “do you still know…” wouldn’t be the best choice in English, but this is super natural in German and way more so than using sich erinnern, because that’d be just way more clunky.
- Erinnerst du dich daran, was du…
I mean, come on – this is like eating gravel, while “weißt du noch” is like drinking warm milk with honey, so it’s definitely the more common choice in daily life.
And the same goes for the negative version, with nicht.
- Ich weiß nicht mehr, wie ich gestern nach Hause gekommen bin.
- I don’t remember how I got home last night.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
Using “I don’t know anymore” feels a bit weird to me in English, but in German, it’s super duper natural.
And even more so in the past tense.
Take this sentence:
- I couldn’t remember his name. That was super embarrassing.
- Ich konnte mich nicht an seinen Namen erinnern. Das war super peinlich.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Ich wusste seinen Namen nicht mehr. Das war super peinlich.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
I mean… I ain’t got no degree in Pickology, but I damn sure know what I’d pick.
So yeah, noch wissen (remember) and nicht mehr wissen ((can)not remember) are great choices for everyday contexts and they’re easier to pull off than the whole sich erinnern an stuff.
Cool.
Now, in the comments some of you brought up another way to say remember that I had originally forgotten to include but it’s actually common, too, so let me mention it here real quick.
The first one is jemandem (Dative) einfallen.
- Mir ist meine Pin wieder eingefallen.
- I remembered my pin again.
(“The pin fell into me again”)
Literally, this means that “something falls to you”, into your mind basically. And it’s used for quick short remembering as well as for small new ideas. I have an article about it, so I’ll link it below.
But now let’s get to the other side of remembering – the moment of “establishing a memory”. And that’s where we need sich merken.
The meaning of “sich merken”
I actually have an article about sich merken and merken and the differences between the two. I’ll leave the link below and I won’t go into too much detail here and just focus on the part that’s about remembering.
And the difference between sich merken and sich erinnern is very straightforward.
sich erinnern is about the recall of information from your brain. And it’s ONLY about that.
sich merken on the other hand is about the act of storing information there – to memorize, if you will.
- “Hi, ich bin Stefan mit f und das ist Stephan mit ph.”
“Okay, ich versuche es mir zu merken.” - “Hi, I’m Stefan with f and this is Stephan with ph.”
“Okay, I’ll try to remember/learn/memorize it.” - Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Wie hast du dir so viele Passwörter gemerkt?
- How could you learn/remember so many passwords?
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- “Wow, deine Katze ist fett geworden.”
“Achtung, sie versteht und sie merkt sich das.” - “Wow, your cat has gotten fat.”
“Careful, she understands and she’ll remember that.” - Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- “Dieser Coffee-Shop macht extrem gute Milch.”
“Wow, das muss ich mir merken.” - “This coffee shot makes an amazing milk.”
“Wow, I’ll have to remember that.” - Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
I’m not sure about the English versions of the last two examples, now that I think about it. Like… do they feel like they’re about the moment of storing information or do they actually feel like they’re about the moment of recalling it?
Either way, German CLEARLY focuses on the storing here and using sich erinnern would sound weird, because before you can do that, you’ll have to sich merken first.
I’d say the best is to think of sich merken as a sort of (book)marking for oneself, because that captures the meaning and it ALSO makes it clear why the self reference in sich merken is in DATIVE – marking FOR oneself, we’re the “benefactor” of the note. The indirect object, while whatever we’re “bookmarking” is the direct object
- Ich habe mir Marias Pin gemerkt.
- I memorized/learned Maria’s pin.
“I marked Maria’s pin for me (in my brain).”
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
So… whenever you want to translate (or say) remember and you could replace it with learn or memorize because it’s about the moment of storing information, sich merken is the word you need.
All right.
Now, this was already a longer show than expected and I actually kind of feel like wrapping things up here, but I did promise that we’d look at the nouns too, so let’s do that real quick.
Memory nouns in German
There are mainly two nouns that matter here: das Gedächtnis and die Erinnerung.
And in a nutshell, das Gedächtnis is the storage:
- Elefanten haben ein gutes Gedächtnis.
- Elephants have a great memory.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Wie bekommt man Sachen vom Kurzzeit- ins Langzeitgedächtnis?
- How do you get things from short term to long term memory?
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
And die Erinnerung is all the rest.
So it is a memory in the sense of something that is stored in your brain.
- Der Sonnenuntergang ist meine Lieblingserinnerung von dem Urlaub.
- The sunset is my favorite memory of the vacation.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Der Geruch des Parfüms bringt viele Erinnerungen hoch.
- The scent of the perfume brings up a lot of memories.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
And it’s also the word for reminder.
- “Das ist sehr wichtig, bitte vergiss es nicht.”
“Nee, ich mache mir eine Erinnerung im Telefon.” - “That is very important, please don’t forget it.”
“No, I’ll set up a reminder on my phone.” - Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Hi Team, hier noch mal zur Erinnerung: das Meeting morgen startet schon um 12.
- Hi Team, here again as a reminder: the meeting tomorrow will start already at 12.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
There is a bit of overlap between Erinnerung and Gedächtnis here and there on the fringes, so you’ll come across uses that don’t really fit in with my distinction.
Like… memory loss for instance is Gedächtnisverlust, though I can totally see how it would make sense to think of it more as “memories lost” than “storage lost”.
But by and large, it works well.
And I think that’s where we’ll wrap it up for today :).
This was our little overview over how to talk about reminding and remembering in German.
If you want to check how much you remember you can take the little quiz I have prepared for you.
And of course if you have any questions or thoughts about any of this just please me leave a comment.
I hope you liked it and see you in the next one. Bye!
Further reading:
- Word of the Day – “merken”
- Word of the Day – “einfallen”
- Two-Way Prepositions Explained
- German da-words explained
It was interesting to me that errinnern an- is with accusative, however eingefallen, merken, errinerung are used with dative. At least I think that’s how I understand and remember. I’m glad you made the comment “merken is dative because it’s I/we are the indirect object of being the benefactor of the notice/note. This helped me to see why the difference
So two things here:
First of, “erinnern an+Accusative” is a preposition with case, while the other ones are just a direct Dative. You shouldn’t really compare these in terms on logic or what they express because they don’t have anything to do with each other.
So you can compare “an+Dative” with “an+Accusative” but NOT “an+Accusative” with “Accusative”.
“mir einfallen” – something falls into me. I’m the beneficiary, the receiver, same as with “sich etwas merken” only that this time, we don’t have a direct object.
Does that help?
Thank you Emanuel, I enjoyed your piece as always. One comment, I don’t know if it’s helpful.
For me in translating ‘Gedächtnis’ I think of it as a function (i.e., memory is a function, just like breathing), where ‘Erinnerung’ is (as you note) the item remembered. This helps me when I consider ‘Gedächtnisverlust’, which would be the loss of that function (not the loss of a specific memory). That works in the way ‘memory loss’ is used in American English as a general malady, not the loss of a singular recollection.
Und so erinnerst du mich daran, wer ich wirklich bin
also, regarding the difference between das Gedächtnis and die Errinerung, it might help to mentally translate Errinerung as recollection
What about remembering things that aren’t true? E.g:
I feel like noch wissen wouldn’t work here. Would you translate these sentences with erinnern?
Do these phrasings work, or is this type of false memory expressed with a different verb/construction entirely?
The first one doesn’t work for me. Maybe you can find something similar in a book, but not this.
– In meiner Erinnerung ist meine Schule größer als sie eigentlich ist.
And “erinnern an” sounds factual. That’s how it was. So for the second sentence, that would sound like someone must have taken the key. It does not really sound like the memory could be wrong.
Again, you can use “in meiner Erinnerung” or you might also here “Ich glaube mich zu erinnern, dass….”
Thanks so much!
Wow! I really enjoyed the article. It was so helpful.
Discovering ” (immer) noch wissen and nicht mehr wissen” as ways to express “to remember and not to remember” is such a FIND! I never heard that before. “Sich erinnern” can be such a mouthful.
yeah totally! I’ve been avoiding this word for 5 years now. if I need to talk about remembering something I usually use “nicht vergessen” – luckily in my case having pretty hardcore ADHD, I rarely remember things anyway, so the topic doesn’t arise that often!
Ah VERY GOOD, this would have made “sich erinnern” so much easier to learn (I basically just avoided it for years)
The glottal stop tip is awesome
Nice article and I like the length. I also like the idea of doing an article on expressing a certain topic in English. I was doing that with “keep” a little while ago. Not writing an article, just following my nose. Um I guess if you want another article idea that’s my suggestion because I usedChatGPT in lieu of a YDG article #RIP
Man, those months before I found your blog I would just be cobbling stuff together from ALL OVER the internet. Now I just talk to ChatGPT and hope it’s right. It often is NOT but neither were the places I was looking before, sooooo.
Zum Thema “sich merken” — what occurs to me as a workable English translation is “I’ll keep that in mind.” Wouldn’t work for the cat example … or the PIN example actually…. but it would for the milk example.
“Make a [mental] note of that” and “take note of that” also work. They are subtly different but not importantly so.
Sometimes in English we also say that we’ll “take note of” something, which is used figuratively (not actually noting it down on paper or digitally) and in that context means “to remember.” Example:
“Remember, I always take my coffee black.” “I’ll take note of that.”
Great article. I am just getting started as a paid member of your site but I have been lurking for a while. I really enjoy reading your take on German vocabulary and usage. I use German in my job occasionally and have been a student of the language for decades.
One thing I would note is that in English (American English at least), “of” and “about” mean — meiner Meinung nach — very different things, in the context of reminding. I think others have pointed this out but allow me to repeat it to the ad nauseum level :-ß
“Thomas reminded me of the milk” (i.e., Whenever I see Thomas, I think of the milk).
“Thomas reminded me about the milk” (i.e., Thomas (or someone) said something about milk to me earlier, and now I am being reminded of it by Thomas in some intentional way.)
I’d be curious to know whether German uses different constructions for these two meanings or is it all conveyed by the same construction, “Thomas hat mich an die Milch erinnert.”
Vielen Dank nochmal für Ihre Bemühungen, uns Deutsche Vokabeln richtig beizubringen. Gruß aus den USA.
In this case, it’s the same construction indeed.
– “Thomas hat mich an die Milch erinnert.”
This can mean that he told me “HEy, don’t forget about the milk” or that he is so pale that he made me think back to that milk. The context makes that clear usually :)
Viele Grüße zurück über den Teich.
What about suddenly remembering something? Here are two options I came up with and I always feel uncetrain when using those:
There surely must be a better way to express suddenly being reminded of something
Oh nice one: “einfallen” is definitely the more natural choice for this!
ich glaube, dass hier “gerade” besser als “plötzlich” passt.
Good point.
“plötzlich” sounds VERY sudden. You’d use that if you REALLY want to stress that it suddenly hit you.
“gerade” is way more chill and just means that it happened “just now”.
Just a random question / suggestion – unrelated to this topic at hand.
I am working on “One of the boys” “One of the cats” “One of our cars” etc. And while I think I have a handle on it, every now and then when I check myself with DeepL, I’ll get ‘alternative answers’ die für mich ergibt keinen Sinn.
Today it was “One of their songs, drives me crazy” which I was sure would start “Eines ihrer Lieder…” aber nein! DeepL wants “Einer ihrer Lieder” and gives an alternative of Eines. To be clear, I never use the word “der Song” – Ich sage nur “Eines ihrer Lieder” and DeepL changes it when I reverse the translation.
So, if you can clear this up, that would be great. If there is already an article on “One of the _______” please point that out to me. Thanks!
DeepL wants “Einer ihrer Lieder”
Uhm… what? Can I short DeepL stock? This is wrong, you are right and that DeepL, which calls itself “tHe BeSt tRaNsLaToR” would do this is an absolute disaster. This simply cannot happen, period. We’re not in 2004 anymore.
I don’t have an article about “one of the ____ ” as it really is just an exercise in applying the proper endings. It’s a NICE exercise though. Good stuff for practicing on an advanced level :)
Also “einer von Euch” seems like it would be a a very popular start to German sentences. Certainly in the south, you would say something like “one of y’all…” like One of y’all ate my sandwich!. Which one of y’all stole my car. One of y’all hold my beer while I get my car back.
And.. just a reminder about the “ it’s just an exercise in applying the proper endings“ – the act of applying proper endings is the thing that drives we English speakers crazy when our mouths start to move, and then you have to wait for us to stumble over it when you hear us speak :-) Christmas time is coming and maybe it’s a calendar item? A gift to YDG readers/learners for life.
Yeah, I think that might actually be a good fit for a ChatGPT exercise generator. That’s a bit of work though. I haven’t done one in a while. I’ll add it to my list :)
Could I join by Payong in stirling pounds and not dollars???? Please
Unfortunately, I can only take payments via credit card of Paypal. Currency shouldn’t be a problem though, as it’s converted before it hits my account.
I notice with your example: –
.. that you said “ins Telefon” rather than “im Telefon”. The “ins” is correct right?
I’m still analyzing the Belles Lettres article regarding Präteritum & Perfekt:
Am I correct in translating that as “this sitting”? The sentence refers to an excerpt of poetry of Walther von der Vogelweide.
I think the “mit” is just a typo and should be “mir”. Regarding “spende”, is it true to infer (as a web article suggested to me), that Konjunktiv 1 is used to express “hopes & possibilities”, whereas Konjuntiv II is for “doubts & impossibilities”. My first application of K1 is for indirect speech. Regarding the “gesah”, this is the focus of this part of the article, so I don’t ask about that.
“im Telefon” would sound like a description of where I am doing it (some app on the phone). It’s not wrong but less idiomatic than “ins” which sound like me putting a reminder into the phone, which is basically what I am doing.
“this sitting” – This is probably more about English. I would say yes, it’s a translation. The author here means “this act of sitting” or “this word ‘sitting'”.
“damit mit” – yes, the “mit” should be “mir”.
“spende” – I’m not 100% certain what the form is called, but it does look like K1 and the closest explanation in my opinion is an wish/command similar to stuff like “… lest he be angry.”
Thanks for this. I don’t know why I wasn’t connecting “dieses Sitzen” with the “saß” in the excerpt. My weary brain in desperation was thinking “this ‘sitting’ of poetry with Walter.”
Your reminder to give the prefixes their own space in the pronunciation is useful. I’m reading in the Article how some prefixes render imperfect verbs perfect. So, I’m learning proper respect for the prefixes.
“Am” Telefon is correct here.
Hi Emmanuel, a question. If you said “Er hat mich an meinen besten Freund erinnert”, how would you differentiate between the meanings “he reminded me OF my best friend” and “he reminded me ABOUT my best friend”?
Great question.
– Er hat mich an meinen besten Freund erinnert.
“erinnern an” can be both “remind of” and “remind about” and there is no way to know besides context. If unclear, people would clarify in some way.
OK thanks Emmanuel. I wasn’t sure if I had missed or misunderstood something, but sometimes it is all about context as you say :-)
Merken appears to be about uploading and storing something in your brain, while erinnern is about downloading and communicating something from your brain.
Yup, pretty much.
sich an… erinnern = to allow memory or remembrance to languish at leisure
merken = to make sharp mental or actual note about something – Can be used as an imperative in ever day situations
Often though in daily use, the distinctions become blurred.
Hallo, da bin ich der Chef! Nun, MERKEN Sie sich das, ok?
ERINNERN Sie sich schon daran, als Sie bei der Firma anfingen?
Just by way of affirmation: your Sprachgefühl about “don’t know anymore” is spot-on. It really would sound strange to translate directly in a lot of places where “nicht mehr wissen” would be fully idiomatic.
“Not know anymore” just sounds a lot more permanent in English, like a really thorough forgetting. It really wouldn’t work for anything momentary. You could also use it as a paraphrase for getting lost: “I didn’t know where I was anymore.” It feels quite dramatic, especially when “not remember” or “forget” are so easy to say for those everyday experiences.
“I don’t know anymore.” sounds German to my ears! Often we tend to translate literally from German into English. Probably I would say “I forgot”, however, I only know that from having lived for a while in the States while a grad student.
Like I say, it really just has a different meaning. You can actually use it as a stand-alone phrase (a bit umgangssprachlich):
It’s sort of an all-encompassing confession of existential lostness, you know? It’s not about forgetting at all.
The word “Feierstunde” can also be a synomym for “Gedenkstunde” or memorial service!
An old-fashioned word for one’s autobiographical reflections is “Denkwuerdigkeiten”.
Thanks, Emmanuel. Rather a lot of that was new to me! I think “noch wissen” will be the most immediately useful – I can do away with always having to work out how to say it with “sich erinnern”.
Oh, and I didn’t know about the pause after “er”. Is it just a gap, or is it a glottal stop?
It’s a glottal stop :)
That’s cool because that makes it much easier for me!
So on the subject of pronunciation!
With words that end in -ern, do you voice the “r”, or does it depend upon whether you are speaking to the professor or your buddies?
Thanks
No, I always speak the same in this regard. I would cut out some dialect or other inflections when I’m talking “formally” but an ending like -ern always sounds the same from me: -ann.
Ich versuche das zu erinnern
Danke
Duh
Ich glaube, mich zu merken is besser auf Deutsch
MIR zu merken :).
Think of it as “mark FOR yourself”, not “mark yourself”
Ich versuche, mir das zu merken.
Thank you to everyone who supports this project. I received free access thanks to your help, and I’m truly grateful for it. It means a lot to me, i really didn’t expect i would get anything so im still surprised
Thank you again
Hi,
Great article.
Good for you to know, however, that at least an American English speaker would NEVER say “Can you remind me OF BUYING milk?”.
This would sound really weird in English, as though you’re trying to get someone to help you remember a specific time in the past when you bought milk.
Instead we’d say, “Can you remind me TO BUY milk?” as a future event.
Thanks Emanuel and YourDailyGerman team for providing me with the opportunity [free of cost] of learning from a website that explains and teach the German language such an interactive way that is rarely to be found. Thanks again, Emanuel.Endlich wünsche ich Ihnen alles Schöne.