A quick look at the meaning of "schweben", where it comes from and what it has to do with imagination and blabbering.
Words we'll learn:
schweben, vorschweben, der Schweif, abschweifen, ohne Umschweife,...
By: Emanuel|40 Comments| Updated:
January 16, 2026
Hello everyone,
and welcome to our German Word of the Day. And today, we’ll take a short and sweet look at the word
schweben
Schweben is the German word for to hover, and I know that most of you now think “Mehhhhhh.” And yes, I admit, it’s not the most useful or exciting word ever. And not many interesting relatives either. But there are a few nice colloquialisms here. And hey… every good TV show has these kind of “slow” episodes where not much happens, right? RIGHT? So… now that I’ve lowered the expectations enough, let’s jump right in :)
2 lessons per month are for free.
If you want more – why not become a member!
As a member, you can study as much as you want and find lots of information you won’t find anywhere else. Not in class, not in a textbook and not Duolingo or Youtube.
And you’ll have unimited access to all grammar practice tools, pronunciation practice and my writing correction tool.
World's best teacher of German words and grammar. Full Bio →
German Grammar • Vocabulary • Etymology
Word of the Day -“schweben” - Key Questions
It means to hover/levitate/float — think stuff 'standing' or drifting in air or water (e.g. Der Magier bringt die Frau zum Schweben; Das Plankton schwebt im Wasser).
Yes — you can say someone 'schwebt auf Wolke 7' (floating on cloud 9) or 'in Gefahr schweben' (to be in danger, like something that could happen any minute).
Nope — that's not idiomatic. You cannot hover something, something can only hover by itself. Use 'Bewege den Mauszeiger über den Button' or 'Fahre mit der Maus über den Button'. Or just say the Denglish word 'hovern').
'Jemandem vorschweben' = an idea/vision is 'hovering' before someone (a kind of passive picture). Grammatically it's 'Etwas schwebt mir vor' vs 'Ich stelle mir etwas vor'. Vorschweben feels vaguer and less active.
Yes — 'schweifen' (to roam), 'abschweifen' (to go off topic), 'ohne Umschweife' (directly), 'der Schweif' (a long tail/comet tail), and 'schwafeln' (to blabber).
It's related to older verbs of moving/roaming (same big family as wischen). The closest English cousin is probably 'swivel' and it links historically to words like 'schweifen' (to wander).
Aber in diesem Kontext klingt “vorstellen” besser.
Bosko
Danke Sie hat mir viel geholfen! Und ich habe noch 3 verben. So helfen Sie mir mal oder jemanden wer weis : fliegen mit prefixe – es gibt uber 30 prefixe, was ist wichtig? Laufen mit prefixe . Richten mit prefixe. Also: fliegen, laufen und richten. danke im Voraus
“fliegen” is a tough one to judge. I feel like none of them REALLY stand out in terms of usefulness. Der Abflug is useful and wegfliegen and hinfliegen. The rest… not all that intresting. “richten” is a good one… I’ll make that a word of the day actually.
berichten, einrichten, aufrichten, anrichten
Those are the ones that came to my mind first :)
Ps.: Sorry für Englisch. Ich habe die Sprachen verwechselt!
Author
Emanuel
Meiner Meinung nach sind wirklich wichtig:
“abfahren, umfahren, überfahren, wegfahren”
und “erfahren”.
Hoffe, das hilft :)
Eduardoalo
Thanks to all of you Im from a very distressed country and I cant really pay for this, so I want to thank you people for your help.
Bosko
Wie geht es dir Lehrer? Du bist mein liblingslehrer :) Ich habe eine Frage an Sie, und zwar kannst du mir schreiben welche verben mit fahren sind wichtig? es gibt zu viele prefixe, ich weis es nicht was oder nicht wichtig ist. Danke im Voraus
Hi Emanuel welcome back from your travels. Thanks for sharing your experiences of Ljubljana a few weeks back. I’m going there for a few days next month so I’ll be looking out for the scandi chic, table cloths in every restaurant and fancy thoroughbred dogs. Schwafeln and Geschwafel will be quite easy for speakers of British English to remember as it is very similar to (and must surely be related?) to the English word “waffle”, which is a word beloved of teachers when they put a big red wavy line through whole essay paragraphs and the word “waffle” alongside it. I see that “to waffle on” is listed on dict.cc as a translation for schwafeln.
Oh please please let me know how you liked it :). You have kids, right? Are you going with them? If so, and if they’re not too old… there is Minicity in Ljubljana, at BTC Center. You could drop them of there and do all the shopping. BTC is a shopping district, with only stores on like 4 square kilometers. And minicity is a playground for children with doctors office, supermarket, fire brigade, and so on. They can play like they’re working adults there and it’s awesome. There’s a mini Aldi for instance, and they can play cashier and actually scan mini food items and print out a receipt with freaking tax number on it. It’s really really lovely.
Thanks for the heads up! They probably would have been well into it a few years ago but they’re well into teenage life now. Too cool for school, the pair of them. I’ll definitely let you know how the trip goes!
Interesting – that’s another BE/AE difference. “Waffling” in AE really only means speaking equivocally, not committing to saying something clear. The British meaning seems to be older (and you can see how they’re related); it’s funny that the later sense became the standard meaning in America, as it’s apparently not attested until after U.S. independence, but originates in N. England and/or Scotland.
Equivocate could be… Talk out of both sides of your mouth, play both sides. But yeah, it’s usually “waffle” as in the classic waffling politician, who promises to cut taxes but then turns around and propses newer, higher ones.
Anonymous
Your posts are always interesting and this is no exception! I just hope some of it sticks…
“leg day” is fitness jargon for a day on which you train your legs. Often, people who “pump” divide their training by body part, so one day they do arms, another day legs and so on :)
Amerikanerin
Thanks for another great blogpost. And speaking of Wolke 7, check out Philipp Dittberner & Marv’s “Wolke 4”.
Oh, I actually know that… but I didn’t know the title. Is that a cover? Like… is there an English version of this song? In my head I feel like I have heard that with English lyrics.
Das weiß ich leider nicht! Habe keine Erinnerung daran, dass es eine englische Version gibt. Dachte das Lied ist ein deutsches Original.
Elsa
Hello, Hope you had a nice holiday!!!! Thanks for your article about arguing in German; I found it extremely useful as I’m currently trying to compile a list of idioms and other expressions in German and I took loads out of your video, so thank you!! Oh, and “auf Wolke 7” as well as some other expressions in this article are also going on that list!
Typos now: “But there are a few nice colloquialism here” (colloquiallisms) “I have to sit on an some giant bio-tech hover-mouse that and I’m like” (I have to sit on some giant bio-tech hover-mouse and I’m like) And things (or people) float on water, not in water (that would not mean floating but diving or being otherwise immersed)
Anyway, I’m not going to schwafeln anymore, but I’ll say that yes, that verb is also going on my list :)
I’m puzzled by the view that things only float on water, not in it. Lots of (especially living) things, including plankton, neither float on the surface nor sink to the bottom. They can be described as being “neutrally buoyant”, but I’m struggling to think of a colloquial description of that state with no active movement other than “floating in water”. For me “immersed” suggests that the object is not usually in water.
Thanks for an interesting little post, Emanuel. I hadn’t thought before of horses and comets having similar tails.
Agreed. Things can float “in” water just as other things can float “in” the air. The only equivalent phrasing I can think of is “to be suspended in” but that’s definitely not colloquial and it also has a sense of fixed location.
In German we have the word “Schwebstoffe”, which are little particles in a liquid that neither rise nor sink. I just checked and they are called “suspended matter”. Could I use “suspended” for plankton, though, considering it is alive?
“naturally buoyant” … I like that :). Could I use that figuratively for a worker who does just enough to not attract any attention? Like… never gets promoted but never gets fired either?
Nice one. The technical term is actually “neutrally” not “naturally”, but I think “naturally’ works better in that context. Google reveals that “suspended in water” is sometimes used of plankton, but “floating” seems to be more common – sometimes as “free-floating.” Thank you for “Schwebstoffe”. An image search for it brings up a couple of nice ones of das Deutsches Eck – der Rhein muddy with Schwebstoffe, die Mosel clear.
I’d probably use suspended or just say that plankton live in water and are unable to move, so it drifts… I’d say zooplankton just lives in water, as fish do… saying that, I can’t say plankton has crossed my mind a lot…
No, actually it tastes and feels as if it were some kind of firm, crisp vegetable or mushroom. It’s neither jellylike NOR fishy, that is just the worst name ever.
Get full access
This feature is available with the YourDailyGerman membership.
Audio Speed
Dark Mode
Das war interessanter, als ich es mir vorgeschwebt habe: Gleich als vorgestellt oder?
Fast richtig… aber das Hilfverb war falsch.
– …, als es ,mir vorgeschwebt hat.
Aber in diesem Kontext klingt “vorstellen” besser.
Danke Sie hat mir viel geholfen! Und ich habe noch 3 verben. So helfen Sie mir mal oder jemanden wer weis :
fliegen mit prefixe – es gibt uber 30 prefixe, was ist wichtig? Laufen mit prefixe . Richten mit prefixe.
Also: fliegen, laufen und richten. danke im Voraus
“fliegen” is a tough one to judge. I feel like none of them REALLY stand out in terms of usefulness.
Der Abflug is useful and wegfliegen and hinfliegen. The rest… not all that intresting.
“richten” is a good one… I’ll make that a word of the day actually.
berichten, einrichten, aufrichten, anrichten
Those are the ones that came to my mind first :)
Ps.: Sorry für Englisch. Ich habe die Sprachen verwechselt!
Meiner Meinung nach sind wirklich wichtig:
“abfahren, umfahren, überfahren, wegfahren”
und “erfahren”.
Hoffe, das hilft :)
Thanks to all of you Im from a very distressed country and I cant really pay for this, so I want to thank you people for your help.
Wie geht es dir Lehrer? Du bist mein liblingslehrer :) Ich habe eine Frage an Sie, und zwar kannst du mir schreiben welche verben mit fahren sind wichtig? es gibt zu viele prefixe, ich weis es nicht was oder nicht wichtig ist. Danke im Voraus
also, fahren mit prefixe :)
Meiner Meinung nach sind wirklich wichtig:
“abfahren, umfahren, überfahren, wegfahren”
und “erfahren”.
Hoffe, das hilft :)
Thank you so much for the information!
Gerne :)
Does “cloud 7″ in German” mean the same as “cloud 9” in English ?
Yup, the phrasing in German is “Wolke 7”.
Hi Emanuel welcome back from your travels. Thanks for sharing your experiences of Ljubljana a few weeks back. I’m going there for a few days next month so I’ll be looking out for the scandi chic, table cloths in every restaurant and fancy thoroughbred dogs. Schwafeln and Geschwafel will be quite easy for speakers of British English to remember as it is very similar to (and must surely be related?) to the English word “waffle”, which is a word beloved of teachers when they put a big red wavy line through whole essay paragraphs and the word “waffle” alongside it. I see that “to waffle on” is listed on dict.cc as a translation for schwafeln.
Oh please please let me know how you liked it :).
You have kids, right? Are you going with them? If so, and if they’re not too old… there is Minicity in Ljubljana, at BTC Center. You could drop them of there and do all the shopping. BTC is a shopping district, with only stores on like 4 square kilometers. And minicity is a playground for children with doctors office, supermarket, fire brigade, and so on. They can play like they’re working adults there and it’s awesome.
There’s a mini Aldi for instance, and they can play cashier and actually scan mini food items and print out a receipt with freaking tax number on it. It’s really really lovely.
Thanks for the heads up! They probably would have been well into it a few years ago but they’re well into teenage life now. Too cool for school, the pair of them. I’ll definitely let you know how the trip goes!
Interesting – that’s another BE/AE difference. “Waffling” in AE really only means speaking equivocally, not committing to saying something clear. The British meaning seems to be older (and you can see how they’re related); it’s funny that the later sense became the standard meaning in America, as it’s apparently not attested until after U.S. independence, but originates in N. England and/or Scotland.
Well I suppose that’s only a small divergence in usage! You’ve made me wonder how I would say “equivocate” colloquially now. I have no idea.
Equivocate could be… Talk out of both sides of your mouth, play both sides. But yeah, it’s usually “waffle” as in the classic waffling politician, who promises to cut taxes but then turns around and propses newer, higher ones.
Your posts are always interesting and this is no exception! I just hope some of it sticks…
I hope so, too :)
Ok you got me, what is “leg day”?
“leg day” is fitness jargon for a day on which you train your legs.
Often, people who “pump” divide their training by body part, so one day they do arms, another day legs and so on :)
Thanks for another great blogpost.
And speaking of Wolke 7, check out Philipp Dittberner & Marv’s “Wolke 4”.
https://hooktube.com/watch?v=C9HL-2IhZKg
Tchüss!
Oh, I actually know that… but I didn’t know the title. Is that a cover? Like… is there an English version of this song? In my head I feel like I have heard that with English lyrics.
Das weiß ich leider nicht! Habe keine Erinnerung daran, dass es eine englische Version gibt. Dachte das Lied ist ein deutsches Original.
Hello,
Hope you had a nice holiday!!!!
Thanks for your article about arguing in German; I found it extremely useful as I’m currently trying to compile a list of idioms and other expressions in German and I took loads out of your video, so thank you!! Oh, and “auf Wolke 7” as well as some other expressions in this article are also going on that list!
Typos now:
“But there are a few nice colloquialism here” (colloquiallisms)
“I have to sit on an some giant bio-tech hover-mouse that and I’m like” (I have to sit on some giant bio-tech hover-mouse and I’m like)
And things (or people) float on water, not in water (that would not mean floating but diving or being otherwise immersed)
Anyway, I’m not going to schwafeln anymore, but I’ll say that yes, that verb is also going on my list :)
Bis bald!
I’m puzzled by the view that things only float on water, not in it. Lots of (especially living) things, including plankton, neither float on the surface nor sink to the bottom. They can be described as being “neutrally buoyant”, but I’m struggling to think of a colloquial description of that state with no active movement other than “floating in water”. For me “immersed” suggests that the object is not usually in water.
Thanks for an interesting little post, Emanuel. I hadn’t thought before of horses and comets having similar tails.
Agreed. Things can float “in” water just as other things can float “in” the air. The only equivalent phrasing I can think of is “to be suspended in” but that’s definitely not colloquial and it also has a sense of fixed location.
In German we have the word “Schwebstoffe”, which are little particles in a liquid that neither rise nor sink. I just checked and they are called “suspended matter”.
Could I use “suspended” for plankton, though, considering it is alive?
Probably not for zooplankton, as it is mobile but certainly you could say phytoplankton is suspended in water.
“naturally buoyant” … I like that :). Could I use that figuratively for a worker who does just enough to not attract any attention? Like… never gets promoted but never gets fired either?
Nice one. The technical term is actually “neutrally” not “naturally”, but I think “naturally’ works better in that context.
Google reveals that “suspended in water” is sometimes used of plankton, but “floating” seems to be more common – sometimes as “free-floating.”
Thank you for “Schwebstoffe”. An image search for it brings up a couple of nice ones of das Deutsches Eck – der Rhein muddy with Schwebstoffe, die Mosel clear.
Thanks as usual for the corrections :)!! About the floating though… which word would you use for what plankton does then?
I’d probably use suspended or just say that plankton live in water and are unable to move, so it drifts… I’d say zooplankton just lives in water, as fish do… saying that, I can’t say plankton has crossed my mind a lot…
I think jellyfish float IN or float through it, so I did not think that was necessarily wrong. The others are points well taken.
Ugh… jellyfish. I hate them!!
But they are surprisingly delicious
https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/241346/sesame-jellyfish-salad/
Offf… it’s about as hard for me to eat as larva. Does it taste fishy?
No, actually it tastes and feels as if it were some kind of firm, crisp vegetable or mushroom. It’s neither jellylike NOR fishy, that is just the worst name ever.