Hello everyone,
and welcome to our German Word of the Day.
This time, with a look at the meaning of
steigen
Steigen is one of these verbs that kind of flies below the radar of many students even though it is a super useful word that you can hear or see every day.
And not only steigen itself. There are lots of cool prefix versions, some funky differences between these versions, some annoying things about translating them to English and there are also one or two or three or four or five surprising family members.
So we definitely have enough to talk about, and I’d say let’s get on board of the Steigen-Express…
“Einsteigen bitte”
Doors are closing, and off we go :).
Steigen comes from the infuriatingly ancient Indo-European root *steigh, which had a core theme along the lines of striding, walking with the added notion going upward.
Think of hiking up a mountain. Or walking up stairs, which is actually also the only of the English relatives of steigen.
And hiking up a mountain or walking up stairs are not only good visual images, they’re also contexts where you’ll see steigen in German, because it has kept the original idea alive.
- Treppensteigen hält fit.
- Walking up stairs keeps you fit.
(only used as a noun!! If you need the verb you’d say “die Treppe hochgehen“)
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Gibt es Müsli extra für Bergsteiger?
- Is there a muesli specifically for climbers/mountaineers?
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
If you’re wondering if there is such a musli – the answer is yes, of course! I mean duh! Here it is, if you want to see it. Musli designed specifically for mountaineers. Oh and the website explicitly remarks that it’s lactose free which is special because we all know that cereals conta… oh wait… it’s not special, it’s actually just stupid. It’s like selling wood and saying that it’s plastic free.
But anyway, the original idea of steigen is also still very visible in the nouns like der Bürgersteig, which is the sidewalk and der Steg, which is basically is a long wooden walk way. Either a dock at the harbor, or as a Laufsteg, it’s the catwalk.
- Ich sitze gerne auf dem Steg und gucke auf den See.
- I like sitting on the dock looking at the lake.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Viele junge Mädchen träumen von einer Karriere auf dem Laufsteg.
- Many young girls dream of a career on the catwalk/runway.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Auf dem Bürgersteig bitte absteigen.
- Please get off the bike on the sidewalk.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
Now, the last example has absteigen in it and that brings us right to a very important group of prefix versions of steigen that are all about getting on or off or in or out of means of transportation.
Prefix Versions of “steigen”
Back in the day people used horses and horse carriages and ox carriage and there you had to “climb up” the Steigbügel (stirrup…. and this is also related to steigen) or some stairs. Same for old trains, buses and the first cars.
And even today you have to make a somewhat stride-y step to get on certain trains.
So people kept the verb even though today’s buses with their awesome tilt technology are like “I’m gonna bend down for you so you can get in”… wait… I think that’s what she s… anyways. There are five verbs in total. Einsteigen and aussteigen are getting in/on and off and they work for cars, trams, buses, heck even planes. Aufsteigen and absteigen are for bikes and motorcycles (because you’re really on top) and leaving one transportation thingy to enter another is umsteigen. And then there is zusteigen which means to enter a bus or a train in which there are already some people… so it just shifts the focus a bit on the idea of joining the others. But I only ever hear it in trains when they welcome new travelers.
Oh, and if you need a noun… that’ll be der [blah]-stieg.
- Thomas steigt aus dem Porsche aus.
- Thomas gets out of the Porsche.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- “How was the journey?”
“Boah the connection sucks balls. I had to switch/change trains 4 times to get here.” - “Wie war die Fahrt?”
“Boah, die Verbindung ist voll scheiße. Ich musste 4 mal umsteigen, um hierherzukommen.” - Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Erst aussteigen lassen, dann einsteigen.
- Let people get out before you enter.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Nächster Halt Ostbahnhof. Ausstieg links.
- Next stop Ostbahnhof. Exit on the left.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
Now, this traffic context is super important but the verbs are not limited to it. Especially einsteigen and aussteigen are used in a broader, more abstract sense of getting in/out of things… mostly for projects or deals or bets or stuff like that.
- The Lumix 60E camera is the perfect model for beginners/novices.
- Die Lumix 60E Kamera ist das perfekte Einsteigermodel.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Legalisierungsgegner bezeichnen Marijuana als Einstiegsdroge.
- Those opposed to legalization call Marijuana a starter drug.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Der Regisseur ist aus dem Projekt ausgestiegen.
- The director (film) left the project.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Der Atomaustieg ist nicht unumstritten, und der Umstieg auf erneuerbare Energien geht nicht von heute auf morgen.
- The exit from nuclear power is controversial and the a transition/switch to renewable energies can’t be done overnight.
(umsteigen sounds a bit more like work that transition or switch… like… get your luggage off the train, search for the new track, get all your luggage on the new train find your seat blah blah blah)
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
All right.
Now, let’s get to the other part of steigen. And that is all about the upward notion.
steigen – going up
This is actually the main meaning of the stand alone steigen – to go up. Not in sense of walking stairs but in sense of rising and increasing in context of all kinds of numbers or measures but also for things
- Die Spannung steigt.
- Excitement is building.
Lit.: The tension is increasing.
(The German phrase is super common in positive contexts… like some
cool event coming closer… what would be idiomatic in that situation?)
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Im Herbst lassen Kinder gerne Drachen steigen.
- In fall kids like to fly a kite.
Lit.: In fall kids like to let dragons soar/rise. - Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Die Chancen auf ein Date sind nach der Sache auf der Party nicht gerade gestiegen.
- Chances for a date didn’t exactly increase after that thing at the party.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Heute haben in Berlin 10.000 Menschen gegen steigende Mieten demonstriert.
- Today 10.000 rallied against rising rent.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
Of course there are also prefix versions here…. mainly two. The first one is ansteigen and this one is really super similar to steigen. In fact, I don’t really know how to tell them apart. Sometimes steigen is more idiomatic, sometimes ansteigen is. Sometimes it’s just a rhythm thing …. like… maybe having a prefix at the end of the sentence makes it flow better. But the meanings are essentially the same. What’s really important is the noun der Anstieg because that’s the noun for both, steigen AND ansteigen
- Die Nachfrage nach glutenfreien Produkten steigt seit Jahren kontinuierlich an.
- The demand for gluten free products has been increasing continuously for years.
(here, having the an there really gives it a better flow than ending
with kontinuierlich… an brings closure, if that makes sesen)
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Die Politik will einen Anstieg der Arbeitslosigkeit verhindern.
- Politics wants to prevent an increase in unemployment.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
All right.
The second important prefix-steigen is aufsteigen and aufsteigen is definitely different from the other two because while it does mean to rise, it does NOT mean to increase. Aufsteigen is never about numbers… it’s always about something or someone moving upward. The difference to steigen alone is that steigen just by itself is more of a technical description of an upward movement. What does the balloon do? It steigen. Combined with auf it gets this vibe of “from the bottom to the top”… like…
- Thomas steigt in der Firma auf.
- Thomas makes a career in the company/rises through the ranks.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Vom Teich steigt Nebel auf.
- Fog is rising from the pond.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Der steile Aufstieg der Partei ist schwer zu erklären.
- The rapid rise of the party is hard to explain.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
Cool.
So these were the most important steigen-words, I think. There are a few more out there and you might find the ones we’ve talked about in some new situations too but I think with the help of context you’ll get the meanings just fine. Here are a few examples where you can train.
- Die Straße ist super steil. Die Steigung ist fast 40°. (btw. steil is actually also related to steigen)
- Popcorn übersteigt leider mein Budget.
- Wenn das Team nicht absteigen will, müssen sich die Spieler sehr steigern.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- The road is super steep. The incline is almost 40°.
- Too bad, popcorn exceeds my budget.
- If the team doesn’t want to be relegated/go to a lower division, the players will have to step it up/play better.
(opposite is “aufsteigen”)
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
Now, before we wrap up there’s one more thing we need to talk about… the verb steigern. With an extra “r”
(sich) steigern
We’ve seen that steigen can mean to increase. But if you want to increase something, then it’s the wrong word. Because grammatically it is 100% like to rise, to go up. You cannot “steigen something” just like you can’t “rise something”. If you want to MAKE something go up, become morer or betterer, you need steigern. And if it’s you you want to “increase” then you need a self reference
- Supermärkte versuchen mit allerlei Tricks die Umsätze zu steigern.
- Super markets are trying all kinds of tricks to increase the sales/turnover.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Der Student hat sich sehr gesteigert.
- The student has improved/(stepped up his game) a lot.
(mind the sich… it’s there because you must steigern ALWAYS needs an object) - Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Eine Stunde für 10 Kilometer… ist noch nicht wirklich schnell, aber definitiv eine Steigerung gegenüber letztem Jahr.
- One hour for 10 kilometers… not really fast yet but definitely an improvement over last year.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
Steigern has prefix verbs of it’s own. The most common one is probably versteigern which combines the “make higher” of steigern with the away-idea of ver to …. to auction off. A bit random but hey… why not.
- Ich habe auf E-Bay mein benutztes Jogging T-Shirt versteigert…. chi ching, sag ich nur, chi ching.
- I auctioned off my used jogging shirt… chi ching, that’s all I’m sayin’!
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
The brother of that is ersteigern which is the same, just from the perspective of the buyer.
- Ich habe mir eine Couch ersteigert.
- I bought a couch at an auction.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
And last but not least we have sich hineinsteigern or colloquially sich reinsteigern which means to get deeper and deeper into something to the point of getting lost. Not in sense of caves of course. It’s for abstract things like weird thoughts and stuff like that. The verb is only used in that one particular sense but still it’s fairly common because we’re all human
- Sorry, dass ich so eifersüchtig war. Ich hab’ dich mit dem Kollegen gesehen und dann hab ich mich in was reingesteigert.
- Sorry that I was so jealous. I saw you with the colleague and then I just imagined more and more things.
(no idea if this is a good translation)
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- “Oh Gott oh Gott, morgen hab ich meine Prüfung. Ich mach mir echt Sorgen, dass ich ein Black Out kriege. Ist mir schon öfter passiert.”
“Naja, du darfst dich da nicht so reinsteigern. Sonst kriegst du nämlich wirklich eins.” - “Oh god, oh god, tomorrow I have my exam. I’m so worried that I could get a black out. It happened to me quite a few times already.”
“Well you shouldn’t obsess over it. Because otherwise you WILL get one.” - Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
Now, it would be good to come up with a really smooth transition but then again, hey… it’s not good to reinsteigern oneself into things too much so… we’re done ;).
This was our German Word of the Day steigen. It’s related to the English word stair (and the old sty) The core is to make strides upward, and the two main fields of meaning are getting on and off means of transportation and rising.
As always, if you have any questions about any of this just leave me a comment.
I hope you liked it and see you next time.
** vocab **
steigen – to rise, increase, go up (rare also: to climb)
einsteigen – get on/in (for traffic, but also projects and stuff)
der Einstieg – the getting started, the first steps (also: entrance/entering in subway)
aussteigen – get out/off (same notes as einsteigen)
der Auststieg – the getting out, the exit (for trains and stuff)
umsteigen – switch from one to the other (for means of transportation but also abstract things)
der Umstieg – the switch from one to the other
zusteigen – enter a train or bus in which there are already people .. only in formal context
absteigen – get off the bike, descend (climbing), to be relegated (sports)
der Abstieg – the descend, the relegation
aufsteigen – rise (rare), be promoted, “go up” one series (sports)
der Aufstieg – the rise (for people and things climbing the ladder, not prices)
aufsteigende Reihenfolge – ascending order
ansteigen – have an incline, rise, increase (very similar to steigen alone)
der Anstieg – the increase (for all kinds of numbers…prices, values etc)
der Bahnsteig – the train track (at the station, the part where people wait)
der Bürgersteig – the sidewalk
übersteigen – exceed, surpass (usually for negative things)
besteigen – climb on top of (rare, sometimes used for sex)
die Steigung – the incline
steil – steep
steigern – increase (something)
sich steigern – improve one’s performance
die Steigerung – the increase, also: improvement
versteigern – to auction off
die Versteigerung – the auction
ersteigern – to buy at an auction
Fantastic presentation as usual. I learn so much!
This question might be similar to what was asked by a couple of people, but I would like to make sure I got it. My questioning comes from my search via…sigh…google translate.
“I get off the train” is translated to “Ich steige aus dem Zug”
The same for “I get ON the train”. It translates to “Ich steige in den Zug”. No closing aus or ein.
However…and this is what always blows my mind… change the noun from train to bus….
“I get on the bus” becomes “I steige in den Bus ein” however, getting off the TRAIN drops the ‘aus’ at the end. Arghhh!
I am going to practice with ein and aus at the end, but maybe you can make sense out of why google is doing this.
Hallo Emanuel –
Ich lese gerade diese Geschichte und der Autor scheint zwischen der Verwendung von „steigen“ mit und ohne Präfix zu wechseln. Zwei Beispiele aus der Geschichte:
Die beiden Männer steigen in den Lastwagen
Ich steige hinten in den Lastwagen ein
Gibt es dafür einen stilistischen Grund oder ändert sich die Bedeutung? Gibt es einen grammatikalischen Grund für die Verwendung des einen oder des anderen?
Danke
Hello, I’m just curious about
Are two “aus” necessary? Could you say “Der Regisseur ist dem Projekt ausgestiegen.”? Thank you
No, you have to have the second “aus” there.
The verb is “aussteigen” and the preposition it wants happens to be also “aus”. Sometimes, prefix and preposition happen to be the same, but at the core it’s just a normal combination of a verb that wants to have one specific preposition (like “to wait for”, for example)
Hope that helps!
Hi –
Are wechseln and umsteigen similar in the context of changing transportation methods? I saw in another post that wechseln was not similar to umziehen.
Thanks
“umsteigen” is way more common. I would never use “wechseln” in that context, but I wouldn’t notice it as weird if someone does it.
Hey Emanuel,
In diesen Sätzen, welches Verb würde am besten passen (welches Verb würde idiomatischer klingen):
– Ich soll mal auf das Dach steigen/klettern um es sauber zu machen.
– Wann bist du Kilimandscharo gestiegen/geklettert?
Bei dem zweiten Satz sollte man “bist” oder “hast” benutzen? Wenn man die Regel folgt, sollte “bist” sein, aber in diesem Satz gibt es ein direkt Objekt (Kilimandscharo) sollte dann nicht “haben” sein? (ich habe den Kilimandscharo gestiegen/geklettert?).
Vielen dank,
Im ersten Satz würde ich “gehen” benutzen” aber “klettern” und “steigen” sind auch ok.
“klettern” hat ein bisschen eine Vibe von “actual climbing”. Also “klettern” passt eigentlich nicht gut zu einer simplen Leiter. Aber in der Praxis is das okay.
Beim zweiten Satz fehlt “auf”. Und hier passt “gestiegen” besser, da man beim Kilimandscharo viel läuft und wenig bis gar nicht klettert.
Eine Alternative ohne “auf” ist “besteigen”.
Und was das Hilfsverb angeht:
– Wann bist du auf den K. gestiegen?
– Wann hast du den K. bestiegen?
Gloria Tirado
Super! Meine deutsche worter sind allen weg. Ich danke sie.
Hello, I understand that absteigen is to get off the bike or motorcycle, but what is it to get on it? Is it also einsteigen?
Good question… that’s “aufsteigen”. For “einsteigen” you need a door.
I guess there’s no clear difference then between “zunehmen” and “steigen”: Die Spannung steigt – Die Spannung nimmt zu?
Well, “zunehmen” can also be “increase in size, weight” while “steigen” is focused totally on the aspect of height. A number that goes up.
For instance, people can “zunehmen”, that means they gain weight. That would make no sense with “steigen”.
But in the example with Spannung they both work. “steigen” sounds quicker and “morer” though.
– Die Spannung nimmt zu.
This is very moderately increasing tension. At least that’s how it feels to me.
Another great post! :)
I have doubt about the word “erhöhen”. Should it be used like “steigen” (without mentioning who increases sth) or like “steigern” (mentioning who increases sth)?
“Erhöhen” works like “steigern” so you always have to “erhöhen” something. It’s common to use it with a self referrence though:
-Die Temperatur erhöht sich.
Thanks a lot! :)
Why is it that “aus” appears twice in “Thomas steigt aus dem Porsche aus.”?
Thanks for the post by the way..
Good question! That’s German doubling up on the direction. The verb is “aussteigen” the thing you are doing that to is connected using the preposition “aus”. Having a prefix verb and a preposition is super common and somtimes the prefix and the prep are the same.
– Ich komme mit dir mit. (mit jemandem mitkommen)
– Ich steige in das Auto ein.
(not exactly the same but the same idea)
Hope that helps.
Yes, it helps. It justs feels very weird (for now) to see the same word twice. Thanks!
“sich reinsteigern” sounds/feels like “to get oneself all worked up”
Yeah, I think the result is pretty much the same. The one difference that is really crucial is that with “reinsteigern” you MUST say “into what”… you cannot just “reinsteigern” the way you can get worked up. (or at least I think you can use “to get worked up” without saying “over X”)
Yes, in English the “over/about X” can be omitted.
Eine kurze Frage.
Ich glaube, mindestens drei Verben werden üblicherweise verwendet, die ähnliche Bedeutungen haben. Steigen, erhöhen und steigern.
Du hast klar erklärt wie die Verben steigen und steigern unterschiedlich sind. Wann würde man erhöhen anstelle von steigern verwenden? Oder habe ich was ganz misverstanden?
Vielen Dank für einen anderen interessanten Beitrag. Es gibt so viele Information, dass ich alles auf einmal nicht aufnehmen kann! Das ist aber gut und ich bin dankbar, dass ich irgendetwas mit ausführlichen Daten zu lesen habe, wenn ich bereit werde, weitere Dinge zu lernen. Wenn ich Probleme mit anderen Programmen haben, kann ich normalerweise diese Webseite nutzen, um alles aufzuklaren. Sehr gut gemacht!
Ich freue mich auch auf dein Buch. Sag uns bitte Bescheid, wann und wie wir es kaufen kann.
Eric
Hi! Thanks for the post!
I knew another verb to describe the notion of increase: “mehren”. For example: “Rufe nach Rücktritt von VW-Chef Winterkorn mehren sich”. What would you say is the difference? And what is your book about? Ich bin gespannt, dass du ein Buch schreibst!
“mehren” is pretty rare, especially in spoken German. I think a good match is “increase in numbers”.
You would never use it for stuff like temperature or prices.
– Die Preise mehren sich.
That sounds like there are more and more prices popping up.
The book is about prefixes… some of them anyway.
“Multiply,” maybe?
Sounds good. By the way… there’s a somewhat famous part of the Bible:
– Seid fruchtbar und mehret Euch…
What’s that in English?
And for what it’s worth… here’s a nice variation:
https://linksunten.indymedia.org/de/node/140066
Yeah, that’s generally translated “be fruitful and multiply” (the New International Version has “increase in number,” though).
Germans just love puns, huh?
Wow, “increase in numbers” sounds so technical. Straight from the “Christianity”-user manual :D
Ha, yeah… a lot of the issue is that the shadow of the King James translation really hangs heavily over any newer translation effort (like Luther here). Many of the popular translations these days are actually self-consciously in the KJV tradition (like the ESV that I usually use), so they tend to hold on to a lot of those familiar formulations unless they’ve gotten really archaic. The NIV, though, was a deliberate effort back in the ’70s to make a fresh start direct from the original texts, without reliance on older translations (hence “New” International Version), and while I don’t know that they would admit it, I think they somewhat self-consciously avoided a lot of those formulations in many places.
It’s actually been really interesting to try to figure out what German Bible translation to use for myself. It doesn’t seem like there really is one that’s all that great – Luther ’84 is OK but still tends to read pretty archaic; Schlachter and Elberfelder are very accurate but are basically ugly or at least non-idiomatic German; Einheitsübersetzung is solid but can be kind of technical for general use. The more modern and idiomatic versions (Neue Genfer, Gute Nachricht, Neues Leben, Hoffnung für Alle) run increasingly toward paraphrase rather than translation.
It’s just kind of weird, because in English there are really a lot of translations that are both idiomatic and accurate (to varying degrees, sure, but all usable).
“Boah the connection sucks balls. I had to switch/change trains 4 times to get here.”
You can also say “I had to transfer 4 times to get here.”
“Boah, die Verbindung ist voll scheiße. Ich musste 4 mal umsteigen um hierherzu kommen.”
hierher zu should be two words, right? I’m having a crisis of faith here.
“Those opposed to legalization call Marijuana a starter drug.”
AKA a “gateway drug”.
Thanks again for a great article!
Should be “um hier herzukommen”, because the verb in question is “herkommen”?
Could be either one of the following:
– um hierherzukommen
– um hierher zu kommen
– um hier herzukommen
1 and 3 make the most sense to me, but there are different opinions among native speakers when it comes to verbs with somewhat lengthy prefixes.
Ops… there might be different views among native speakers how to spell that but the way I had it was NOT one of them, so you can relax :)
– hier herzukommen
– hierher zu kommen
– hierherzukommen
They are all correct and you can find arguments for either one. I would lean toward the third but the first works for me, too. I would not use the second spelling but others might have a different opinion. There are no fixed rules there.
But
– hierherzu kommen
is just plain wrong :). Sorry.
treiben?
What’s the question?
Suchen Sie nach “treiben” auf dieser Seite.
Oooohhhhhh. Ops. I was editing the post on “treiben” right before deciding to post this one. Thanks for the heads up!!
Ich versuche, auf Deutsch zu schreiben.
Ich danke Ihnen für die Anki Flashcards und den Artikel. Die Anki Flashcards sind sehr hilfreich. Deine Posts hat mir sehr viel gehelfen, aber in diesem Artikel gibt es nicht so viel Witze. :( Ich glaube, dass ich mehr bei lustigen Artikelen lerne.
Niemals habe ich das Wort “jetty” gehört. Ich sage “dock” oder “pier.”
Ich hoffe, dass meine erste Kommentar nicht so schlecht ist. :D
As a professional mariner, I would say there is a big difference between a jetty and a dock/pier. Ships moor at docks and piers. A jetty is often piled up rocks and stuff used for a lot of other purposes, like breaking up wave patterns that lead to beach erosion.
Oh, then jetty is not the correct term. A “Steg” is only for boats and it’s usually small and made from wood. Thanks for clearing that up.
Would a line of thick wooden posts used for that purpose (breaking up currents/wave patterns at a beach) be a jetty as well? We were just up on the Ostsee/Baltic coast a couple of weeks ago, and the beach nearest us had a whole series of them – and I had no idea what they’d even be called in English.
In German they’re called “Wellenbrecher”
and they really take away from the whole beach experience… at least, in my opinion. An occasional Wellenbrecher is all right but at some parts of the “Ostsee” they’re spread out over kilometers and it’s not a nice sight.
I thought they were pretty. :) We were in Zempin (on Usedom), where there are only about 6-8 of them over a stretch of maybe a kilometer.
They are called “Breakwaters”
They come in different sizes and methods. From cheap piles driven into the shallows, like the image above – all the way to large man-made barrier islands.
The term that comes to mind is “breakwater”, but funnily enough, I saw this just the other day: http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-dorset-34254958 . So maybe they were “groynes”?
I’m gonna go with “groynes.” Glorious word.
And an even more glorious etymology…
http://etymonline.com/index.php?term=groyne&allowed_in_frame=0
“Hey mom, what are all those pig snouts in the sea for?”
It’s like “groins” but more olde-timey and British.
Yeah, but just like “groins” they keep something at bay (or should I say “belly”. And by the way… “groins” are “die Leisten” in German and a “Leiste” is a long wooden stick. That can’t be a coincidence. My guess is free masons… I really have to find my tin hat again.
Hah.. ja, nicht so viele Witz diesmal. Die besten Witze sind die, die spontan kommen, und manchmal kommt einfach lange nix. Wie bei der U-Bahn… haha. Aber im Ernst, es kommen auch wieder Posts mit mehr Witzen, keine Sorge.
Dein Deutsch ist übrigens ziemlich gut. Nicht perfet, aber auf jeden Fall gut genug um nur noch Deutsch zu schreiben. Weiter so!!
Thanks for the flashcards, they are really useful!
Hey Emanuel,
Great work as always.
I was watching Jurassic Park with a friend and she said: “If that happened I would be the first to be eaten”
I realized these conditional constructions are a little complicated for me. Sometimes I see stuff with wäre, other times I see wär, worden. hahaha
Don’t you wanna make another entry into your online course and teach us how to make them?
Have no idea how much work that would be, but if you do it I make a nice donation!
Thanks
I will but not in the coming months (I want to finish my book and conditional is something that needs my full attention). However, I have done a little nutshell write up in a forum I once opened so here’s the link:
https://askaboutgerman.wordpress.com/2013/03/26/german-conditional-2-werden-sein-haben/comment-page-1/#comment-51
Hope that helps.
Thanks a lot, it sure helps.
What is your book about?
Prefixes… not all of them, but it’ll be a good resource.