How to use “trotzdem” (and “obwohl”)

Hello everyone,

and welcome to our German Word of the Day.
This time with a look at the meaning and use of

trotzdem

And yes, that also includes a quick look at the difference between trotzdem and obwohl.

Both words are used to express the idea of a “contradiction”, but learners often get confused about when and how to use them.
If you really just need a quick fix…. basically, the difference boils down to this:

obwohl is although and trotzdem is despite that.

Today, we’ll dig a little deeper though and explore the origin and family of trotzdem, meet a couple of other useful words and explore word order with trotzdem and also obwohl.

And I actually want to start with a little surprise right away. Kind of a hot take :)

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“trotzdem” and “obwohl” are A1 vocabulary

When I learn a new language, trotzdem and obwohl are two words that I look up on day one and add them to my VERY first vocabulary list. Seriously, they’re among the first 100 words I learn.
Why?

Because they’re what I call Director Words. They direct and coordinate the actions that are happening, and allow us to express relations between actions. because would be an example in English, which expresses that action A is the reason for action B.
And it’s even more complicated for although, which is a translation for obwohl.
And the thing is that we can’t really cheat our way around these director words with anything.

Like… take a lot of the beginner verbs: reading, drinking, eating, writing, paying, walking, driving a car, seeing, hearing, going up, going down, peeing, taking a dump, sleeping, thanking someone. Heck even some abstract ones like understanding or thinking.
We can just use our hands and face to express all of these ideas.

But the concept of “because”? We can’t really express that using our hands or face. You NEED the word to communicate the idea.

And that’s why it makes perfect sense that beginner material usually introduces these words very early in A1 and don’t stuff the learners brain with useless vocabulary like vegetable names, pieces of clothing or household appliances.
To all the textbook authors and course creators – peak didactics, folks. Absolutely amazing work. Keep it up.

I… I think you can tell the irony. I hate the normal A1 material so much, you have no idea!

But anyway, so trotzdem and obwohl are some of the first words that I look up in a new language because they help me express a relation between actions. Like… in a way they’re the opposite to the idea of because.
So they express “anti-reason“. Because lets me express that action A is the reason for action B.
obwohl and trotzdem let me express that action B happens although action A would be a reason for it to NOT happen.
This is a really really important concept and most languages have multiple way to express it.

• It’s raining and I go for a run regardless.
• Although it’s raining I go for a run.
• Despite the rain I go for a run.
• It’s raining and despite that I go for a run.
• It’s raining and I go running anyway.

There are probably more.

In German, the two main ways are obwohl and trotzdem and now, let’s take a closer look at each of them and see where they actually come from.

The family of “trotzdem” and “trotz”

At the heart of trotzdem is the word trotz. Which is actually originally a noun, and I think it’s must be one of the most “german” German words ever.
For one thing, it doesn’t have any real relatives in any other languages, so it only exists in German. And it really likes Pils.
But there’s also the pure sound of it.
Der Trotz.
Ka-chunk!
Can anything sound more German?
A word like a big piston of a machine. No sophistication or elegance, just blunt function.

And the sound matches the meaning perfectly, at least for me.
If we look up trotz in a dictionary, we’ll find words like defiance, contumacy or obstreperousness and other weird stuff.
But all this high-falutin’ fancy ass Latin totally fails to capture the VIBE of Trotz – the sense of:

“Hmpf, screw that!”

It is pouring outside and your partner tells you it is not a good idea to go running?
Screw that!! You’ll go anyway.
Your mom wants you to finish your spinach? Screw that!!
You’ll poke it with your spoon until it’s cold and you get sent to your room.
Your boss wants to cut costs by replacing the Nespresso capsule machine with instant coffee?
SCREW THAT!!! Let’s picket this godforsaken offi.. oh wait, we’re working from home, never mind, lol.

Seriously though.
This is the vibe of der Trotz:

a (stubborn) resistance that is somewhere between proud and pout.

Let’s look at some examples for how the word der Trotz is used today

• Ich gehe der Erkältung zum Trotz schwimmen.
• In defiance/ of my cold I go swimming.(sounds a bit high brow)
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• Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop

  

• “Tim hat heute beim Mittagessen einfach seinen Teller runtergeschmissen.”
  “Wieso das denn?”
  “Einfach aus Trotz… weil es Rosenkohl gab.”
  “Kenn’ ich… meine Tochter ist auch ein kleiner Trotzkopf.”
• “Today at lunch, Tim threw his plate on the floor.”
  “Oh Why would he do THAT?”
  “Simply out of spite/to own me… because we had Brussels sprouts.”
  “I feel you… my daughter is a _____ too.
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• Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop

  

I really don’t know how to translate Trotzkopf from the second example.
Just take a look at these pictures at Google image search of Pictures for Trotzkopf.
That should give you a good idea of the feel of Trotz.

Cool.
So that’s the noun der Trotz, but the whole concept of “Screw that!!” is obviously an integral part of daily life and so it’s no wonder, people started making up other word types.
For example the verb trotzen which is something like to resist.

• Ich trotze dem Wetter und gehe raus.
• I brave the weather and go outside.
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• Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop

  

But more importantly, there’s the preposition trotz which is the German translation for despite.
It officially goes with Genitive, and it does sound a bit formal. But you can absolutely also hear it in daily life from time to time.

• Ich gehe trotz meiner Erkältung schwimmen.
• I go swimming despite my cold.
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• Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop

  

Oh, by the way… for a long time I thought despite came from spite, and meant “out of spite” But it actually it comes from the same root as spectacle and respect, and the original sense was something like “not looking at something“. So it’s kind of the same as “not regarding”.
Or regardless.

And that brings us right to trotzdem.

trotzdem is simply the preposition trotz and the article dem written as one word and it literally means despite that.
Now you might be like “Wait a minute, didn’t you JUST say that trotz comes with Genitive?”
To which I’ll just say :
“I never said that!”
Wow, case closed. I learned that from politicians, it’s really effective.

Seriously though, the preposition trotz does indeed go with Genitive:

• Trotz des hervorragenden Weines bin ich von dem Restaurant enttäuscht.
• Despite the outstanding wine I am disappointed by the restaurant.(lit)
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• Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop

  

But the thing is: trotz does go with Genitive NOW.
When it was invented some 300 odd years ago however, it used to be DATIVE. Similar to wegen, by the way, contrary to what this one book would have you believe. Bastian does not know what he is talking about, is all I will say about that.

But yeah, trotz used to go with Dative and trotzdem simply got calcified in time.

All right.
So now that we know the origin of trotzdem let’s talk about the usage.

Translations of “trotzdem”

When you look up trotzdem in a dictionary, you’ll get a whole bunch of translations like anyway, (and) still, yet, though and more.
But the key thing to understand is that trotzdem in its essence only means one thing: despite that.
The reason that all these other things are listed as translation options is that they all CAN be used in the sense of despite that, but they can also express other things.
If you can replace them with despite that, then you can use trotzdem. If not then no.
Here’s an example where it works.

• Thomas is tired. He reads the book regardless.
• Thomas is tired. He reads the book anyway.
• Thomas is tired. Yet/And still, he reads the book.
• Thomas is tired. [Despite that] he reads the book [despite that].

And here’s are a few examples where it doesn’t work.

• I’ll join you at McDonalds. I don’t have anything at home anyway.
• Have you seen the movie yet?
• It’s not the best pizza but still, it’s pretty okay.

These would not really work with trotzdem, because these would not really work when you swap in despite that.

Now, one common mistake learners make is that they think of trotzdem as just despite. That is NOT correct.
Despite by itself is just trotz, as we learned earlier.

• I’m going despite the weather.
• Ich gehe trotz des Wetters.

• I’m going despite that.
• Ich gehe trotzdem.

And another common mistakes that I heard is that learner connect a noun to trotzdem.

• Deutsch hat Fälle, aber [ trotzdem die Fälle] mag ich es. (WRONG)

Here, the speaker wants to say that they like German despite the cases, but what they’re actually saying is that they like it “despite that the cases“. Which makes no sense in English either.

So please please, think of trotzdem as despite that. It’s really the best match functionally and meaningly.
Wait… meaningly isn’t work, I guess.
But anyway… you know what I mean :)

Cool.
The translations and meaning is pretty clear now, but before we move on to talking about obwohl vs trotzdem, let’s take a quick look at trotzdem and word order, because I feel like there’s some confusion out there about that.

“trotzdem” and word order

The key to understanding the word order of trotzdem is to realize that it is a “complete” element by itself; a box, as I call them. Just like you, today or my coffee, it fills one informational slot in the sentence.
And that means if a sentence starts with it (and it often does), it takes up the first slot by itself and the verb has to come after it.

• Thomas ist müde. Trotzdem, er liest… is wrong
• Thomas ist müde. Trotzdem liest er das Buch… is correct

And the fact that trotzdem is a complete element by itself also means that, like all “complete” elements, we can move trotzdem around quite a bit.
Actually, in English, we can move around despite that as well.

• Thomas is tired. He is watching Netflix despite that.
• Thomas is tired. Despite that he is watching Netflix.

But German has more freedom in terms of word order and in a longer sentence, there are quite a few options for where you can put trotzdem.

Es ist schon um 1.
[Trotzdem] muss ich… /Ich muss [ ] vor dem Essen [ ] mit meiner Kollegin [ ] die Präsentation durchsprechen.

It is already 1 pm.
[Despite that], I’ll have to go over the presentation with my colleague before lunch, [ despite that].

As you can see, there are 4 options for us to put trotzdem. Which one is the best in a given context follows the general ideas of word order in German, but that would be too much for today.
The more natural slots for trotzdem are definitely on the left of the sentence. And the further we get toward the end, the more tension you’ll create by moving trotzdem out of its natural habitat. For more on that, I recommend my series on word order. I’ll leave a link below.
But for today, it’s enough to say put trotzdem in position one or position 3.
Those are the most common ones.

All right.
And now, for the grand finale, let’s talk about trotzdem vs obwohl.

Are “obwohl” and “trotzdem” interchangeable?

And the answer is of course no, they’re not.
Very very not, in fact. Mixing them up sounds SUPER weird and may not even be understood.
Yes, they’re the same in terms of the idea that they express. But they’re completely different in terms of function.

Grammatically speaking, trotzdem is an adverb, obwohl is a subordinating conjunction. In practice, that means trotzdem is a “box” on its own as we already mentioned. obwohl on the other hand is just an “intro-word” that integrates a side sentence into a statement. they have completely different functions.
Basically, trotzdem and an obwohl-sentence can fill the same box.

• [Obwohl ich müde bin], lerne ich Deutsch.
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• Ich bin müde. [Trotzdem] lerne ich Deutsch.
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Can you see? We can use them to convey the same message but it’ll be two completely diffe… oh I see we have a call here…uhm… Tinley from Tibet, welcome to the show
“Hi Emanuel. I have a question about what you just said.”
Sure… go ahead…
“So… I think I have seen trotzdem being used just like obwohl and it was a text by a native
speaker. Was that like old use or something”
Ohhhh… no, you’re absolutely right. I totally forgot. Trotzdem actually can be used like obwohl. But then you’d have to say it differently…
“Oh…”
Normally trotzdem carries the emphasis on trotz... TROTZdem. If you want it to function like an obwohl you need to say trotzDEM.
“Wow really?! I didn’t know that stress could make such a difference in German.”
Well, there aren’t many cases where it makes such a difference but for trotzdem it’s really important.
“Would you understand it though?”
Actually, maybe not… at least I would be really confused for a second.
“Cool, thanks a lot.”
Thank YOU for bringing that up, man.
I totally forgot about that. It is a rare use, that’s for sure. I think I never do it in daily life and I don’t think I’d write it either because the reader has no pronunciation. It does sound super fancy though to say

• TrotzDEM ich viel lerne, kann ich mir nie die Artikel merken.
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• Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop

  

You could use that to show off in German class.
Here, for comparison, the standard versions.

• Obwohl ich viel lerne, kann ich mir nie die Artikel merken.
• Although I study a lot, I can’t ever remember the articles.
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• Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop

  

• Ich lerne viel aber trotzdem kann ich mir nie die Artikel nicht merken.
• I study a lot and yet, I can never remember the articles.
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• Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop

  

All right. I think we’re almost done but a couple more things.
First off, trotzdem is often used as a one word sentence so let’s do one example for that…

• ” Ich will nicht, dass du einfach Sachen aus meinem Fach nimmst.”
  “Aber der Jogurt wäre eh abgelaufen und du warst noch im Urlaub.”
  “Trotzdem. Es geht um’s Prinzip.”
• “I don’t want you to just take stuff from my shelve.”
  “But the yogurt was going to expire and you were still on vacation.”
  “Whatever/Still. It’s a matter of principle.”
  
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• Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop

  

Then, if you have to write a longer text and you don’t want to use the same words all the time… German has come up with a few synonyms for trotzdem …

• dennoch, nichtsdestotrotz, nichtsdestoweniger, nichtsumsokein

And just fyi… one of them is totally made up ;).

Now, I guess we should do some examples for the synonyms but … meh… let’s just not do it.
We’ve done enough for today.
That was our German Word of the Day trotzdem. It means despite that and that’s really all there is to say. Whenever despite that fits, trotzdem will be a translation. If not, then no trotzdem.

One of our interns here has created a neat little exercise for you. I’ll add it at the bottom. You can try out how well you can “spot” a trotzdem and if you want a nice challenge you can also try to translate all the sentences :). I’m looking forward to your solutions in the comments.

And of course if you have some questions or suggestions or you want to get some of your examples corrected, just leave me a comment too.
Good luck with the exercise, I hope you liked it and see you next time.

Exercises:

The first one is some general questions about the article and some about “trotzdem” and “obwohl” in particular.

And here is a quiz about the different words that can translate to trotzdem. You have to decide whether trotzdem is a translation or not based on an English sentence.
The “hint” will give you the German translation with a blank :).

Further reading:

• wegen – Dative or Genitive
• The meaning of “wohl”
• German Sentence Structure – “The Box Model” (find out what I mean by boxes)
• German Word Order – Part 1