Summer vacation has started for students in Germany! Thousands of families will be heading out for their holidays in Germany and abroad during the next weeks. We've looked at nouns for "vacation" and "holiday" in a previous lesson, but this week we'll look at verbs and nouns related to resting, relaxing, and enjoying oneself. 

banner PLACEHOLDER

The first verb to learn is sich entspannen, which almost always translates as "to relax." For the noun "relaxation," you can use die Entspannung.

Da kann man sich richtig entspannen.

You can really relax there.

Caption 40, Es war einmal … Entdecker und Erfinder: Archimedes

 Play Caption

Gestern nach der Arbeit habe ich dringend Entspannung gebraucht.

Yesterday after work, I urgently needed relaxation.

Caption 17, Konjugation: Das Verb „brauchen“

 Play Caption

For university students, or others who have had an intense year so far, sich erholen is another reflexive verb that may be appropriate. This verb can be translated as "to rest, "to recover," and "to recuperate," and its related noun is die Erholung. University students may still have exams or papers to complete, but their summer extends through September. 

Fast scheint es, als wolle sich der Zwergtintenfisch von seinen Abenteuern erholen.

It almost appears that the bobtail squid wants to recover from its adventure.

Caption 9, Abenteuer Nordsee: Unter Riesenhaien und Tintenfischen\

 Play Caption

Fehmarn bietet seinen Gästen neben Erholung und Ruhe ein Veranstaltungsprogramm.

Fehmarn offers its guests, in addition to relaxation and rest, an events program.

Caption 21, Die Insel Fehmarn: Gästeboom

 Play Caption

Another good verb for "to rest" is sich ausruhen. It is this verb that doctors are most likely to use when they talk about getting some rest.

Und ich kann mich dadurch noch tiefer ausruhen.

And that allows me to rest even more deeply.

Caption 33, Deutsch mit Eylin: Erkältungszeit

 Play Caption

Er hatte zu viel Stress. Er muss sich jetzt ausruhen.

He was under too much stress. He has to rest now.

Caption 11, Nicos Weg: Alten- und Pflegeheim

 Play Caption

However, if you are in good health and enjoying some time off, more relevant verbs might also be sich vergnügen, Spaß haben, or sich amüsieren. 

Und außerdem müssen sich junge Leute noch ein bisschen amüsieren.

And besides, young people still need to enjoy themselves a bit.

Caption 21, Es war einmal... der Weltraum: Die Saurier

 Play Caption

Further Learning
You can find lots of vocabulary related to relaxation and holidays on Yabla German. We also did a whole series on vacations not so long ago!

You're probably very familiar with the German adjective schön. It's one of the most commonly used words in the German language, as well as one of the first words you encounter when learning to speak German. The crowd-sourced online dictionary dict.cc lists up to 20 possible English translations for schön, although it is usually translated into English as "nice," "beautiful," or "pretty," depending upon the context.

Es gibt viele schöne Lindenalleen in Deutschland.

There are many beautiful linden avenues in Germany.

Caption 2, Deutsch mit Eylin - Bäume

 Play Caption

Es ist ein sehr schönes Land und die Hauptstadt heißt Bern.

It is a very beautiful country, and the capital is called Bern.

Captions 14-15, Deutsch mit Eylin - Denk schnell!

 Play Caption

You are probably also familiar with schön as an adverb directly modifying a verb. In the first case below, schön ("beautiful") modifies aussehen ("looks"), and in the second case, schön ("beautiful") modifies sich machen ("makes herself"):

Lavendel sieht schön aus und duftet natürlich sehr gut.

Lavender looks beautiful and, of course, smells very good.

Caption 25, Deutsch mit Eylin - Kräuter aus meinem Garten

 Play Caption

Wenn Lothar eine Party macht, macht Sabine sich extra schön.

When Lothar has a party, Sabine makes herself extra beautiful.

Captions 4-5, Deutsch mit Eylin - Machen vs. tun

 Play Caption

You may be a bit less familiar, however, with schön as an adverb modifying another adverb, as these are not usually translated literally into English:

Allerdings sind die oft ganz schön teuer.

However, they are often pretty expensive.

Caption 56, Deutsch mit Eylin - Erkältungszeit

 Play Caption

Puh, das war ganz schön streng, fand ich.

Phew, that was really pretty strict, I thought.

Caption 9, Deutsch mit Eylin - Ernährungsformen

 Play Caption

The above construction, ganz schön... followed by an adverb, is common in German. If you translated it literally word for word, you would wind up with something clumsy like "very prettily strict," which doesn't really work. Since the adjective schön is sometimes translated as as "pretty," in the sense of "beautiful," it is convenient to translate the adverb schön as "pretty" too. But while "pretty" and "beautiful" are largely interchangeable when using them as adjectives, the adverb "pretty" has different connotations than the adverb "beautifully." And there is another potential problem with translating the phrase ganz schön as "pretty": In German, the adverbial phrase ganz schön is a strengthening modifier, meaning it makes whatever it is modifying stronger, the equivalent of "quite" or "really quite." Note that the second example above emphasizes ganz schön as a strengthening modifier by translating it as "really pretty."

As a colleague of mine aptly pointed out, ganz schön also "often reflects that there's a bit of surprise or unexpectedness (on someone's behalf, not necessarily the speaker) regarding the extent something is the way it is."
 

In English, the adverb "pretty" is either a strengthening or a weakening modifier, depending upon the context and the way in which it is spoken. If spoken with confidence and the emphasis on the main adverb, it strengthens the main adverb. If spoken with doubt, with the emphasis on "pretty," it weakens the main adverb:

How was your tennis match today?
Pretty good. ("Very good")

How was your tennis match today?
Pretty good. ("fairly good," "okay")

If the text above were printed without the emphasis shown in bold print, with no other context to tell if the person was pleased or not so pleased with the tennis match, you would not be able to say with certainty whether they thought the match went really well or was slightly disappointing. The adverb "pretty" is pretty—no, very—ambiguous. The German adverb ziemlich is similar to the English adverb "pretty," in that it can be either a strengthening or weakening modifier, depending upon the context.

If you are ever translating the adverbial phrase ganz schön to English, it may be generally better to use an English adverb that is unequivocally a strengthening modifier, such as "really," or "quite." There is a certain beauty in the parallel of translating ganz schön into the English adverb "pretty," but you should be certain in that case that it is very clear to potential readers that "pretty" is meant as a strengthening modifier. If the context is ambiguous, using "pretty" can lead to an ambiguous translation!

The same applies vice-versa, should you ever be translating English to German: if the English text is "pretty sure" (in the sense of "somewhat unsure"), then you do not want to translate that to ganz schön sicher, because this translates back to "very sure."

Further Learning
How would you translate Sie ist ganz schön schön—as "She is pretty pretty"? Translating can sometimes be a tricky process: equivalent words in different languages often have subtly different cultural contexts and meanings. Go to Yabla German and search for the adverbial phrase ganz schön to learn different ways that it can be translated according to the different contexts, including into the English adverb "pretty."