Among the first words you learn in German are langsam (slow) and schnell (fast). Let's take a look today at some more detailed terms related to driving tempos.

Boote müssen sich von den Meeressäugern fernhalten und sie müssen langsam fahren.

Boats must stay away from the marine mammals and they must drive slowly.

Captions 28-29, Langsam gesprochene Nachrichten: Schwangere Schwertwale im Pazifik

 Play Caption

Wenn die Straße frei ist, abends oder nachts, dann kann man sicherlich schon mal schnell fahren.

If the street is empty, evenings or at night, then you can certainly drive fast sometimes.

Captions 33-34, AutoMotoTV: Schnell fahren auf der Autobahn

 Play Caption

As you see above, langsam fahren is "to drive slowly," and schnell fahren is "to drive quickly." The adverbs langsam and schnell can also be expressed in comparative and superlative forms: langsamer fahren and schneller fahren ("to drive slower" and "to drive faster"), as well as am langsamsten fahren and am schnellsten fahren ("to drive slowest" and "to drive fastest").

The related noun for "slow driving" is das Langsamfahren, and for "fast driving" das Schnellfahren. A person who drives quickly is called der Schnellfahrer or die Schnellfahrerin. 

... fahren wir Schritttempo, wir dürfen uns dort überall bewegen,

... we drive at walking speed, we are allowed to go everywhere there,

Caption 72, Rollendes Vergnügen: Segway-Touren

 Play Caption

The term das Schritttempo means "walking speed" and Schritttempo fahren means "to drive very, very slowly." The street sign for this is usually used in areas with a lot of pedestrians or where children are at play. It's a white sign with a red circle, in which the words SCHRITT FAHREN appear in black capital letters.

Ich kann jetzt auch bremsen und anhalten.

I can now also brake and stop.

Caption 40, Fahrschule: Wie man die Kupplung bedient

 Play Caption

The verb bremsen means "to stop," and has the related noun die Bremse ("the brake"). Just like in English, this is more commonly seen in the plural form die Bremsen ("the brakes").

Im Falle einer Bedrohung können sie plötzlich schnell beschleunigen.

In the event of a threat, they can suddenly accelerate quickly.

Caption 72, Die Top Ten: Die 12 freundlichsten Meerestiere der Welt

 Play Caption

The verb beschleunigen is "to accelerate", and its direct antonym is entschleunigen—"to decelerate."

Cool, gib Gas, schnapp ihn dir!

Cool, step on the gas, get him!

Caption 74, Großstadtrevier: St. Pauli rettet HSV

 Play Caption

The phrase Gas geben is an expression that literally means "to give gas," but is similar to the English idiom "to step on the gas," which is how you make a motor vehicle accelerate.

Further Learning
Search for some other adjectives and adverbs for "slow" (such as träge and schleppend) and "fast" (such as zügig and rasant) on Yabla German. To learn some more driving terms, watch the videos Schnell fahren auf der Autobahn and Wie man die Kupplung bedient.

Thanks for reading! Stay tuned for our next lesson and send your topic suggestions to newsletter@yabla.com.

Not too long ago, we sent out a lesson on homographs, which are words that are spelled the same and sound the same, but have different meanings. You could also say that it's when one word has various definitions. Anyway, the noun der Gang falls into this category.

One translation of der Gang is "the course," as in a course of events, or the way something happens.

Hier geht alles seinen ruhigen Gang.

Here, everything runs its quiet course.

Caption 21, Die letzten Paradiese - Die Schönheit der Alpen - Part 9

 Play Caption

banner PLACEHOLDER

Just as a course can also refer to part of a meal in English, Germans say der erste Gang for the first course (though probably more often die Vorspeise / "the appetizer") and der Hauptgang for the main course.

Und da kommt auch schon der nächste Gang.

And here comes the next course already.

Caption 18, Die letzten Paradiese - Die Schönheit der Alpen - Part 5

 Play Caption

Now it's time to shift into high gear, for which we can also use der Gang, as it is used to refer to a gear that you would shift into on a bicycle or in a car. Unlike in English, it does NOT refer to a gear in a wristwatch, which is das Zahnrad (die Zahnräder as a plural noun).

Dann legen wir den ersten Gang ein.

Then we shift into first gear.

Caption 17, Fahrschule - Wie man die Kupplung bedient

 Play Caption

Here you can see how der Gang is used to refer to someone's gait or the act of doing a walkthrough.

Es gibt ja viele Frauen, die...

There are many women that....

ja, ihren Gang auch ein bisschen verbessern können.

yes, can also improve their walk a little bit.

Caption 15, Auf dem Laufsteg - Modelcollege in Wiesbaden

 Play Caption

... deshalb schwingt bei einem Gang durch das Museum auch viel Nostalgie mit.

... therefore a tour through the museum also resonates with a lot of nostalgia.

Caption 23, Flipperautomaten - Kunstwerke für flinke Kugeln

 Play Caption

And then there's the very common translation of der Gang as a hallway or corridor:

Der rechte Gang und dann ganz hinten links.

The right hallway and then all the way in the back on the left.

Caption 18, Mein Weg nach Deutschland - Auf Arbeitssuche

 Play Caption

Further Learning
You'll find many instances of der Gang used on Yabla German, but why not also try to formulate your own sentences?