Part of learning the proper spelling of German words is memorizing any umlauts that they might contain. This is particularly important because certain words are identical except for the presence or absence of an umlaut. Let's have a look today at several verbs that need to be distinguished from one another.
Whereas the verb drücken means "to press" or "to hug," drucken means "to print."
Hey, Max, wir drucken es aus und hängen es ans schwarze Brett.
Hey, Max, we'll print it out and hang it on the blackboard.
Caption 25, Die Pfefferkörner: Gerüchteküche
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An Luzies Kamera muss man nur den Knopf hier drücken, und dann ist Ruhe.
On Luzie's camera, you just have to press the button here and then it's quiet.
Caption 26, Peppa Wutz: Einkaufen und mehr
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Similarly, rücken and rucken are also two different verbs, though they both refer to movement. While rücken means to move, approach, or advance, rucken without an umlaut means to jerk or move violently.
Der Hochzeitstag rückte näher und sie beschlossen, einen langen Spaziergang draußen im Wald zu unternehmen.
The wedding day was approaching and they decided to take a long walk outside in the woods.
Captions 7-8, Märchen - Sagenhaft: Jorinde und Joringel
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The verb lauten is used when you talk about how things are worded, spelled, or stated, whereas the verb läuten means "to chime" or "to ring," and refers to the sound of bells.
Natürlich. Wie lautet Ihre E-Mail-Adresse?
Of course. What is your email address?
Caption 64, Berufsleben: das Vorstellungsgespräch
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Dann verstecken sich alle in ihrem Zimmer, bis das Glöckchen läutet.
Then everyone hides in their room until the little bell rings.
Captions 30-31, Weihnachtsinterviews: Cettina in Linkenheim
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The verb füttern is used when you feed an animal or a small child. The verb futtern refers to eating food rather than giving someone food, and suggests a lack of manners or restraint in eating, similar to the English expression "pigging out."
Die Meisen lassen sich von uns sogar aus der Hand füttern.
The titmice can even be fed from our hands.
Caption 32, Die letzten Paradiese: Die Schönheit der Alpen 2
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Sie schafft Platz zu Hause und erfreut die Fans, die bald Burger unter der Bassgitarre futtern können.
She makes room at home and pleases the fans, who will soon be able to scarf down burgers under the bass guitar.
Captions 8-9, Christina Stürmer: ist reif fürs Museum
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The verbs zahlen and zählen may be the most frequently used verbs in this list.
Wollen wir die Lösegeldforderung nicht abwarten und zahlen?
Don't we want to wait for the ransom demand and pay?
Caption 42, Die Pfefferkörner: Das Wunderkind
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Sie zählen die Stimmen nach dem Ende der Wahl.
They count the votes after the end of the election.
Caption 30, Bundesrepublik Deutschland: Einbürgerungstest
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Further Learning
You'll find many more examples of these verbs on Yabla German.
I've had native German-speaking colleagues tell me that I speak German with a very good accent. So it came as a shock to me a couple of years ago when a British friend (who had studied at a German university and whose accent is excellent) said to me: "You just said danke schon back there. It's danke schön!" I realized that I'd somehow slid from the uniquely German sound of the umlaut Ö into a standard O. I spent the next couple of months working to consciously improve my umlaut pronunciation awareness.
When you are first learning a foreign language, you will likely encounter letters and letter combinations that are unlike anything in your native language. We all know that it takes a while to learn to pronounce them, getting your mouth's muscle memory used to making completely new movements to get that sound to come out right.
But what we may be a bit less conscious of is the fact that it is also difficult to hear the sounds of some letters and letter combinations in a new non-native language. A native English speaker may, hearing German for the first time, try to mimic danke schön as "donkey shown." This is not only due to its difficult pronunciation. To some extent, a beginner may even hear it the way they mispronounced it.
You'll likely be familiar with the adjective schön, which is usually translated as "nice," "beautiful," or "pretty."
Die beiden sind doch ein richtig schönes Paar.
The two of them make a really nice couple.
Caption 83, Die Pfefferkörner - Endspurt
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Es war einmal eine schöne, junge Frau namens Jorinde.
There was once a beautiful young woman named Jorinde.
Caption 5, Märchen - Sagenhaft - Jorinde und Joringel
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The adverb schön, however, is rarely translated the same as the adjective. In the case of danke schön, it is usually translated as "thank you" or "thank you very much." The "very much" addresses the adverb schön, since with only danke then "thank you" or "thanks" is enough. The key to the adverb schön, however, is that it strengthens whatever it is modifying.
Hast es dir schön gemütlich gemacht hier.
You've made yourself nice and comfortable here.
Caption 30, Lerchenberg - Viva La Television!
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Ich liebe die Atmosphäre bei mir zu Hause,
I love the atmosphere in my home,
besonders, wenn alles schön sauber gemacht worden ist.
especially when everything has been made nice and clean.
Captions 1-2, Deutsch mit Eylin - Putzen
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In the two captions above, schön was translated as "nice" with the additional conjunction "and" so that it correlates with the standard English construction "nice and..." The above could have been translated, albeit it less gracefully, as "nicely comfortable" or "nicely clean." The above two captions are also perfect examples where somebody starting to learn German may misinterpret schön as schon, which would have a different meaning:
Du hast es dir schon gemütlich gemacht hier.
You've already made yourself comfortable here.
Ich liebe die Atmosphäre bei mir zu Hause, besonders, wenn alles schon sauber gemacht worden ist.
I love the atmosphere at my house, especially when everything has already been made clean.
Note that some of the German above is not quite grammatically correct, but it's written as a misheard statement. In the first one, the person who misheard might reply "Yes, of course I'm already comfortable, should I not be?" In the second, someone might reply "Oh, do you have a housekeeper who cleans for you in advance?" Mild misunderstandings to be sure, but misunderstandings nonetheless. Just imagine the confusion when this poor soul hears the following:
So, jetzt weißt du schon ganz schön viel
So now you already know quite a lot
über mich und meine Familie.
about me and my family.
Captions 51-52, Deutsch mit Eylin - Die Familie
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Or better yet:
Ist schon schön, ne?
It is nice, isn't it?
Caption 44, Angelique Kerber - Ihre tennisfreie Zeit
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Say that twenty times fast as a tongue-twister, or as the case may be, an umlaut twister! Note that schon isn't translated. That is because although it is technically an adverb, it's really more of a "filler word" or modal particle.
Further Learning
Go to Yabla German and search for schön being used as an adverb, which is any use of schön that does not appear before a noun. See all of the different ways that it can be translated according to the different contexts, including into the English adverb "pretty." But more about the strange relationship of schön and "pretty" in an upcoming lesson!
It has been a somewhat temperamental summer in Germany, but there have certainly already been a number of hot days. Germans flock to rivers, pools, and lakes to swim, not to mention the North Sea and the Baltic Sea! Let's look at the German words for various bodies of water.
Der See ist fast einhundertneunzig Meter tief.
The lake is almost one hundred ninety meters deep.
Caption 5, Alpenseen - Kühle Schönheiten - Part 6
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Achtung: Der See means "the lake," but die See means "the sea." Das Meer is also a common word for "the sea."
Fünf kleine Pinguine schwimmen durch das Meer.
Five little penguins are swimming through the sea.
Caption 22, Kinderlieder zum Mitsingen - Fünf Pinguine
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Like in English, an ocean differs from a sea:
Mein Goldfisch, der heißt Friedolin und wohnt im Ozean.
My goldfish, he's called Friedolin and lives in the ocean.
Caption 25, Pänke - Friedolin
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There are some rivers in Germany that are approved for swimming, but if not you can always go to a swimming pool. In the summer, outdoor pools (Freibäder) are particularly popular.
Der Neckar ist ein Fluss, der durch Tübingen fließt.
The Neckar is a river that flows through Tübingen.
Caption 16, Deutschkurs in Blaubeuren - Der Relativsatz
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Das ist quasi so ein offener Bereich mit einem Schwimmbad...
That is, so to speak, an open area with a swimming pool...
Caption 25, Reisen - Dalís Haus
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Ponds and streams are not as popular for swimming, but we'll include them for the sake of vocabulary expansion!
Es war der Teich und am Rand stand die violette Blume.
It was the pond and at the edge stood the violet flower.
Caption 51, Märchen - Sagenhaft - Jorinde und Joringel
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Bald ist der Bach überschwemmt mit Eiern.
Soon the stream is inundated with eggs.
Caption 25, Alpenseen - Kühle Schönheiten - Part 2
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Further Learning
Make sure you have memorized the gender of these vocabulary words. What do you think are the genders of the North Sea and the Baltic Sea? You can also start learning the German names for famous bodies of water. Can you guess what das Mittelmeer and das Rote Meer are? Look them up on Yabla German!
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