Or as you'd say in German: Lass uns über „lassen“ reden. The verb lassen can be translated in many different ways: "to let," "to leave," or "to have," among others. Let's take a look today at some examples, and see if we can learn how the different contexts affect the meanings and the translations of the word.
Lange klingeln lassen und dann wie gehabt verfahren.
Let it ring for longer and then proceed as usual.
Caption 38, Antilopen Gang: Enkeltrick
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Also lassen Sie mich mal nachsehen, welche Termine noch frei sind.
So let me take a look what appointments are still available.
Captions 41-42, Berufsleben: das Vorstellungsgespräch
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Ich lass dich nicht raus, ich lass dich nicht gehen.
I won't let you out, I won't let you go.
Caption 15, Ab durch die Heimat: 4 Comedians unterwegs im Südwesten
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As you see above, a common translation of lassen is "to let."
Ich kann euch versprechen, dieser Film lässt niemanden kalt.
I can promise you, this movie will leave no one unmoved.
Captions 47-48, Twinfruit: Glaubhaftigkeit in der Werbung
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Du lässt mich niemals allein.
You'll never leave me alone.
Caption 42, Sophia: Niemals Allein
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Sometimes too, lassen is translated as "to leave," but not in the sense of leaving (verlassen) a place.
König Konrad schickte Boten voraus und ließ sie in der Stadt verkünden.
King Conrad sent messengers ahead and had them make an announcement in the city.
Captions 36-37, Deutsche Sagen: Die tapferen Weiber von Weinsberg
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In cases where somebody is following orders, it wouldn't make much sense (as in the example above) to say the King "let" them make an announcement. In cases like this, you'll occasionally understand lassen as "to have."
Auch Natali will sich das nicht entgehen lassen.
Natali doesn't want to let herself miss out on this either.
Caption 50, Abenteuer Nordsee: Unter Riesenhaien und Tintenfischen
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Often, when lassen is used in a reflexive sense with sich, it's not translated at all. In the example above, it could just as well have been translated as "Natali doesn't want to miss out on this either." In such cases, sich lassen is often redundant in translation.
... um meine neue Adresse in meinen Personalausweis eintragen zu lassen.
... to register my new address on my identity card.
Caption 3, Deutsch mit Eylin: Personalien und Namen
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Wann haben Sie sich scheiden lassen?
When did you get divorced?
Caption 17, Yabla Gerichtshof: Probleme des Zusammenlebens
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The sentences above could have been translated as "... to let my new address be registered on my identity card" and "When did you let yourself get divorced," but this seems pretty clumsy. In these cases, the better translation for sich eintragen lassen is "to register," and for sich scheiden lassen "to get divorced."
Last but not least, I'll "let" you see some example of some common idioms using the verb lassen:
Sie haben meiner Tochter schöne Augen gemacht und sie dann sitzen lassen.
You made eyes at my daughter and then abandoned her.
Caption 20, Oskar; Gehen, wenn es am schönsten ist Loslassen
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Du kannst es ja nicht lassen.
You just can't resist.
Caption 85, Alexander Hauff: Showreel
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ich will niemanden im Stich lassen.
I don't want to let anyone down.
Caption 19, Nicos Weg: Lernen
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Du kannst es nicht lassen is a bit like the English "You just couldn't leave it alone." As der Stich can mean a sting or a stab wound, the saying im Stich lassen, which first appeared in the 1400s, may be related to jousting: if someone left a comrade behind, they risked being stabbed! Luckily, we live in a society today where such violence is socially and legally unacceptable.
Further Learning
Search for lassen in its various conjugations on Yabla German to see the verb used in different contexts. You may also want to read more about it in the previous Yabla lesson "German verbs connected with lassen."
In a previous newsletter, we looked at the German words for various bodies of water. This week, we'll take a look at different landscapes and landforms found in Germany and around the world. Germany itself has a surprising number of these diverse landscapes, with forests, rolling hills, valleys and mountain ranges, rocky and sandy coasts, and even wetlands.
Yabla has many videos about the incredible ecosystems of das Gebirge, the mountain range. You may also hear die Berge ("the mountains").
Nur wenige Menschen nehmen das beschwerliche Leben im Hochgebirge auf sich.
Only a few people take on the arduous life in the high mountains.
Caption 27, Die letzten Paradiese Schätze der Natur: Südtirol
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Im kalten Stellisee verläuft ihre Entwicklung langsamer als im Tal.
In the cold Stellisee [a lake], their development proceeds more slowly than in the valley.
Caption 4, Alpenseen: Kühle Schönheiten
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Denn wenn das Eis der Gletscher schmilzt, fließt das Wasser von den Berghöhen durch Spalten tief ins Gebirge hinein.
Because if the ice of the glaciers melts, the water will flow from the mountain heights through fissures deep into the mountains.
Captions 35-36, Alpenseen: Kühle Schönheiten
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Fast die Hälfte der Landesfläche ist von Wald bedeckt.
Almost half of the state's area is covered by forest.
Caption 51, Bundesländer und ihre Rezepte: Rheinland-Pfalz
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People may indeed think of forested mountains when they think of Germany, but there are also landscapes that we might associate more with other countries:
Einfach durch den Sumpf reiten konnten wir natürlich nicht.
We couldn't just ride through the swamp, of course.
Caption 10, Jan von München: Als ich mich einmal selbst aus dem Sumpf befreite
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In den Hügeln der grünen Insel Irland lebte einmal ein armer Kerl namens Niall O'Leary.
In the hills of the green isle of Ireland there once lived a poor fellow named Niall O'Leary.
Caption 5, Märchen - Sagenhaft: Ein Topf voll Gold
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Es sah hinaus auf die Wiese, die etwas weiter reichte, als es sehen konnte.
It looked out onto the meadow that extended somewhat farther than it could see.
Caption 45, Märchen - Sagenhaft: Das hässliche Entlein
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Near the North Sea or Baltic Sea, you will find completely different landforms (including islands!) and ecosystems:
Natali und Florian zieht es zunächst an die Küste Cornwalls.
Natali and Florian proceed first to the coast of Cornwall.
Caption 28, Abenteuer Nordsee: Unter Riesenhaien und Tintenfischen
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Die Hauptattraktion ist hier natürlich der Strand.
The main attraction here is, of course, the beach.
Caption 8, Berlin: Wannsee
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Of course, there are some landscapes that you simply won't find in Germany:
Sindbad kroch durch den Dschungel.
Sinbad crept through the jungle.
Caption 27, Märchen - Sagenhaft: Sindbad, der Seefahrer
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Die Wüste war heiß, die Berge waren hoch.
The desert was hot, the mountains were high.
Caption 5, Clueso Weil ich dich liebe
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Further Learning
There are many nature videos on Yabla German, and most of them include detailed descriptions of the landscape like in this series about the Alps. How would you describe the landscape of the country or region you are from? Try to talk about it with a tandem partner, or write down a few sentences.
After looking at the two-way preposition in last week, let's continue our series with an. This preposition is also a two-way preposition and is used in a multitude of contexts, including with the accusative case to express movement from one place to another.
We use an rather than nach or in in some contexts where we will end up next to or to the side of something rather than in or on it.
Sarah, komm du doch mal bitte an die Tafel.
Sarah, come up to the blackboard, please.
Caption 5, Bundesländer und ihre Spezialitäten - Baden-Württemberg
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Ich gehe rüber ans Fenster
I go over to the window
Caption 5, Philipp Poisel - Wie soll ein Mensch das ertragen?
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An is also used when we are going to a place that forms a boundary or edge. In particular, you can memorize an die Küste and an den Strand.
Natali und Florian zieht es zunächst an die Küste Cornwalls.
Natali and Florian proceed first to the coast of Cornwall.
Caption 28, Abenteuer Nordsee - Unter Riesenhaien und Tintenfischen
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In dieser Nacht segelten sie zurück an den Strand von Troja.
That night they sailed back to the beach of Troy.
Caption 80, Märchen - Sagenhaft - Das Trojanische Pferd
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Eine neue Hiobsbotschaft
A new piece of bad news
ist die plötzliche Abberufung Tresckows an die Ostfront.
is the sudden recall of Tresckow to the Eastern Front.
Captions 80-81, Die Stunde der Offiziere - Dokudrama über den 20. Juli 1944
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Und man davonfliegen möchte, so leicht wie eine kleine, weiße Feder,
And you would like to fly away, as light as a little white feather
bis ans Ende der Welt.
to the end of the world.
Captions 32-33, Piggeldy und Frederick - Das Fernweh
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Further Learning
Other places/nouns that are commonly paired with the preposition an when they are the destination include die Kreuzung (the intersection), die Wand (the wall), and die Grenze (the border). With all three of these examples, an + the accusative is only used when the barrier is NOT being crossed or traversed and it is simply a matter of going/driving/walking "up to" it. When you see an on Yabla German, you can quickly note whether it's being used with the accusative to mean "to" or with the dative to mean "at" or "on." Don't forget, however, that an also appears in contexts that have nothing to do with going or being anywhere (for example, an etwas denken).
It is sometimes easy to be misled by German adverbs, which may not be quite what they appear at first glance. Take the adverb bislang: if you break it into its constituent parts bis ("until") and lang ("long"), you might conclude it means "for a long time"—but you would unfortunately be wrong.
There are, however, a number of other expressions in German that mean "for a long time":
seit langem (or seit Langem, both are correct):
Dieses Tier wollte er schon seit langem filmen.
He has wanted to film this creature for a long time.
Caption 47, Abenteuer Nordsee - Unter Riesenhaien und Tintenfischen
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lange Zeit:
Im Jahr neunzehnhundertdreiundfünfzig gab es in der DDR einen Aufstand, an den lange Zeit in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland ein Feiertag erinnerte.
There was an uprising in the GDR in nineteen fifty-three, which a holiday has memorialized for a long time in the Federal Republic of Germany.
Captions 22-23, Bundesrepublik Deutschland - Einbürgerungstest - Part 11
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seit langer Zeit:
Comedy geht mir seit langer Zeit aufn Keks.
Comedy has been getting on my nerves for a long time.
Caption 2, Filmtrailer - Hexe Lilli - Part 3
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or simply lange:
Und wir haben uns mit, äh, Siegfried lange unterhalten dürfen.
And we were able to speak with, uh, Siegfried for a long time.
Caption 29, 3nach9 - Ehrlich Brothers - Show-Magier - Part 2
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But back to bislang: it can be variously translated as "up till now," "until now," or "so far," depending upon the context:
Die vierzehnjährige Floh hat bislang noch keine eigenen Kinder bekommen.
Up till now, the fourteen year old Floh still has never had any children of her own.
Caption 13, Unter fremden Fittichen - Uhu-Mama zieht Hühnerküken auf
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Überraschungssieger und damit neuer deutscher Meister ist der bislang in der Szene unbekannte Alexander Lehmann aus Kiel.
Surprise winner, and therefore the new German champion, is Alexander Lehmann from Kiel, who was unknown in the scene until now.
Captions 5-6, Die Insel Fehmarn - Speedsurfen auf Fehmarn
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Bislang konnte das die Ausbreitung der Läden aber nicht stoppen.
So far, however, this hasn't stopped the spread of the shops.
Caption 35, Perlentee - In allen Mündern
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Further Learning
Go to Yabla German to search for other examples of how the adverb bislang and expressions meaning "for a long time" are used in a real-world context.
You are already familiar with adjectival possessive pronouns: instead of saying "the man's black hat" you may say "his black hat," etc. The main German singular possessive pronouns are ihr and sein, usually translated as "his" and "her."
In German, der Mann is a grammatically masculine noun, but in any language, a man is naturally masculine too: he is the male of the species. The same rule applies to die Frau: grammatically feminine in German, but naturally female. Thus, the possessive pronoun for der Mann is sein (his) and the possessive pronoun for die Frau is ihr (her), and it follows that the grammatical genders and natural genders are matching in these cases:
Michael Jackson hielt im Übermut sein Baby aus einem Hotelfenster.
Michael Jackson held his baby boisterously out of a hotel window.
Captions 24-25, Berlin - Hotel Adlon feiert 15 Jahre Neueröffnung
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Astrid North hat ihr neues Album in Eigenregie produziert.
Astrid North has self-produced her new album.
Caption 28, Astrid North - Solo-Debüt
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The possessive pronoun of any grammatically masculine German noun is also masculine, just as any feminine noun takes a feminine pronoun. However, English does not translate the gender-specific sein and ihr respectively to "his" and "her" when referring to non-animate objects and many animals, but uses the gender-neutral "its" instead:
… anhand eines massiven Sterns, der sein Leben aushauchte.
… based on a massive star which exhaled its last breath.
Captions 23-24, Unser Universum - Sternengeburt - Das Leben nach dem stellaren Tod
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Die Nordsee. Sieben Länder teilen sich ihre Küsten.
The North Sea: Seven countries share its coastlines.
Caption 10, Abenteuer Nordsee - Unter Riesenhaien und Tintenfischen
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As you see above, non-animate nouns follow their gender equivalents in German, but in English both are translated as "its" rather than "his" or "her." But how does German deal with pronouns of neuter nouns?
Für jeden von uns bringt das neue Jahr seine ganz eigenen Herausforderungen mit sich.
For each one of us, the New Year brings its own very [unique] challenges with it.
Caption 2, Angela Merkel - Neujahrsansprache
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Im Wechsel der Gezeiten verändert das Watt ständig sein Gesicht.
With changing tides, the intertidal zone is continuously altering its appearance.
Caption 10, Abenteuer Nordsee - Unter Riesenhaien und Tintenfischen
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As you see in the examples above, German does not have a unique possessive pronoun for neuter nouns, but instead reverts to the masculine pronoun sein. This can lead to the rather odd situation of a grammatically neuter pronoun such as das Mädchen—which is naturally feminine in that "the girl" is a female of the species—taking the masculine pronoun sein:
Schnell nahm das Mädchen ein neues Streichholz in seine zitternden Hände.
The girl quickly took a new match in her trembling hands.
Caption 37, Märchen - Sagenhaft - Das kleine Mädchen mit den Schwefelhölzern
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As you see, seine was translated to "her"—not "his"—in this case, because only "her" is correct in English. Although it is formally correct to use sein for das Mädchen, it is very common to see feminine pronouns such as ihr used for grammatically neuter but naturally feminine figures. In fact, in the video quoted above, every single pronoun reference to das Mädchen actually used grammatically incorrect feminine pronouns! So while it is good to be conscious of this rule, it won't sound unnatural if the occasional Mädchen winds up as ihr in your German!
Further Learning
Look on Yabla German for the possessive pronouns sein and ihr being used in a real-world context, and take a look at this previous Yabla lesson about possessive pronouns.
But then you hopefully knew that already! You may not, however, be completely familiar with differences between the two words and the different meanings they can have in specific contexts.
The most common translation of the pronoun etwas is "something":
Etwas hat sich schon verändert.
Something has indeed changed.
Caption 11, 2raumwohnung - Achtung fertig
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Und doch hat diese Ausstellung etwas sehr Besonderes.
However, this exhibition has something very distinct about it.
Caption 5, DDR zum Anfassen - Ganz tief im Westen
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However, when etwas is used as an adjective pronoun (usually a possessive, or noting quantities of something), it can be translated as "a bit," "somewhat," or less commonly, the simple "some":
Planktonfresser hin oder her, ihm ist doch etwas mulmig geworden,
Plankton eaters or not, he did get a bit queasy
Caption 25, Abenteuer Nordsee - Unter Riesenhaien und Tintenfischen
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Bachforellen sind etwas kleiner als die ursprünglich hier lebenden Marmoratas.
Freshwater trout are somewhat smaller than the marble trout that originally lived here.
Caption 1, Alpenseen - Kühle Schönheiten
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...verlor das Fahrrad zwischenzeitlich etwas an Bedeutung.
...the bicycle lost some of its significance for a while.
Caption 25, 200. Geburtstag - Die Geschichte des Fahrrads in 2 Minuten
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The adverb etwa can be translated as "about," "approximately" or "something like." It is most often used before a numerical measurement:
Und es sind etwa 35 Kilometer von den
And it's about 35 kilometers from the
weißen Klippen von Dover zu den Sanddünen von Calais.
white cliffs of Dover to the sand dunes of Calais.
Caption 20, Abenteuer Nordsee - Unter Riesenhaien und Tintenfischen
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Jährlich werden pro Person in Deutschland etwa 160 Liter Kaffee getrunken.
Every year, approximately 160 liters of coffee are drunk in Germany per person.
Caption 5, Eva zeigt uns - wie man Kaffee kocht
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Das bedeutet etwa „Ende des Sommers“.
That means something like "end of the summer."
Caption 6, Cettina erklärt - Halloween
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The adverb etwa can also be used as a grammatical particle, which is often difficult to directly translate, but in this case lends a suggestion of disbelief to the statement:
Rauchst du etwa wieder?
Are you smoking again?
Caption 4, 12 heißt: Ich liebe dich - Kapitel 3: Erfolgreiche Vernehmung
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Zweifelst du etwa an der Aufrichtigkeit meiner Gefühle?
Are you doubting the sincerity of my feelings?
Caption 9, Küss mich, Frosch - Die Zeiten haben sich geändert
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As you see in the two examples above, etwa is not directly translated. A more literary translation of the above examples, which gives them more of an expression of disbelief on the part of the speakers, could respectively be: "But you aren't smoking again?" and "But you aren't doubting the sincerity of my feelings?"
Further Learning
Read the definition and examples given for the particle usage of etwa on Duden, and search for etwa and etwas on Yabla German to see other examples of these words used in a real-world context.
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