Bringen vs. holen in German: bring, take, fetch and pick up
Compare holen, bringen, abholen and mitbringen with translated examples. Learn fetch versus deliver, separable prefixes and past forms in five exercises.
Read and practiseAdventure journal
German verbs
Connect a verb's forms with its meaning and sentence pattern: present tense, past, participle, auxiliary and examples.
Adventure journal
Verbs
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German fahren or gehen: vehicle or walking
Use fahren for travel by many vehicles and gehen for walking, while remembering that some gehen phrases describe an activity more generally.
Read and practiseBleiben in German: stay in a place or condition
Bleiben describes staying somewhere or continuing in a state, even though its Perfekt uses sein.
Read and practiseGerman lassen: leave, allow and have something done
Lassen can mean leaving something in place, allowing an action or arranging for somebody to perform it.
Read and practiseGerman geben: dative recipient, accusative item
Geben commonly connects a giver, a recipient and the thing given, with different cases for the last two roles.
Read and practiseGerman helfen: use the dative
Helfen requires a dative person or group, even if your own language treats the person helped as a direct object.
Read and practiseGerman gefallen: the thing is the subject
With gefallen, the thing that appeals is the grammatical subject and the person experiencing the feeling is dative.
Read and practiseFehlen in German: absence, shortage and missing someone
The missing person or thing is the subject of fehlen; the person affected may appear in the dative.
Read and practiseGerman gefallen or mögen: reverse the sentence roles
Both verbs can express liking, but their subjects and objects are arranged differently.
Read and practiseGerman tragen: wear, carry and bear responsibility
Tragen describes wearing clothing or carrying a load, and also appears in abstract combinations such as Verantwortung tragen.
Read and practiseGerman treffen: meet someone or meet each other
Treffen can take a direct accusative person; sich treffen describes people meeting, often with a time and place.
Read and practiseGerman denken and glauben: thoughts, beliefs and trust
Denken describes thinking, while glauben can express an assumption, a belief or trust in someone's statement.
Read and practiseGerman bekommen means receive, not become
Bekommen usually means receiving or getting something; it does not express becoming a different person or state.
Read and practiseGerman suchen or finden: searching, finding and judging
Suchen describes looking for something, whereas finden can describe successful discovery or express an opinion.
Read and practiseVersuchen vs. probieren: German meanings and examples
Choose versuchen, probieren or ausprobieren for attempts, tasting and testing. See where meanings overlap, with translated examples and five exercises.
Read and practiseGerman brauchen: needs and not having to
Brauchen normally takes an accusative thing that is needed; with negation and zu plus infinitive, it can mean not having to.
Read and practiseGerman warten auf: wait for someone or something
Warten combines with auf and an accusative complement when you name what you are waiting for.
Read and practiseGerman sich freuen: choosing auf or über
look forward to a plan or feel pleased about something. Compare both patterns and practise their prepositions and reflexive forms.
Read and practiseGerman sich interessieren für: interests and sentence roles
Use sich interessieren für to describe a person's interest, or let the interesting thing become the subject of interessieren.
Read and practisearbeiten: conjugation, meaning and examples
Use arbeiten (to work) with present-tense forms, arbeitete, hat gearbeitet, sentence patterns and six examples.
Read and practiseantworten: conjugation, meaning and examples
Use antworten (to answer) with present-tense forms, antwortete, hat geantwortet, sentence patterns and six examples.
Read and practisefragen: conjugation, meaning and examples
Use fragen (to ask) with present-tense forms, fragte, hat gefragt, sentence patterns and six examples.
Read and practisewohnen: conjugation, meaning and examples
Use wohnen (to live; reside) with present-tense forms, wohnte, hat gewohnt, sentence patterns and six examples.
Read and practiseleben: conjugation, meaning and examples
Use leben (to live; be alive) with present-tense forms, lebte, hat gelebt, sentence patterns and six examples.
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