{"id":12728,"date":"2021-05-27T16:53:28","date_gmt":"2021-05-27T16:53:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/?p=12728"},"modified":"2021-05-27T16:53:28","modified_gmt":"2021-05-27T16:53:28","slug":"dont-let-it-confuse-you-bekommen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/dont-let-it-confuse-you-bekommen\/","title":{"rendered":"Don’t Let It Confuse You! – Bekommen"},"content":{"rendered":"

There are always words in a language that sound familiar, and so you may be tempted to think that the word must mean something similar to what you already know. These words are known as false friends<\/strong><\/a> or false cognates<\/strong>. In the series\u00a0Don’t Let It Confuse You!<\/em>, we take a look at such words in German, and clear up the confusion! Today,\u00a0bekommen<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

For previous posts in this series, click here.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Expectation: bekommen <\/em>– what will we become?<\/strong><\/h1>\n
\"Bekommen<\/a>

Photo by Mikail McVerry<\/a> on Unsplash<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

When you hear\u00a0bekommen<\/strong>, you might think that it means something along the lines of\u00a0to become<\/em>. I mean, they even sound similar! You know, you might ask W<\/strong>as bekomme ich? <\/strong>and believe that you’re asking what will become of you.<\/p>\n

But no. To become<\/em> in German is\u00a0werden<\/strong> – so:<\/p>\n

What will I become?\u00a0<\/em>–\u00a0Was werde ich?<\/strong><\/p>\n

That’s\u00a0to become\u00a0<\/em>in its narrowest sense – English has many more ways to use\u00a0become<\/em> that translate differently in German<\/a>, like how certain clothes can become somebody, meaning they look good. In German we’d say:\u00a0das steht dir! <\/strong>(that becomes you!<\/em> – though, more commonly, that looks good on you!<\/em>)<\/p>\n

So if\u00a0bekommen\u00a0<\/strong>isn’t\u00a0to become<\/em>, what is it?<\/p>\n

Reality: This is all you’ll get!<\/strong><\/h1>\n
\"Bekommen<\/a>

Photo by Charles Deluvio<\/a> on Unsplash<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

In reality, bekommen\u00a0<\/strong>means\u00a0to get<\/em> or to obtain<\/em>. So when you ask\u00a0Was bekomme ich?<\/strong>, you’re really asking What do I get<\/em>? Not really something you want to confuse!<\/p>\n

The confusion goes both ways, though: I have German friends who get this wrong sometimes when they speak English. To them,\u00a0bekommen<\/strong> means\u00a0to get<\/em> – so you might get sentences like:\u00a0we became really great numbers last quarter<\/em>. If you hear this from a German, it probably comes back to this confusion!<\/p>\n

This might make you wonder how these words ended up meaning such different things. The German and English actually have the same root in the Proto-Germanic bikweman<\/span><\/strong>. That word meant both\u00a0to get\/obtain <\/em>and to become<\/em>. However, the meanings of the word split in English and German – over the years, the English retained the meaning of\u00a0become<\/em> – the Germans took the meaning of\u00a0to get\/obtain<\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n

But in some ways, you can still see the similarity. For example, when you say\u00a0das Essen bekommt mir<\/strong>, you say that the food agrees with you<\/em>. Similar to the second meaning in English, when something becomes you, it agrees with you, suits you. So there is some overlap in meaning that still speaks to its roots!<\/p>\n

Have you been confused by this word or have you heard it in the wild? Do you know of other words like this? Let me know in the comments below!\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

There are always words in a language that sound familiar, and so you may be tempted to think that the word must mean something similar to what you already know. These words are known as false friends or false cognates. In the series\u00a0Don’t Let It Confuse You!, we take a look at such words in…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":110,"featured_media":13046,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[8,376076],"tags":[517059,263,264],"class_list":["post-12728","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-language","category-vocabulary","tag-dont-let-it-confuse-you","tag-false-cognates","tag-false-friends"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12728","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/110"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12728"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12728\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13047,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12728\/revisions\/13047"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13046"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12728"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12728"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12728"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}