{"id":13456,"date":"2021-10-20T20:00:59","date_gmt":"2021-10-20T20:00:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/?p=13456"},"modified":"2021-10-20T14:07:21","modified_gmt":"2021-10-20T14:07:21","slug":"the-german-phrase-ich-habe-zu-tun","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/the-german-phrase-ich-habe-zu-tun\/","title":{"rendered":"The German Phrase ‘Ich Habe Zu Tun’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Guten Tag! Today we\u2019re going to look at a slightly unusual-sounding phrase in the German language. Maybe you\u2019ve come across this phrase before, but thought a word was missing, or that it didn\u2019t sound quite right. The phrase in question is this one: Ich habe zu tun.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Ich habe zu tun. Photo by STIL<\/a> on Unsplash<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

Ich habe zu tun<\/h3>\n

This phrase, literally translated, means, \u2018I have to do\u2019.<\/strong> Habe<\/em> comes from the verb haben- to have<\/em>, and tun<\/em> is a verb meaning \u2018to do\u2019<\/em>. Before we move on, let\u2019s take a look at the present tense conjugation of the verb tun, as this itself is a slightly unusual-looking verb:<\/p>\n

Tun \u2013 to do<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ich tue \u2013 I do
\nDu tust \u2013 You do (informal)
\nEr\/sie\/es tut \u2013 He\/she\/it does
\nWir tun \u2013 We do
\nIhr tut \u2013 You do (informal;plural)
\nSie tun \u2013 You do (formal)
\nsie tun \u2013 They do<\/p>\n

This verb can be confusing as most people learn machen<\/em>\u00a0as the verb meaning to do (or to make), not tun.<\/em> Though there are cases where these can be used interchangeably, there are also several exceptions. If you would like an entire post on the difference between tun <\/em>and machen<\/em>, let me know in a comment below.<\/p>\n

Now, back to the phrase Ich habe zu tun.<\/strong> This phrase means \u2018I have something to do\u2019 <\/strong>or \u2018I\u2019m busy\u2019.<\/strong> And believe it or not, it\u2019s a perfectly complete phrase on its own, even though it sounds like a word is missing in between \u2018habe\u2019 and \u2018zu\u2019. You wouldn\u2019t say \u2018I have to do\u2019 in English, but \u2018I have something to do\u2019 or \u2018I have lots to do\u2019, for example. However, in German, you can say ich habe zu tun,<\/strong> and that makes perfect sense on its own.<\/p>\n

Examples:<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Entschuldigung, ich habe zu tun.<\/strong>
\nExcuse me, I have something to do.<\/p>\n

Vielen Dank, aber ich habe zu tun.<\/strong>
\nThank you, but I\u2019m busy.<\/p>\n

Ich kann nicht, ich habe zu tun.<\/strong>
\nI can\u2019t, I\u2019m busy.<\/p>\n

*<\/p>\n

On the other hand – and this may be another reason it’s confusing to learners – you absolutely can<\/em><\/strong> put a word in between \u2018habe\u2019 and \u2018zu\u2019, and have the sentence mean the same thing, albeit with a bit more detail. Here are some example sentences, so you can see what I mean:<\/p>\n

Ich habe viel<\/strong> zu tun.
\nI have a lot<\/strong> to do.<\/p>\n

Ich habe noch etwas<\/strong> zu tun.
\nI still<\/strong> have something<\/strong> to do.<\/p>\n

Ich habe nichts<\/strong> zu tun.
\nI have nothing<\/strong> to do.<\/p>\n

Ich habe Besseres<\/strong> zu tun.
\nI have something better<\/strong> to do.<\/p>\n

Ich habe Wichtigeres<\/strong> zu tun.
\nI have more important things<\/strong> to do.<\/p>\n

Ich habe zu viel<\/strong> zu tun.
\nI have too much<\/strong> to do.<\/p>\n

Ich habe genug<\/strong> zu tun.
\nI have enough<\/strong> to do.<\/p>\n

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Ich habe VIEL zu tun. Photo by Glenn Carstens-Peters<\/a> on Unsplash<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

Perhaps a good way to think about this phrase is that \u2018Ich habe zu tun\u2019 is saying you\u2019re busy in simple, straight-forward terms (ie. if you want to decline an invitation, or end a conversation quickly), but including one of the above words (viel; noch etwas; nichts; Besseres; Wichtigeres; genug) is a way of adding detail.<\/p>\n

Have you ever come across this phrase before now? I hope this post has helped clear up any confusion you may have had about it!<\/p>\n

Bis bald,
\nConstanze<\/p>\n

PS. If you liked this post, you might also like this one:\u00a07 Ways To Say Sorry In German<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"ich

Guten Tag! Today we\u2019re going to look at a slightly unusual-sounding phrase in the German language. Maybe you\u2019ve come across this phrase before, but thought a word was missing, or that it didn\u2019t sound quite right. The phrase in question is this one: Ich habe zu tun. Ich habe zu tun This phrase, literally translated…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":119,"featured_media":13461,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[503854,66,95131,376023,2391],"class_list":["post-13456","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-language","tag-curious-words","tag-expressions","tag-german-language","tag-language","tag-phrases"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13456","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\/119"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13456"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13456\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13463,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13456\/revisions\/13463"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13461"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13456"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13456"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13456"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}