{"id":13790,"date":"2022-02-23T15:00:20","date_gmt":"2022-02-23T15:00:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/?p=13790"},"modified":"2022-02-07T08:38:35","modified_gmt":"2022-02-07T08:38:35","slug":"how-to-express-i-dont-understand-in-german","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/how-to-express-i-dont-understand-in-german\/","title":{"rendered":"How To Express ‘I Don’t Understand’ In German"},"content":{"rendered":"

Guten Tag! Today I\u2019m going to give you some vocabulary and phrases for those times when you don\u2019t understand.<\/em> <\/strong>Even in our native languages, we sometimes need a person to repeat what they\u2019ve said, so it\u2019s a useful set of vocabulary to have. Comprehension aside, we sometimes say we don\u2019t understand because we need clarification, or to express disbelief. This post will cover ways to say \u2018I don\u2019t understand\u2019 in German, so you can communicate effectively should you find yourself in one of these situations.<\/p>\n

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Photo by Tim Gouw<\/a> on Unsplash<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

To understand: verstehen<\/h3>\n

The main verb you need for this is verstehen.<\/em> <\/strong>Here is the verb verstehen in the present tense:<\/p>\n

Ich verstehe<\/strong> \u2013 I understand
\nDu verstehst<\/strong> \u2013 You understand (informal)
\nEr\/sie\/es versteht<\/strong> \u2013 He\/she\/it understands
\nWir verstehen<\/strong> \u2013 We understand
\nIhr versteht<\/strong> \u2013 You understand (plural)
\nSie\/sie verstehen<\/strong> \u2013 You (formal)\/they understand<\/p>\n

Similar verbs are begreifen<\/strong> (to grasp) and kapieren<\/strong> (to \u2018get it\u2019 \u2013 this one is informal compared to the others!).<\/p>\n

The general way of saying \u2018I don\u2019t understand\u2019 is ich verstehe nicht.<\/em><\/strong> If in doubt, you can use this for any situation.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t understand: meaning<\/h2>\n

If you want to express that it\u2019s the meaning of the words, specifically, that you don\u2019t understand – either because of lack of comprehension, or because the environment you’re in is noisy and you can’t hear well, for instance – try this:<\/p>\n

Ich verstehe nicht, was du sagst<\/strong> \u2013 I don\u2019t understand what you\u2019re saying (informal- for people you know, friends, family etc.)
\nIch verstehe nicht, was Sie sagen<\/strong> \u2013 I don\u2019t understand what you\u2019re saying (formal- for people you don\u2019t know, managers, authority figures etc.)<\/p>\n

If you like, you can preface these with the words \u2018Tut mir Leid\u2019 \u2013 \u2018I\u2019m sorry\u2019,<\/strong> for example:<\/p>\n

Tut mir Leid- ich verstehe nicht, was du sagst.<\/strong>
\nI\u2019m sorry- I don\u2019t understand what you’re saying.<\/p>\n

You can then follow up with a request for the person to repeat what they\u2019ve said:<\/p>\n

Kannst du das bitte wiederholen?<\/strong> – Could you repeat that, please? (informal)
\nK\u00f6nnten Sie das bitte wiederholen?<\/strong> – Could you repeat that, please? (formal)<\/p>\n

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Photo by LinkedIn Sales Solutions<\/a> on Unsplash<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

I don\u2019t understand: I need clarification<\/h2>\n

This is for when you comprehend<\/em> the words that’ve been said, but there’s something you don’t understand about the subject matter, or what’s being asked of you. There are lots of ways you can express this, but here are a few examples:<\/p>\n

Ich verstehe nicht viel davon<\/strong> \u2013 I don\u2019t understand much about it.<\/p>\n

Ich verstehe nicht, was du meinst<\/strong> (informal) \/ Ich verstehe nicht, was Sie meinen<\/strong> (formal) \u2013 I don’t understand what you mean.<\/p>\n

Ich verstehe nicht, was du von mir willst<\/strong> (informal) \/ Ich verstehe nicht, was Sie von mir wollen<\/strong> (formal) \u2013 I don\u2019t understand what you want from me.<\/p>\n

Ich verstehe nicht, was das mit mir zu tun hat<\/strong> – I don\u2019t understand what that\u2019s got to do with me<\/p>\n

Was sagst du genau?<\/strong> (informal) \/ Was sagen Sie genau?<\/strong> (formal) – What are you saying, exactly?<\/p>\n

Was meinst du damit?<\/strong> (informal) \/ Was meinen Sie damit?<\/strong> (formal) \u2013 What do you mean by that?<\/p>\n

You could then ask the follow-up question:
\nKannst du das bitte weiter erkl\u00e4ren?<\/strong> (informal) \/ K\u00f6nnten Sie das bitte weiter erkl\u00e4ren?<\/strong> – Could you please explain that further?<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t understand: disbelief<\/h2>\n

Finally, there are times when we say \u2018I don\u2019t understand\u2019 as a means of expressing disbelief, shock, or confusion. In this case, we’re not really asking for clarification, but expressing that we don’t understand<\/em> how something came to be. You could express this in German with the phrases Das gibt\u2019s doch gar nicht<\/strong> (roughly, \u2018That can\u2019t be real\u2019) or Das kann ja nicht wahr sein<\/strong> (\u2018That can\u2019t be true\u2019).<\/p>\n

\"i

Photo by Preston Foster<\/a> on Unsplash<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

I only understand train station!<\/h2>\n

Other ways you can say you don\u2019t understand are the popular phrase ich verstehe nur Bahnhof,<\/strong> which literally translates to \u2018I only understand train station\u2019, or the phrase ich kann mir keinen Reim darauf machen,<\/strong> which is the German equivalent of \u2018I can see no rhyme nor reason in it\u2019 (der Reim<\/strong>: rhyme).<\/p>\n

I hope this has been of help. Let me know in the COMMENT BOX if there are any other phrases you’d like to delve deeper into.<\/p>\n

Bis bald (see you soon)!
\nConstanze<\/p>\n

PS. If you liked this post, you might also like this one:\u00a0Yiddish: Can You Understand It?<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

Guten Tag! Today I\u2019m going to give you some vocabulary and phrases for those times when you don\u2019t understand. Even in our native languages, we sometimes need a person to repeat what they\u2019ve said, so it\u2019s a useful set of vocabulary to have. Comprehension aside, we sometimes say we don\u2019t understand because we need clarification…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":119,"featured_media":13793,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[2027,2031,53,95131,551819,457016,551850,376023,2268,2538,551820,551849],"class_list":["post-13790","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-language","tag-communication","tag-comprehension","tag-conversation","tag-german-language","tag-german-phrases","tag-german-vocabulary","tag-i-dont-understand","tag-language","tag-listening-comprehension","tag-speaking","tag-speaking-in-german","tag-verstehen"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13790","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=13790"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13790\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13804,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13790\/revisions\/13804"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13793"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13790"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13790"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13790"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}