{"id":7237,"date":"2016-05-04T11:15:24","date_gmt":"2016-05-04T11:15:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/?p=7237"},"modified":"2016-05-04T11:15:24","modified_gmt":"2016-05-04T11:15:24","slug":"getting-dressed-in-german-5-verbs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/getting-dressed-in-german-5-verbs\/","title":{"rendered":"Getting Dressed In German: 5 Verbs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Guten Tag!!<\/p>\n

I hope you\u2019re all well and enjoying some sunshine, wherever you are! Today I want to bring you part 2 of my clothes-themed posts (the first is here<\/a>). I wanted to write about a couple of words & phrases surrounding clothing because, although a straight-forward subject, there are a few bits & pieces that I think can seem confusing at first. My first post will show you how many different words there are for the word \u2018clothes\u2019, and how and when to use them. In this post, I\u2019ll try to explain the verbs surrounding the topic of clothes.<\/p>\n

\"c'est<\/a>

Photo: 53199633@N02 on flickr.com under a CC license (CC BY-ND 2.0)<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

CLOTHING VERBS<\/strong><\/p>\n

tragen<\/strong> \u2013 to wear\/carry<\/em><\/h3>\n

To state what you\u2019re wearing, you\u2019d say \u2018Ich trage ____\u2019. Example: \u2018Ich trage eine Bluse\u2019 \u2013 \u2018I\u2019m wearing a blouse\u2019. When you learn this at school you\u2019re just told this is the verb to use, and you accept it. But the verb tragen <\/strong>also means \u2018to carry\u2019, which makes sense because you \u2018carry\u2019 clothes on your body, too. But this verb isn\u2019t restricted to clothes. Example: \u2018Ich trage eine Schachtel\u2019 \u2013 \u2018I carry\/I\u2019m carrying a box\u2019. Seems confusing? Fear not! Unless your personal style is particularly avant-garde, it\u2019s unlikely you\u2019re actually wearing<\/em> a box. \u00a0With that in mind, it\u2019s fairly easy to recognise when tragen means \u2018to wear\u2019 and when it means \u2018to carry\u2019.<\/p>\n

Mein Kind ist m\u00fcde. Ich muss sie tragen<\/strong>.\u00a0 —- My child is tired. I have to carry her.<\/h3>\n

Ich trage<\/strong> heute mein neues Kleid! —- I’m wearing my new dress today!<\/h3>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Movers<\/a>

Wearing a box, or carrying a box? Tragen – to wear\/to carry. Photo by Guy Kilroy on flickr.com under a CC license (CC BY-SA 2.0)<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

anziehen<\/strong> \u2013 to get dressed<\/em>.<\/h3>\n

Literally \u2018to pull on\u2019. This is a reflexive and separable verb, so to use it you\u2019d say \u2018Ich ziehe mich an\u2019. <\/strong>You can remember that anziehen is \u2018to get dressed\u2019 because the prefix \u2018an\u2019 looks like the English word on<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

ausziehen<\/strong> \u2013 to get undressed<\/em>.<\/h3>\n

Literally \u2018to pull off\/out\u2019. Also a reflexive and separable verb, so to use it you\u2019d say \u2018Ich ziehe mich aus\u2019.<\/strong> You can remember that ausziehen is \u2018to get undressed\u2019 because the prefix \u2018aus\u2019 sounds like the English word out<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

umziehen <\/strong>\u2013 to get changed.<\/em><\/h3>\n

You use this if you\u2019re already dressed, but you want to change into something else. Again, it follows the same rule as the other verbs, so you\u2019d say, \u2018Ich ziehe mich um\u2019<\/strong>. But! The verb umziehen <\/em>also means \u2018to move house\u2019<\/strong>! To make sure you\u2019re saying you\u2019re changing clothes and NOT <\/strong>telling your friends you\u2019re moving out, be sure to say \u2018Ich ziehe mich um\u2019 rather than \u2018Ich ziehe um\u2019. Missing out that \u2018mich\u2019 <\/strong>is what changes the phrase completely.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"You<\/a>

Was hast du denn an? Photo by orinrobertjohn on flickr.com under a CC license (CC BY 2.0)<\/p><\/div>\n

anhaben <\/strong>\u2013 to have something on\/be wearing something.<\/em><\/h3>\n

Has someone ever looked you up and down and said, \u2018What on earth are you wearing?\u2019<\/em> Yeah. Me, too. In German, you\u2019d say \u2018Was hast<\/strong> du denn an<\/strong>?\u2019<\/em> You might say this one is pretty similar to verb #1 \u2013 tragen \u2013 and you\u2019d be right. Here are two ways of saying \u2018I\u2019m wearing a blouse\u2019, using both verbs:<\/p>\n

tragen: Ich trage eine Bluse<\/h3>\n

anhaben: Ich habe eine Bluse an<\/h3>\n

It’s important to note, however, that anhaben<\/strong> only works when describing something you’re already wearing<\/strong>. Saying ‘Ich trage heute eine Bluse’ (‘I’m wearing a blouse today’) works whether you’re wearing one at the time of saying this sentence or not, because you might be saying you are currently<\/strong> wearing one, or that you are planning<\/strong> on wearing one today. ‘Ich habe heute eine Bluse an’, on the other hand, can ONLY<\/strong> be said if you are wearing a blouse at the time of saying it.<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

But don’t be too worried about these little differences. The main thing is to acquaint yourselves with the different verbs for now. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

I hope this has been helpful. Any questions or suggestions, do leave a comment!<\/p>\n

Bis sp\u00e4ter,<\/p>\n

Constanze<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

Guten Tag!! I hope you\u2019re all well and enjoying some sunshine, wherever you are! Today I want to bring you part 2 of my clothes-themed posts (the first is here). I wanted to write about a couple of words & phrases surrounding clothing because, although a straight-forward subject, there are a few bits & pieces…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":119,"featured_media":7428,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[9154,95131,960,456961,456962,376023,456973,166],"class_list":["post-7237","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-language","tag-clothes","tag-german-language","tag-german-vocab","tag-kleider","tag-kleidung","tag-language","tag-tragen","tag-verbs"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7237","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=7237"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7237\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7253,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7237\/revisions\/7253"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7428"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7237"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}