{"id":9674,"date":"2018-03-07T12:28:23","date_gmt":"2018-03-07T12:28:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/?p=9674"},"modified":"2018-03-07T13:28:02","modified_gmt":"2018-03-07T13:28:02","slug":"making-mistakes-in-german","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/making-mistakes-in-german\/","title":{"rendered":"Making Mistakes In German"},"content":{"rendered":"

Guten Tag! Today’s post is about mistakes. Sometimes we are aware that we might be saying something incorrectly in German, like muddling up words that sound similar but have different meanings. What we are not so aware of is what we are actually saying when we do this – which can lead to us feeling mortified when we find out! So today, using the topic of expressing feelings and emotions with \u2018Ich bin\u2019\/\u2019mir ist\u2019 (\u2018I am\/I feel\u2019) and \u2018es ist\u2019 (\u2018it is\u2019), I will tell you what you will end up saying should you muddle any of these up. Treat this as a bit of fun \u2013 but fun you can learn from!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Peekaboo?\"<\/a>

Foto: winstonavich on flickr.com under a CC license (CC BY 2.0)<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

To talk about yourself you use either Ich bin or Mir ist. To talk about something, you use Es ist. We will start with Es ist, along with Ich bin.<\/p>\n

Es ist<\/strong> = It is
\nIch bin<\/strong> = I am<\/p>\n

There are several words which look similar in German, but have different meanings depending on how they are used grammatically (such as \u2018tired\u2019 and \u2018tiring\u2019 in English, for example). Here are some examples:<\/p>\n

Es ist stressig<\/strong> = It is stressful
\nIch bin gestresst<\/strong> = I am stressed<\/p>\n

Should you use these the opposite way around (use \u2018ich bin\u2019 where \u2018es ist\u2019 should be, and vice versa) you will actually be saying the following:<\/p>\n

Ich bin stressig<\/strong> = I am stressy, stressful
\nEs ist gestresst<\/strong> = It is stressed<\/p>\n

Here are some more examples. The main (‘correct’) pair is first, in green, and its opposite second, in red.<\/p>\n

Ich bin interessiert = I am interested.<\/span>
\n Es ist interessant = It is interesting.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ich bin interessant = I am interesting.<\/span>
\n Es ist interessiert = It is interested.<\/span><\/p>\n

*<\/p>\n

Ich bin \u00fc<\/span>berrascht = I am surprised.
\n<\/span>Es ist <\/span>\u00fcberraschend = It is surprising.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Ich bin \u00fc<\/span>berraschend = I am surprising.
\nEs ist <\/span>\u00fc<\/span>berrascht = It is surprised.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

As you can see, mixing up the \u2018es ist\u2019 is not such a big deal (though it may confuse people \u2013 <\/span>are you referring to yourself as an \u2018it\u2019, or talking about something else entirely?<\/span>) but using the wrong word after \u2018ich bin\u2019 can create some funny comments about yourself <\/span>(\u2018I am interesting\u2019 when you\u2019re meant to say \u2018I am interested\u2019 could cause a few giggles)<\/span>! <\/span>We\u2019ll look at this some more now with Ich bin vs. Mir ist.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ich bin<\/strong> = I am
\nMir ist<\/strong> = I am (I feel)<\/span><\/p>\n

Larissa explains very well the difference between Ich bin and Mir ist in this blog post<\/a>. I recommend you read that before carrying on with this one! As now I\u2019m going to show you what happens if you mix up Ich bin and Mir ist. <\/span><\/p>\n

Firstly, the correct way to say the following:<\/span><\/p>\n

Mir ist hei<\/span><\/strong><\/span>\u00df<\/strong><\/span> = I am <\/span>hot<\/span><\/p>\n

Mir ist kalt<\/strong><\/span> = I am <\/span>cold<\/span><\/p>\n

Mir ist langweilig<\/strong><\/span> = I am bored<\/span><\/p>\n

Mir ist schlecht<\/strong> <\/span>= I am unwell<\/span><\/p>\n

Basically, \u2018Mir ist\u2019 describes your mood & how you\u2019re feeling. Now, here is what you would unintentionally be saying if you used \u2018Ich bin\u2019 instead of \u2018Mir ist\u2019!<\/p>\n

Ich bin hei<\/span><\/strong><\/span>\u00df<\/strong><\/span> = <\/span>I am hot <\/span>(‘I am attractive’!)<\/span><\/p>\n

Ich bin kalt<\/strong> <\/span>= <\/span>I am cold<\/span> (‘I am cold-hearted’)<\/span><\/p>\n

Ich bin langweilig<\/strong><\/span> = I am boring<\/span><\/p>\n

Ich bin schlecht<\/strong> <\/span>= I am bad <\/span>(‘<\/span>I am a bad person’<\/span>)<\/span><\/p>\n

As you can see, it can be pretty amusing! But I am not writing this to scare anyone. I think that, if you are aware of the mistakes you could <\/i>be making, they will not seem so bad if you eventually do make them. Plus, mistakes are a natural part of language learning, and when the mistake is a bit of a funny one, it can really help to break the ice between yourself and the native speaker. And as you can see from the examples above, it is not the end of the world if you muddle something up. Most native speakers will know what you were intending to say, anyway. So don’t be scared of making mistakes!<\/span><\/p>\n

I hope this has been interesting! Have a good week. \ud83d\ude42<\/span><\/p>\n

Bis bald<\/span><\/p>\n

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

Guten Tag! Today’s post is about mistakes. Sometimes we are aware that we might be saying something incorrectly in German, like muddling up words that sound similar but have different meanings. What we are not so aware of is what we are actually saying when we do this – which can lead to us feeling…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":119,"featured_media":9680,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[17,7386,7401,12133,95131,6,8448,2538],"class_list":["post-9674","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-language","tag-adjectives","tag-emotions","tag-feelings","tag-german-grammar","tag-german-language","tag-grammar","tag-mistakes","tag-speaking"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9674","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=9674"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9674\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9684,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9674\/revisions\/9684"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9680"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9674"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9674"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9674"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}