Help understanding sentence

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1

After reading and listening to this lesson a few times I understand almost all of it, but I’m having trouble with this sentence:

Ich ziehe an Türen, auf denen “drücken” steht und drücken gegen Türen, auf denen “ziehen” steht.

I was under the impression the verb “anziehen” meant to dress or put on, as in “ich ziehe meine Jacke an.” I’m a bit confused what that has to do with doors.

Also this sentence:

‘…,aber ich kann mich gerade nicht an ihren Namen erinnern.’

I know he is saying his best friend has a girlfriend, but he can’t remember her name, however I do not understand the meaning of ‘mich’, ‘gerade’, and ‘an’ in this sentence. I know gerade means staight. Is this a German expression? I would just say (with my limited ability): ‘aber ich kann nicht ihren Namen erinnern’

Vielen Dank

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ad ARay:

“anziehen” and “ziehen” are two different words here.

sich anziehen = to get dressed
Ich ziehe mich an = I get dressed

anziehen = to put on
As you said correctly, “Ich ziehe meine Jacke an”

However, “anziehen” may also have many other meanings.

eine Schraube fest anziehen = to tighten a screw firmly

etwas oder jemanden anziehen = to attract something or somebody
sich von jemanden oder etwas angezogen fühlen = to feel attracted by somebody or something

an einer Leine ziehen = to pull a cord

You could also say “an einer Leine anziehen”, though this sounds a bit colloquial to me.

Getting back to your original question, “pull” and “push” are always translated as “ziehen” and “drücken” in connection with doors. You’ll see that written on many doors in stores etc.

“ziehen” by itself mostly means “to pull”.

  1. (…) ‘…,aber ich kann mich gerade nicht an ihren Namen erinnern.’
    (…)

In German the construction “to remember something or somebody” always requires the preposition “an”.

While in English you simply say “to remember someone/something” you need “an” in German.

sich AN etwas erinnern = to remember something
sich AN jemanden erinnern = to remember someone

I remember the concert very well = Ich erinnere mich sehr gut AN das Konzert
I remember him very well = Ich erinnere mich sehr gut AN ihn

As for the word “gerade” it has several meanings too.

It can mean “straight” as you said.

Example: Gehen Sie gerade aus. Go straight ahead.
Eine gerade Linie zeichnen. To draw a straight line.

But it can also mean “just, right now, at this very moment”.

Ich habe ihn GERADE gesehen. I have JUST seen him (I JUST saw him - in American English ;-)).

I can’t remember her name JUST RIGHT NOW. Ich kann mich GERADE nicht an ihren Namen erinnern.

Another example would be: Ich habe ihn GERADE gefragt, ob er kommen wird. I have JUST asked him if he is coming.

You could just say: Aber ich kann mich nicht an ihren Namen erinnern.

You would, however, lose that notion of not being able to remember her name just right now (you may remember it again a few minutes later).

As confusing as this may sound, I hope it helped a bit.

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Thanks for helping me out! So a translation of the first sentence might hopfeully be something like this:

“I pull on doors on which it says ‘push’, and I push against doors on which it says ‘pull’?”

For some reason, I’m thinking that ‘steht’ in this context means ‘to say’. This is probably terrible American English, but we might ask, ‘What does the sign say?’. For some reason I am thinking ‘steht’ means the same thing in this context, as in there is a sign on the door that says the opposite of what Paul is doing.

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ad ARay: (…) For some reason, I’m thinking that ‘steht’ in this context means ‘to say’. (…)

You are absolutely right.

“steht” in the German sentence here is short for “steht geschrieben” (“is written”, or literally translated “stands written”, which of course is not what you’d say in English).

Example:

Kannst du lesen, was dort auf dem Schild geschrieben steht? Can you read what it says on that sign over there?

Or, more colloquially: Kannst du lesen, was dort auf dem Schild steht? In spoken German (or in more casual writing) we often omit the “geschrieben” in sentences like that.

(…) “I pull on doors on which it says ‘push’, and I push against doors on which it says ‘pull’?” (…)

Yes, that is exactly what the German sentence says.

1 Like
5

Vielen Dank Robert!

Last bit of trouble I’m having with this lesson. The meaning of the verb ‘stellen’ and adverb ‘fest’ in this sentence:

‘Manchmal stelle ich fest, dass meine Socken verschiedene Farben haben.’

I’m thinking in this context, ‘stelle’ is similar to spot/notice/realize, although I have not seen it used in this way before. I am not sure about ‘fest’ at all other than the definition provided by LingQ.

“Sometimes I (spot/notice/realize) (firmly/solidly), that my socks have/are different colors”

Am I on the right track?

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The verb stellen means to put something somewhere. Feststellen is to notice, to realise etc. If you start looking too closely at the different parts of a verb, it can drive you bonkers…

Sometimes I notice that my socks have different colours, ie they do not match.

We’ve all done something like that, I bet, sometimes even with one brown and one black shoe…

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“Feststellen” is one word.^^ In German, we sometimes seperate verbs into different parts for some reason.
Dict.cc suggests many different translation but I think “to realize, to notice” works most of the time.

Sometimes I realize that my socks have different colors"

Zänk yu for using my lessons, by the way :slight_smile:

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“The verb stellen means to put something somewhere.”

…in an vertical position. I think we use “legen” if we put something somewhere in a horizontal position. The difference between “Ich stelle eine brennende Kerze auf den Tisch” and “Ich lege eine brennende Kerze auf den Tisch” is quite important.^^

I´m nitpicking though…sorry^^

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ad ARay: (…) Vielen Dank Robert! (…)

Gern geschehen :slight_smile:

(…) The meaning of the verb ‘stellen’ and adverb ‘fest’ in this sentence: (…)

This is not a verb/adverb construction here. The verb “feststellen” is simply separated into “fest” and “stellen”.

We have many of these verbs in German (e. g. “abwarten”; Ich warte ab, du wartest ab; - machmal warte ich ab…)

The infinitive of the verb is “feststellen” and its meaning is, depending on the context, “to notice, to realize, to come to understand…”.

In your example sentence it means something like “to notice”

(…) Sometimes I notice that my socks are of different colours/that my socks have different colours. (…)

festellen (infinitive)

Present tense:

Ich stelle fest
Du stellst fest
Er, sie, es stellt fest

Wir stellen fest
Ihr stellt fest
Sie stellen fest

Past tenses:

Ich stellte fest
or
Ich habe festgestellt

“feststellen” can also have another meaning which is completely different from the above one.

It can mean “to lock something into place”.

A “locking screw” (or “set screw”) would then be a “Feststellschraube” for example.

P.S. I was a bit slow. Paul and Sanne already gave you excellent explanations.

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ad Paul: I just listened to this lesson for the first time. Great lesson! You should be uploading many more of these lessons. Did you write that yourself?

Das war ein wirklicher Hörgenuss. Kurzweilig, unterhaltsam, gespickt mit nützlichen Vokabeln, idiomatischen Ausdrücken…und selbst für Muttersprachler ausgesprochen unterhaltsam. Don’t be shy, upload more of this! This is great stuff.

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Great, thanks guys. The separable pre-fix verbs are going to take awhile to get a hang of…

Paule89: “…Zänk yu for using my lessons, by the way :)…”

Thanks for posting them. They’re very helpful and I’ve enjoyed using them. Definitely interesting. I laughed a few times when I first read this one.

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ad Paul: (…) in an vertical position. I think we use “legen” if we put something somewhere in a horizontal position. (…)

Ah, yes, our beloved mother tongue can be really peculiar :wink:

I still remember those vocabulary tests in high school where you had one English word, like “to put” in this example, and you had to write three German words to get all the points for that question (to put = setzen, legen, stellen) :slight_smile:

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‘I lay the book on the table’ is the same as I put the book flat on the table.
‘I stand the candle on the table’ is the same as I put the candle upright on the table.
‘I sit (or set) the cups on the saucers’ means I put the cups carefully in the little hollows in the saucers. The use of ‘sit’ is not as clear to me as the other two.

This is how I remember the difference in the German usage of legen and stellen. I am not sure about setzen.

Generally, however, in English we simply use ‘put’.

We also stow things in a container. However this is archaic. We again usually use ‘put’.

We can also shelve books. Librarians would use this word. Most of us would put books on the shelf or in the cupboard. We also ‘deposit’ money in the bank. Again, ‘put’ is often used.

Put is a very useful word!

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@robert, ARay

Thank you :slight_smile:
I´d like to create more lessons but I lack inspiration most of the time^^

@“to put = setzen, legen, stellen”

Setzen is pretty rare though, isn´t it? I can only think of things like “Ich setze den kleinen Stefan auf den Kindersitz”.

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Right. Stecken is more common.

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Wo steckst du? Ich stecke mir eine Blume in den Ausschnitt. Was macht der Stecken hier? Wer steckt dahinter? Das steck dir mal an den Hut!

Was macht stecken hier? Was hat stecken hier zu suchen?

I love these little asides…

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@Paule89
I don’t think you lack inspiration, on the contrary, you show a lot of imagination. It is a pleasure reading and listening to your lessons!

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Yes, setzen and sit. Similar to each other I think. I sit the baby in the high chair, or the baby seat for that matter.

I stick a flower in my neckline. Australians often use ‘stick’ in this way. Probably other English speakers do also. A bit coloquial in English. What about in German?

And Paul, thanks from me too. Imagination grows!

19

Some people stick a pencil behind their ear. They stick pencils vertically in a container on their desk. I cannot think of any more at the moment.

I like your examples, @SanneT, even though I really only understand the one about the flower. I hadn’t read the others when I posted previously. Can anyone enlighten me as to their meaning?

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They are mostly colloquial expressions: Where are you? I’m putting/sticking a flower into my neckline/cleavage. What is the stick doing here? Who is behind that (event, trick, etc)? You can just forget it / dream on!

What is “stecken” doing here? What business has “stecken” to be here?