Actually it is quite easy. (But as always there are expressions where the words are used differently.)
Wandern is used for hiking, meaning to walk for hours in the mountains or somewhere out of the city. Usually you do that at the weekend or in your holidays. And usually you you carry a backpack. [camminare (in montagna)]
Spazieren gehen is walking around leisurely for maybe half an hour to get a bit of fresh air. That happens often in cities or close to cities. A lot of people stroll around like that on Sunday after lunch or after “Kaffee und Kuchen”. [passeggiare/ andare a passeggio]
Gehen is used like “to go” and “to walk”, but also in a lot of other expressions similar to “to go”. [andare (a piedi)/ camminare]
Usually laufen and rennen is used like “running”. e.g. Ich bin spät dran. Deshalb muss ich heute zum Bus laufen. [correre]
BUT in the south of Germany (in Baden-Württemberg), where a dialect called schwäbisch is spoken, they say laufen instead of gehen. I lived there for a while and I still use laufen that way sometimes… I didn’t realize it, until a friend asked me why I always need to run everywhere…
And you use entlanggehen just when you walk along a visible “line” e. g. along a river, along the edge of a forest, along a path… [andare lungo].
Your sentences would be:
Ich gehe spazieren.
Ich gehe die Strasse hinunter./ Ich gehe die Straße entlang.
Ich führte den Hund aus./ Ich ging mit dem Hund Gassi.
Awesome, thank you very much. Anything is very helpful.
Maybe that’s why I’ve found laufen used as “to walk” but in many other occasions is used as “to run”. What about in Austria or Switzerland? Do they use it in the same way as well?.
I don’t recognize, when I read any stuff actually, from where this is coming from.
I have an idea that laufen is “to run” more in a general way and rennen is more “to run” for a competition, or in a sport situation. Is that so?
You may be aware, but in English we can say “I need to run to the store”. or “I need to run and pick up my mother at the airport”. So the whole “running around” as in “to go” is quite familiar =)
It’s always good to have English references to match.
In your examples you can say “to run” and “to go” which could be by walking, running, car, etc. It’s figurative right?
But in German you would use what? Laufen, rennen? For running.
We can say: “I go to the store” but it doesn’t mean necessarily by walking.
If it’s specified, like Ich gehe spazieren, it’s easy. But I can see often they don’t say the other part of the verb if they think it’s easy to understand by the context (which is not for me yet).
If you Google “gehen” you have a lot of images with people walking. But if you Google “laufen” you have a lot of people “running”.
But I’ve found a lot of sentences with “laufen” meaning “walking”. And now we know that it could be regional.
In English you have “to go” and “to walk”. In German “to walk” is probably spread through different way of saying.
It is figurative. No one would actually mean they are going to physically run to the store. (well probably most people…maybe a jogger might =) ). Sometimes it could mean, “I have to hurry” to the store, but one might also say I’ve gotta “run” to the store later today, which doesn’t mean one is in a hurry. Although maybe they might be later. So it’s really just figurative overall.
I know what you’re saying about “laufen” to mean walking in certain contexts as I’ve seen that too.
