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- "Kann ich dich anrufen?"
92 Comments
Yes it does. The verb in a German sentence generally comes in position 2 and if you start the sentence with Jetzt you do have to reverse the subject and verb. It is a somewhat more emphatic way of saying it in German to put the Jetzt in first position. The less emphatic way would be Ich bin jetzt traurig.
Do you mean "more emphatic" as in more emphasis in the sadness? So if it is another expression like "i am now happy" it's more emphasis on the hapiness "Jetzt bin ich glücklich"?
No. I meant more emphasis on the Jetzt. NOW I am sad, or NOW I am happy. Normally time expressions go directly after the verb, so moving it to first position emphasizes it.
https://german.stackexchange.com/questions/20265/where-can-i-place-the-word-jetzt-in-a-sentence
Yes. The verb generally comes in position two, and if you put Jetzt in position 1 you do have to reverse the subject and verb. Putting jetzt first emphasizes it a little. Ich bin jetzt traurig would not put any emphasis on jetzt.
Do native German speakers blur the meaning of kann and darf as modern English speakers (and teachers, too, apparently) conflate can and may?
Actually it should be "may I" as can is to be able to- may is to give permission. Can I only implies the ability to do it- you can call me you can also jump off the roof
Like this, can you marry me, she could or could not, or like this, may I come over, where it would be asking.
No, grammar and the languages have evolved. Using both of them is acceptable. If you're a teacher, you probably hear "Can I go to the bathroom?" everyday. That isn't wrong!
In fact, I prefer 'can' in less formal situations.
What is the difference between rufen and anrufen? Is there a sentence in which one can be used, but not the other?
anrufen is call on the phone. rufen is just call.
Example: Dinner's ready. I call my brother (to eat). :: Ich rufe meinen Bruder. (rufen)
My brother lives in another city. I call him on the phone. :: Ich rufe meinen Bruder an. (anrufen, with separable prefix)
Are you a native German speaker? Just want to check before I commit this seemingly sensible rule to memory!
German has many of these separable verbs. They are essentially verb preposition combinations. You might consider that anrufen was call up. In English we have many of these verb preposition phrases which alter the meaning of the verb. Consider the verb to stand. You can stand up, stand down, stand in, stand out, stand for, stand with, stand around, etc. In German these often become separatable verbs. Sometimes the meaning is somewhat obvious to us and sometimes not. Ziehen is to draw or to pull, anziehen is to put on (as in clothing). Kaufen is to buy, but einkaufen is shopping. The later is not as easy to understand.
I think ssurprize is right. http://dictionary.reverso.net/german-english/rufen http://dictionary.reverso.net/german-english/anrufen
Yeah, I thought it should be 'darf' in German, even though 'can i' is more usual in English
I agree, we use 'can' for a lot of things in English, but darf seems like it would make more sense in German.
Is "darf" (to be allowed) a more polite way of asking this than using "kann"?
Why is "ich" and "dich" in the middle of the sentence? Is it because verbs in German are always at the end of the sentence?
Not always, but in the infinitive, yes. That's why "anrufen" comes at the end (but not "kann").
May be this helps https://deutsch.lingolia.com/en/grammar/sentence-structure/main-clauses
A German friend warned me not to use "anrufen," especially "Ruf mich an" because it has an association with the phone sex industry. Is there any validity to this?
Is Kann ich anrufen dich wrong? Somebody please explain. Looks like i have still not understood how to order sentences in German
Just remember that the second verb, the one that is in the infitive, is always at the end of the sentence.
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ich würde ja zu gerne mal wissen, wer dieses Flirtgedöns hier reingestellt hat. Bei den meisten Sätzen würde ich jedenfalls sofort die Flucht ergreifen...
"Dich" is used when ''you" is the object (I call you) "Du" is used when "you" is the subject (You call me) "Ihr" is like y'all :)
There are several forms of "you" in German. These are the nominative forms of all the you's in German:
(formal) you with respect = "Sie" (capitalized) e.g. Sie haben viel Geld (trans. "You, sir are loaded with dough")
(formal) "you all" or "y'all" with respect = "Sie" (capitalized) e.g. Sie sind reich (trans. "You, sirs are loaded with dough")
(informal) you (just you) = "du" e.g. du isst zu viel (trans. "you eat too much")
(informal) "you all" or "y'all" (just "you all" or "y'all") = ihr e.g. Ihr isst zu viel (trans. "y'all eat too much")
In English we have one word "you" to mean all of them.
This is made even more confusing by the fact that "sie" is also used for "she" and "they" and "ihr" is also used for other cases of "she and they"...
So how do you know which is which?
You really have to look at the verb conjugations that come with the pronoun.
Sorry for the rant, I am pissed because I had been to the fish market and couldn't find the fish I was looking for.
Ich koennte nicht meinen Fisch finden! :(
Salam/Shalom/Namaste/God Bless "Sie"
You have a critical error in your comment. In German the word Sie for you is both singular and plural with the same conjugation. Sie hat viel Geld Can ONLY mean She has a lot of money whether or not you capitalize it. The capitalization distinction is between sie sind for they are and Sie sind for you are. English, as a Germanic language, originally had Thou as the equivalent of du and you as both formal singular and plural for both.
Right you are, mein Freund. Hab ein Lingot! This is what happens when I do not get my fishies + lack of Schlaf :) Also, error korrekted :)
Thou art right. I will admit, reading old English from Shakespeare (or did I read it from the Bible?) helped a little with learning German...
that's really not incorrect, it's just a more British way of saying the same thing. In America, that sounds more like something a grocery clerk would ask you-- to "ring up" usually means scanning items at a cash register to find out the total. "ring you up" or "give you a ring" is a very informal, almost slang way of saying "call you", and "ring you up" is very uncommon in modern American English
Nope. Anrufen means to call like via a phone. If you used rufen, in the sentence "can I call you mine" I believe that would work. Rufen means to call out, like when talking in the same room or something.
I'm not sure that's right either. To call out would be like "I call (out [for help/something]) but there is no response." You want a term that means something along the lines of "label", "refer to (as)", or "designate". I would use nennen: „Kann ich dich ‚Meins' nennen?“
But I would need a native speaker's opinion....unless Electricbeach is a native speaker in which case I'm a dingus.
I am not a native, my answer was based on the translation of the words where anrufen meant to call via phone and rufen was to call out. Another search shows that nennen is also a correct word. This might be a case where a few words can mean the same thing but each are used to be more specific if needed. Kinda like warum, wofür and wieso for "why"
I think this is more the case where a few words translate to the same English word which has multiple uses. I still wouldn't use rufen, but there are other terms that seem to be similar to nennen. However if you google the phrase I used, it comes back with multiple results in German including e-greeting card graphics and a Facebook page, which leads me to believe it is at least one of the common ways to say what jaronloch wants to say.
No. You have to watch your cases, although in this case it is more a simple issue of subject and direct object pronouns which are present in languages with a much less inflected case system. Ich and Du are subject pronouns and Mich and Dich are direct object pronouns. The formula for this sentence is [können conjugated for subject pronoun] [subject pronoun] [direct object pronoun] anrufen. So can you call me becomes Kannst du mich anrufen. Can we call him is Können wir ihn anrufen, etc
Why are "ich" and "dich" not capitalized? At the beginning it told us that all nouns should be capitalized. "I" and "you" are nouns "person". So why aren't these capitalized?
Ich and dich are pronouns and pronouns are not capitalized except for Sie when it means you as opposed to she or they.
The verb to call does not use the preposition to when you are talking about phoning. If someone says they called to someone it means that they shouted their name across a room or the like. If you are talking about phoning, you call someone or you can MAKE a call TO someone. English is a strange language.
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:-) Allright, it's written in a muffled way. I'll translate it to high german (as far as possible): "Ob du das kannst, weiß ich nicht, aber dürfen darfst du!" (I don't know whether you can call me but you are allowed to be allowed to - it's nothing you can really translate but at least where I come from a common phrase)
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That was my guess, only part I could make out was "Weiß ich nicht, aber dürfen darf" but heck if I know what the first part could be.
:s
If any of you want to see a hilarious 80's film about this subject, type "The Phone Call" into Youtube
That would be a different call. Anrufen is specifically telephoning someone. When you are talking about what you should call another person, you would generally use the verb ansprechen, to address. Wie spreche ich Sie an. What do I call you/ How do I address you.
Why do all the Rs sound silent on this app? I asked my German friend and she says the Rs aren't silence.
The German r is never silent. It has, however, two different sounds and is spoken at a different part of the mouth than in English. The r in anrufen is the trilled r at the back of the throat, called an uvular r. The other r is when it comes at the end of a syllable or before a consonant. That has a reduced a sound. It's sort of like how gangster gets pronounced gangsta.
https://www.fluentu.com/blog/german/german-pronunciation-tips-sounds/
The rufen part is call, but it exists as rufen to call or shout outloud, Anrufen to call up or telephone, and aufrufen to call out.
