Basic requests and instructions | Learn German in English

Sentence explanations

1. Bitte kommen Sie herein.

   Please come inside.

   Bitte

   please

   kommen

   come

   Sie

   you (formal)

   herein

   inside

   More detail

   Bitte means “please” and softens the request. It can be used with many requests, for example: Bitte warten Sie. — “Please wait.” kommen means “come.” Its base form is kommen; common present forms include ich komme, du kommst, and sie kommen. Here it appears in the formal request pattern kommen Sie ..., where the verb stays in the infinitive form. Sie is the capitalized formal “you.” In this use, formal address takes the same verb form as third-person plural sie: Sie kommen means “you come” in the formal form, while du kommst is informal singular “you come.” Capitalization distinguishes formal Sie from lowercase sie, whose meaning depends on context. herein means “inside” with movement toward the speaker or the relevant interior. It is a directional adverb, not a noun. For movement toward an interior location viewed as farther from the speaker, German commonly uses hinein instead; the fixed sentence uses herein. Together, Bitte kommen Sie herein. uses the polite request pattern Bitte + infinitive verb + formal Sie + directional adverb. The whole utterance means “Please come inside.”

2. Bitte setzen Sie sich hier hin.

   Please sit here.

   Bitte

   please

   setzen Sie sich

   sit down

   hier hin

   here

   More detail

   Bitte makes the utterance a polite request. It can also mean “please” when placed at the beginning of a request, as here. The same polite-request pattern appears in Bitte kommen Sie herein and Bitte warten Sie hier. setzen Sie sich uses setzen with the reflexive pronoun sich to mean “sit down.” setzen by itself commonly means “to set or place” something; the reflexive construction sich setzen describes a person taking a seated position. Sie is the formal second-person pronoun, and in this polite imperative pattern the order is infinitive + Sie + reflexive pronoun: Setzen Sie sich! — “Sit down!” The form setzen is an infinitive here, not a personal ending that changes for the addressee. hier hin indicates the destination of the movement: toward this place, “here.” In this fixed wording, hier identifies the place and hin adds the direction toward it. The spelling with two words is preserved exactly as supplied; German also uses the established form hierhin in many contexts. Together, Bitte setzen Sie sich hier hin. means “Please sit here.” Bitte marks the polite request, setzen Sie sich asks the formal addressee to take a seated position, and hier hin specifies the place toward which the person should move.

3. Bitte warten Sie hier.

   Please wait here.

   Bitte

   please

   warten

   wait

   Sie

   you (formal)

   hier

   here

   More detail

   Bitte makes the request polite: “please.” It can also introduce other polite requests, as in Bitte kommen Sie herein. — “Please come in.” warten means “to wait.” This is the infinitive/base form. In a formal German request, the infinitive is used with Sie: Warten Sie! — “Wait!” The form warten itself does not show whether the formal addressee is one person or several. Sie is the formal second-person pronoun, meaning “you” for one or more people. It is always capitalized when it has this formal-pronoun meaning. In Warten Sie, it identifies the person or people being asked to wait; it is not the informal singular du. hier is the place adverb “here,” referring to the relevant location. Compare hier (“here,” a location) with hierher (“to here,” a direction): Kommen Sie hierher. — “Come here.” Together, Bitte + warten + Sie + hier forms a polite formal request. The infinitive warten comes before the formal subject pronoun Sie, and hier specifies the place: “Please wait here.”

4. Bitte schauen Sie hierher.

   Please look here.

   Bitte

   please

   schauen Sie

   look (formal)

   hierher

   here / this way

   More detail

   Bitte is a polite request marker meaning “please.” It can introduce an imperative: Bitte warten Sie hier. means “Please wait here.” Here it makes the instruction courteous; it does not itself name the action. schauen Sie means “look” in the formal imperative. The verb is schauen (“to look”); in this construction, the infinitive schauen is followed by formal Sie. This form addresses one or more people formally, and Sie is always capitalized in this use. With an informal singular addressee, German uses schau; with an informal plural addressee, schaut. Example: Schauen Sie bitte nach links. — “Please look to the left.” The same formal imperative pattern appears with other verbs, such as Hören Sie bitte zu. — “Please listen.” hierher means “here” or “this way,” with the focus on movement or direction toward the relevant here-point. It contrasts with hier (“here” as a location without this directional emphasis). The supplied translation identifies the intended meaning here as “here.” Together, Bitte + schauen Sie forms a polite formal request, and hierher specifies where to direct one’s gaze: “Please look here.”

5. Bitte hören Sie aufmerksam zu.

   Please listen carefully.

   Bitte

   please

   hören … Sie … zu

   listen (formal)

   aufmerksam

   carefully

   More detail

   Bitte is the polite word “please.” It can introduce a request or polite imperative. In this sentence, it softens the instruction; it does not itself express a number or an action. hören Sie zu means “listen” here. The reusable dictionary form is the separable verb zuhören (“to listen”): in a main-clause pattern, its parts separate, so zu appears at the end: Sie hören zu (“you listen”). In the polite imperative, German uses the infinitive-like verb form with formal Sie: Hören Sie zu! (“Listen!”). The Sie is the formal second-person pronoun and is written with a capital letter; it addresses one or more people respectfully. Do not confuse zuhören with simply hören, which can mean “hear” or “listen” without the same focus on listening to someone or something. aufmerksam is an adjective meaning “attentive.” Here it is used adverbially, describing how the listening should be done, so the natural translation is “carefully” or “attentively.” The form itself does not change here because it is not modifying a noun. For comparison, aufmerksam means “attentive,” aufmerksamer means “more attentive,” and am aufmerksamsten means “most attentive.” Together, Bitte makes the request polite, hören Sie zu gives the formal instruction “listen,” and aufmerksam specifies the manner. The whole utterance is therefore: “Please listen carefully.”

6. Bitte sprechen Sie langsam.

   Please speak slowly.

   Bitte

   please

   sprechen

   speak

   Sie

   you (formal)

   langsam

   slowly

   More detail

   Bitte means “please” here and softens the request. It can appear at the beginning of a request, as in Bitte warten Sie. (“Please wait.”) sprechen means “speak.” Here it is the infinitive form used in the formal imperative pattern Verb + Sie: Sprechen Sie ... means “Speak ...” when addressing one or more people formally. The verb comes before Sie in this request. Sie is the capitalized formal form of “you,” used for formal singular or plural address. Lowercase sie is a different written form and can mean “she” or “they”; capitalization and the surrounding grammar distinguish these forms. Here, the fixed translation establishes the formal “you” reading. langsam means “slowly” here and describes how the speaking should happen. The same form can also be the adjective “slow” before a noun, for example ein langsames Auto (“a slow car”); in this sentence it is used adverbially and does not receive an ending. Together, Bitte sprechen Sie langsam. forms a polite formal request: “Please speak slowly.” The reusable pattern Bitte + Verb + Sie + adverb can be used in an example such as Bitte lesen Sie laut. — “Please read aloud.”