Talking about reading | Learn German in English

Sentence explanations

1. Was liest du?

   What are you reading?

   Was

   what

   liest

   are reading

   du

   you

   More detail

   Was asks about an unspecified thing: “what?” It is an interrogative pronoun. For example, Was kaufst du? means “What are you buying?” The form was does not change for the gender or number of the thing being asked about. liest comes from lesen, “to read.” In the present tense, this verb changes its stem vowel in the second- and third-person singular: ich lese, du liest, er/sie liest. Here liest is the present-tense form for du. German present tense can describe an action happening now, so liest is naturally translated as “are reading” here. For example, Sie liest eine Zeitung. means “She is reading a newspaper.” du means “you” for one person in the informal second-person singular. It is the subject of liest, so the verb has the du form. In a formal situation, German uses Sie instead, with a different verb form: Lesen Sie? means “Are you reading?” Together, Was + liest + du forms the question “What are you reading?” The question word comes first, followed by the conjugated verb and then the subject: Was liest du? The following sentence, Ich lese ein kurzes Buch., illustrates a possible answer: “I am reading a short book.”

2. Ich lese ein kurzes Buch.

   I am reading a short book.

   Ich

   I

   lese

   am reading

   kurzes

   short

   Buch

   book

   More detail

   Ich means “I” here: the first-person singular pronoun for the speaker, used as the subject. German subject pronouns include ich (“I”), du (“you,” singular informal), and er/sie/es (“he/she/it”). lese is the first-person singular present form of lesen (“to read”): ich lese. German present tense can describe an action happening now, so the fixed translation naturally uses “I am reading.” Example: Ich lese jeden Tag. — “I read every day.” kurzes means “short” and is the inflected form of the adjective kurz. Here it describes Buch, which is neuter, singular, and accusative after ein: ein kurzes Buch. The ending -es marks this adjective form; it belongs to kurz, not to the noun. Compare ein kurzer Film (“a short film,” masculine) and eine kurze Geschichte (“a short story,” feminine). Buch means “book.” Its base form is also Buch; the plural is Bücher (“books”). In this sentence, Buch is the direct object of lese, so it is accusative. For this neuter noun, the singular article and noun form look the same in the nominative and accusative: ein Buch. Together, Ich lese expresses the speaker’s present reading activity, and ein kurzes Buch identifies what is being read: “I am reading a short book.”

3. Gefällt dir die Geschichte?

   Do you like the story?

   Gefällt

   pleases; appeals to

   dir

   to you

   Geschichte

   story

   More detail

   Gefällt is the third-person singular present form of gefallen (“to please” or “to appeal to”). In this construction, German expresses liking from the thing’s perspective: Etwas gefällt jemandem = “Something pleases someone.” The form is gefällt, not the infinitive gefallen, because the subject is singular: Die Geschichte gefällt .... dir is the dative singular form of the informal second-person pronoun du. It marks the person who experiences the appeal: mir = “to me,” dir = “to you,” ihm/ihr = “to him/to her.” Here, dir means “to you”; it does not mean that you are the grammatical subject. Geschichte is the feminine noun “story.” In die Geschichte, it is singular and nominative, so it is the grammatical subject of gefällt. The related plural is die Geschichten (“stories”); the noun’s grammatical gender is feminine, shown here by the article die. The word order Gefällt ...? places the conjugated verb first, which is the usual pattern for a yes/no question in German. The parts combine as Gefällt + dir + die Geschichte = “Does the story appeal to you?” In the fixed translation, this is naturally expressed as “Do you like the story?”

4. Man kann der Geschichte leicht folgen.

   It is easy to follow.

   Man kann

   one can; it is possible to

   Geschichte

   story

   leicht

   easily

   folgen

   follow

   More detail

   Man kann combines the impersonal pronoun man with the modal verb können. Here it means that following is possible for people in general; it does not identify a particular person. kann is the present-tense form of können for er, sie, and es, while man uses this same form. With a modal verb, the other verb normally appears as an infinitive at the end of the clause: Man kann ... folgen — “One can ... follow.” Geschichte means “story” here. Its base form is die Geschichte; in der Geschichte, the article and noun are feminine singular dative. The dative is required by folgen: German jemandem oder etwas folgen means “to follow someone or something.” For example: Ich folge dem Weg. — “I follow the path.” leicht means “easily” in this sentence. The same form can also be an adjective meaning “easy” when it describes a noun, as in eine leichte Aufgabe — “an easy task.” Here it functions adverbially and describes how easily the following happens. folgen is the infinitive “to follow.” It is a different verb from fühlen (“to feel”), despite the similar beginning. In the pattern jemandem oder etwas folgen, the person or thing being followed is marked with the dative. Together, Man kann der Geschichte leicht folgen says, “One can easily follow the story,” or naturally, “It is easy to follow the story.” The target sentence explicitly mentions the story; the fixed translation expresses the same central meaning in a shorter form.

5. Wo liest du normalerweise?

   Where do you usually read?

   Wo

   where

   liest

   read

   du

   you

   normalerweise

   usually

   More detail

   Wo asks about a place: “where.” It is a question adverb, so it does not change for the person or thing being asked about. Compare wo “where” with wann “when” in questions. liest means “read” here. It is the present-tense second-person singular form of lesen (“to read”): ich lese, du liest, er/sie liest. The vowel change from e to ie occurs in the du and third-person singular forms of this verb. Example: Du liest ein Buch. — “You are reading a book.” du is the informal singular “you.” It identifies the person addressed and is the subject of liest. In the question, du comes after the finite verb, which is a normal German pattern when a question word begins the sentence: Wo liest du ...? normalerweise means “usually” or “normally.” It describes the regularity of the reading, not the place being asked about. In the supplied surrounding material, the reply uses the same adverb in Ich lese normalerweise ..., but the question itself does not specify where the reading takes place. Together, Wo asks for the location, liest du expresses “do you read” with the verb before its subject because the question word is first, and normalerweise adds the idea of a usual or regular activity. The complete meaning is: “Where do you usually read?”

6. Ich lese normalerweise in einem ruhigen Zimmer zu Hause.

   I usually read in a quiet room at home.

   Ich

   I

   lese

   read

   normalerweise

   usually

   in einem

   in a

   ruhigen

   quiet

   Zimmer

   room

   zu Hause

   at home

   More detail

   Ich is the first-person singular pronoun: “I.” It identifies the speaker as the reader. German personal pronouns change with person and number, so ich is not interchangeable with du (“you,” singular) or wir (“we”). lese means “read” here. It is the first-person singular present form of lesen (“to read”): ich lese, du liest, er/sie liest. The present form can describe a regular activity, as it does here. Example: Ich lese ein Buch. — “I am reading a book” or “I read a book,” depending on context. normalerweise means “usually” and describes how regularly the reading takes place. It is a sentence adverb and can be moved for emphasis, for example: Normalerweise lese ich zu Hause. — “I usually read at home.” The verb still remains in the second position in this ordinary main clause, even when the adverb comes first. in einem begins a location phrase meaning “in a.” With in describing a stationary location rather than movement into a place, German uses the dative case. einem is the dative singular form of the indefinite article for a neuter or masculine noun; here it agrees with the neuter noun Zimmer. ruhigen means “quiet” here and describes Zimmer. Its base form is ruhig (“quiet, calm”). In einem ruhigen Zimmer, the adjective has the ending -en because it follows a dative singular indefinite article. The ending belongs to ruhigen, not to Zimmer. Example: Wir arbeiten in einem ruhigen Büro. — “We work in a quiet office.” Zimmer means “room.” Its base form is also Zimmer; the plural is Zimmer, so the form itself does not show a plural ending. The noun is neuter: das Zimmer; after the dative article here: in einem Zimmer. zu Hause is the established German expression for “at home.” It functions as a location expression. It is distinct from nach Hause, which means “homeward” or “to home” and is used with movement toward home. Example: Ich bleibe zu Hause. — “I am staying at home.” Together, Ich lese normalerweise gives “I usually read.” The location information then specifies both the setting, in einem ruhigen Zimmer (“in a quiet room”), and the place associated with the speaker, zu Hause (“at home”). The complete utterance therefore means: “I usually read in a quiet room at home.”

7. Das klingt ruhig.

   That sounds calm.

   Das

   that

   klingt

   sounds

   ruhig

   calm

   More detail

   Das means “that” here and points to the content being evaluated, as confirmed by the fixed translation. In this use it is a demonstrative pronoun rather than an article before a noun. German also has dieses for “this” when the speaker wants to indicate something nearer or more immediate. Example: Das ist interessant. — “That is interesting.” klingt is the third-person singular present form of klingen (“to sound”). The verb describes the impression something gives, especially through its sound, rather than asserting that it literally is calm. The useful pattern is Das klingt + adjective: Das klingt gut. — “That sounds good.” ruhig means “calm” in this sentence. It is an adjective used after klingt, so it describes the resulting impression and does not take an ending here. In other contexts, ruhig can also mean “quiet,” as in ein ruhiges Zimmer — “a quiet room”; the ending -es there belongs to the adjective because it appears before the neuter noun Zimmer. Together, Das klingt ruhig. follows the reusable pattern “That sounds calm”: Das identifies what is being assessed, klingt expresses the impression it gives, and ruhig names that impression. The sentence is a simple present-tense statement.

8. Es hilft mir, meine Freizeit zu genießen.

   It helps me enjoy my free time.

   hilft

   helps

   mir

   me

   Freizeit

   free time

   genießen

   enjoy

   More detail

   hilft is the third-person singular present form of helfen (“to help”): helfen → hilft. The vowel changes in this form. With Es hilft ..., es is the nominative subject translated as “it”; the supplied sentence does not uniquely identify what es refers to. mir is the first-person singular dative form of ich (“I/me”). helfen takes a dative person: jemandem helfen = “to help someone.” Thus mir means “me” as the person helped, not as a direct object. Compare mir (“to me”) with accusative mich (“me” as a direct object). Freizeit means “free time” and is a feminine noun: die Freizeit. In meine Freizeit, meine agrees with this feminine noun. The whole noun phrase is the accusative object of genießen; because feminine singular meine has the same form in the nominative and accusative, the form itself does not uniquely show the case. The phrase refers to the speaker’s free time here and does not assert a particular amount of time. genießen is the infinitive “to enjoy.” Its present-tense forms include ich genieße, du genießt, and er/sie/es genießt; the infinitive itself remains genießen. German can use helfen with zu plus an infinitive: helfen, etwas zu tun = “help to do something.” Here zu genießen means “to enjoy,” and meine Freizeit is what is enjoyed. Together, Es hilft mir, meine Freizeit zu genießen means “It helps me enjoy my free time.” Es is the subject, mir identifies the person helped, and meine Freizeit zu genießen states the activity that is helped.