What does zu mean in german

Think about it like walking somewhere versus having to fly or drive for several hours. These are basically a fancy way of expressing cause or condition. These constructions use the infinitive of a verb, much like modals do, but are set off by a comma. For this usage, zu is combined with the infinitive of a verb in a dependent clause. Sometimes you need a comma to set the clause off. This is really just to help clarify the sentence and show proper word order.

You might think that when we use modals in German sentences, we would need zu. I know, I know—this is a little confusing, especially in comparison to the infinitive clauses with zu that we discussed above. The sentence above reflects proper German word order, as indirect objects come before direct objects. No zu is needed. If you liked this post, something tells me that you'll love FluentU, the best way to learn German with real-world videos.

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But you can make da-versions and hin-versions for some of them. Dazugeben hinzugeben for example is to add in context of cooking.

Hey, do you wanna join me for a bit. Do you know what the other one is? In fact, zu by itself means precisely that… closed. And the opposite is auf, by the way. Zumachen is a colloquial version for to close, to shut, zulassen means to leave closed and zugehen is to close by itself. Oh, and I almost forgot zuhaben , which means to be closed for stores and stuff like that.

Zuhaben makes it sound a bit more like a person,maybe. Oh, and zu sein is actually two words, not a prefix verb. And before our last spelling reform, zusein was a thing. But not anymore. They really changed that part. Argh, the German language BS is getting too strong! I need to change into my final form to handle this: Swole-Takumi!!!

Swole-Takumi, are you there? Hmmm… the connection broke up. Anyway, so yeah… the main idea of zu as a prefix is toward-ness but with a few really common verbs, the prefix also carries the idea of closed.

And the one big question is of course why. Like… is there any connection? And yes, there is. I hope you liked it and see you next time. If you want to talk to me about reviews, collabs or anything drop me an email: info german-is-easy. Never miss out! Join 20, subscribers and get my epic newsletter whenever I post a new article :. Read our privacy policy for more info. As we have seen, both zu and nach can be used in many ways, and "to" in German is not always expressed with these two words.

Look at these "to" examples in English and German :. However, if you follow the simple rules on this page for nach and zu , you can avoid making obvious mistakes with those two prepositions when you want to say "to. All of the following prepositions mean several other things besides "to":. Note that German also uses nouns or pronouns in the dative case to express "to": mir to me , meiner Mutter to my mother , ihm to him. Actively scan device characteristics for identification.

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