Learn how to express feelings in German
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| Hi everybody! Anja here. Welcome to Ask a Teacher, where I’ll answer some of your most common German questions. |
| The question for this lesson is: How do I express feelings in German? |
| Letting people know how you feel is an important part of daily conversation. That’s why this lesson focuses on how to express emotions. Do you know how to say, “I’m happy,” “I’m sad,” or “I’m sick?” in German? You’ll find out in this lesson. |
| To express emotions in German, usually the subject is followed by the verb sein, “to be,” and then the adjective. This verb is commonly used to talk about your own feelings, but can be used to talk about others’ feelings, depending on the context. |
| Let’s do some examples so you can learn how to express your feelings in German. |
| Let’s start on a positive note-- Ich bin glücklich. “I am happy,” Here, we have the word ich meaning “I” followed by the conjugated form of the verb sein “to be” and the adjective, glücklich, “happy.” So, all together, it means, “I am happy.” |
| Some examples are-- |
| Du bist fröhlich. “You are happy/pleased.” |
| Here, we have the word du meaning “you” followed by bist, a conjugated form of the verb sein “to be” and the adjective, fröhlich, “glad.” So, all together, it means, “You are glad.” |
| Next, Er ist unglücklich. “He is unhappy.” |
| Here, we have the word er meaning “he” followed by ist, a conjugated form of the verb sein “to be” and the adjective, unglücklich, “unhappy.” So, all together, it means, “He is unhappy.” |
| Wir sind traurig. “We are sad.” |
| Here, we have the word wir meaning “we” followed by sind, a conjugated form of the verb sein “to be” and the adjective, traurig, “sad.” So, all together, it means, “We are sad.” |
| Next, Sie sind verwirrt/durcheinander. “They are confused.” |
| Here, we have the word sie meaning “they” followed by sind, a conjugated form of the verb sein “to be” and the adjective, verwirrt/durcheinander, “confused.” So, all together, it means, “They are confused.” |
| Ihr seid zufrieden. “You (all) are satisfied.” |
| Here, we have the word ihr meaning “you” plural followed by seid, the conjugated form of the verb sein “to be” and the adjective, zufrieden “satisfied.” So, all together, it means, “You are satisfied.” |
| When you express your feelings in German, you almost always use adjectives, that’s why the letters are all written in lower-case. |
| Please check out a full list of conjugations for the verb sein “to be” in the lesson notes! |
| How was this lesson? Pretty interesting right? |
| Do you have any more questions? Leave them in the comments below and I’ll try to answer them! |
| Tschüss, bis zum nächsten Mal! “Bye, see you next time!” |
Comments
HideWhat German learning question do you have?
Hi Ricardo,
Thank you for your feedback.
You are are good listener and that should prove useful
when learning languages. 👍
As you correctly suggest, it's a case of the personal accent of
the teacher. 😉
If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact us again.
Kind regards,
Reinhard
Team GermanPod101.com
At first, I did not understand what she was saying when she said "adjective". I was hearing "objective" which made no sense. Then I realized she was placing the stress on the second syllable. This is not done in American English. We place the stress on the first syllable as you would in many German words. So the stress should be placed on "ad" not "jective" to be readily understood.
adjective
ăj′ĭk-tĭv
Hi Onyx,
Thank you for your very positive feedback!😉
Should there ever be any questions, please don't hesitate
to ask.
Kind regards,
Reinhard
Team GermanPod101.com
Ich bin sehr zufrieden mit dem Unterricht. ❤️️