Ausschlafen, einschlafen u. verschlafen - the differences

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Ausschlafen, einschlafen u. verschlafen - the differences

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Know the differences: ausschlafen, einschlafen and verschlafen

Things are not that complicated as they might look like. Lets’s start with the main verb ‘schlafen’ which means ‘to sleep’

ich schlafe – I sleep
du schläfst – you sleep
er/sie schläft – he/she sleeps
wir schlafen – we sleep
ihr schlaft – you (guys) sleep
sie schlafen – they sleep

Past & past participle: schlief, geschlafen



Now come to our confusing words. How they differ in meaning:


ausschlafen – means ‘to have sound sleep’. You slept well enough, and now you feel refreshed and energetic.

At your workplace, colleagues may ask you:

- Bist du heute fit und gut ausgeschlafen? – Are you well rested and fit (today)?

- Ja, ich bin recht gut ausgeschlafen und fit! – Yes, I slept well enough and (now) fit for the work!

Past & past participle: schlief aus, ausgeschlafen



einschlafen – means ‘to fall asleep’. Like, you are in a Lecture, while your professor moves from one slide to the next, you started to fall into sleep. It’s something like pre-stage of real sleep.

Da der Vortrag so langweilig war, bin ich gleich eingeschlafen. - The talk/lecture was so boring that I immediately fell asleep.

Ich schlafe beim Theologie Unterricht fast jeden Tag ein. - Almost every day I fall asleep in theology lessons.

Er schläft beim Fernsehen ein. - He falls asleep while watching television.

Past & past participle: schlief ein, eingeschlafen



verschlafen – simply means to oversleep. You overslept!

Heute habe ich verschlafen und den ersten Teil des Vortrags verpasst. - Today I overslept and missed the first part of the lecture.


Things like the one below can also happen. So take care with ‘verschlafen’ :-)

Tonny: „Hallo Chef, es tut mir sehr leid, ich habe heute wieder verschlafen. Komme ca. zwei Stunden später zur Arbeit!“ ("Hi boss, I'm very sorry, I overslept again today. I come about two hours later to work! ")

He may react like:

Chef: „Du Arschloch.........bleib zu Hause..........du bist gefeuert!“ („You asshole..........stay at home...........you’re fired!‘)

Or surprisingly he can be very polite with you and advice the following:

Chef: „Ok… kein Problem, hasten Sie nicht!! Es reicht völlig, wenn Sie sich morgen Früh beim Amt arbeitslos melden!!! ("Ok ... no problem, you don’t need to hurry!! It’s perfect enough, if you register tomorrow morning as unemployed at the Job Center!!!)

So take care :-)

Past & past participle: verschlief, verschlafen



Something more to learn:

der Vortrag – talk, lecture (pl. die Vorträge)

der Unterricht – class, lesson

The difference between ‚Vortrag‘ and ‚Unterricht‘:

‚Vortrag‘ can be a single talk, an example, a visiting professor will offer a talk this afternoon on Moon landing.

‘Unterricht’ on the other hand, usually means regular classes, like Mathe-Unterricht (math class)


Others:

langweilig – boring

Arschloch – asshole

‚Arschloch‘ is one of the most commonly used slang word in German!

Read more on: Most commonly used ‘slang’ words & phrases in German


Verbs:

hasten – to hurry (past & past participle: hastete, gehastet)

hasten Sie nicht! – don’t hurry!

Don’t confuse between ‚hasten‘ and ‚hassen‘

‘hassen’ means to hate someone or something (past & past participle: hasste, gehasst)


verpassen – to miss something (past & past participle: verpasste, verpasst)

Read more on Verspätung & verpasst


*Special Thanks: My very special thanks are due to my neighbor Rene Sommer for taking his time to correct the texts and adding new examples to better understand the differences!!!
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