Get your head around sth.

J

jacktsonis

New Member
Sydney
English
Hi. I am wondeirng what the expression is in German if I want to say, for example:

"I can get my head around the grammar, it's just my vocuabulary I have to work on"

to "get your head around sth" basically means "be able to understand sth"

so, I know that the sentence could read:

"Ich kann die Grammatik verstehen, muss aber an meinen Wortschatz arbeiten" (or something like that).

Aber gibt's was umgangsprachlich für "verstehen können"?

Danke.
 
    • I can't get my head around the grammar - Ich kann aus der Grammatik nicht schlau werden. Ich schnall' die Grammatik einfach nicht.

    In a positive meaning I would probably say something like:

    - Bei der Grammatik steige ich schnell dahinter.
    - Ich kann die Grammatik schnell kapieren.
    - Die Gammatik ist so kinderleicht, dass ich immer schnell dahinter komme/gucke.
     
    Well in Germany we don't put our head around something, thats very difficult, we much rather just get stuff directly into our head with the same outcome. In conclusion I would say "Die Grammatik kriege ich leicht in meinen Kopf"
     
    Another slang word for "to understand" is raffen. For example: "Die Grammatik kriege ich relativ leicht gerafft, aber der Wortschatz ..."

    I think it's on about the same level as schnallen. Natives, please correct me if I am wrong here! Thanks.

    Abba
     
    Abba, I think your suggestions of "raffen" might be excellent for use in Germany if you want to use something more colloquial, but to me (being Austrian) it is so foreign that I am not even able to confirm wether you've used it correctly here. :D (I guess you have, but I am not quite sure.)

    Austrians strangely like to use an English loan here: "Die Grammatik checke (check') ich immer schnell, aber Vokabel strebern ist nicht mein Fall."
    This of course too is very much colloquial (and might sound odd to Germans for al lI know).
     
    ABBA Stanza said:
    Another slang word for "to understand" is raffen. For example: "Die Grammatik kriege ich relativ leicht gerafft, aber der Wortschatz ..."
    Click to expand...

    Ich würde eher sagen: "Die Grammatik raffe ich relativ leicht".

    Raffen, schnallen, kapieren, checken - das geht alles prima, jedoch nur umgangssprachlich.

    "Vokabeln strebern" - sehr hübsch, wirklich. Ich würde von "pauken" sprechen.
     
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