German for all abilities, private and business
Following on to last month’s post Beibringen, lehren oder unterrichten? Let me teach you! today’s post is about the learners instead of the teachers.
What do we call the learners in German?
Unlike in English, not everybody is a student.
Schüler
Those who go to school because they have to, (primary and secondary school), are pupils and not students.
Student
Only those who study at university are students, nobody else
studieren
As only students at university level are called students, they are the only ones that study instead of learn. So the verb you need to use is studieren.
lernen
Those who learn at school, are learning, not studying. So the verb is lernen.
What about adult education?
To recap:
But!
Just to really confuse you ☺
We also use ‘studieren’ when we scrutinise something, for example an IKEA instruction: Ich studiere die Montageanleitung von IKEA.
Or when we peruse something, like the newspaper: Ich studiere die Zeitung.
I hope you’ve studied my blog post enough to give Bart Simpson an answer ☺
This website uses cookies to ensure you get the best experience. more information
The cookie settings on this website are set to "allow cookies" to give you the best browsing experience possible. If you continue to use this website without changing your cookie settings or you click "Accept" below then you are consenting to this.