Chinese (Mandarin)

Spanish

English

Hindi

Arabic (Modern Standard)

Portuguese

Bengali

Russian

Japanese

Punjabi

German

Javanese

Malay

Telugu

Vietnamese

Korean

French

Marathi

Tamil

Urdu

Turkish

Italian

Chinese, Yue / Cantonese

Thai

Gujarati

Chinese, Jin

Chinese, Min Nan

Dari

Farsi

Polish

Pashto

Kannada

Chinese, Xiang

Malayalam

Sundanese

Hausa

Odia

Burmese

Chinese, Hakka

Ukrainian

Bihari, Bhojpuri

Tagalog

Yoruba

Bihari, Maithili

Uzbek

Sindhi

Amharic

Fula

Romanian

Oromo

Igbo

Azerbaijani

Chinese, Gan

Dutch

Kurdish, Central

Kurdish, Northern

Kurdish, Southern

Malagasy

Lahnda, Saraiki

Nepali

Sinhalese

Chittagonian

Zhuang

Khmer

Turkmen

Assamese

Madurese

Somali

Marwari

Bihari, Magahi

Haryanvi

Hungarian

Chhattisgarhi

Greek

Chewa

Dakhini

Akan, Twi

Akan, Fante

Kazakh

Chinese, Min Bei

Sylheti

Zulu

Czech

Kinyarwanda

Marwari, Dhundhari

Haitian Creole

Chinese, Min Dong

Ilocano

Quechua

Kirundi

Swedish

Hmong

Shona

Uyghur

Hiligaynon

Mossi

Xhosa

Belarusian

Balochi

Welcome to the digital detox retreat! When you want to lay out the rules of the program, you will often need to talk about activities in a general sense—like "reading," "fasting," or "switching off."

### Turning Verbs into Nouns

In English, we add "-ing" to a verb to turn it into a noun (for example, turning "read" into "reading"). In German, the process is even easier: you just take the infinitive form of the verb, **capitalize it**, and give it the neuter article **das**.

For example, the verb *abschalten* (to switch off) becomes the noun *das Abschalten* (switching off).

{{item:875915}}

Since these activities are now regular nouns, you can use them as the subject or object of your sentences. If the retreat program is strict, you might forbid *das Arbeiten* (working):

{{item:875918}}

### Retreat Rules

These capitalized infinitives, or nominalized verbs, are perfect for outlining what is allowed and what is forbidden.

{{item:875921}}

You can also easily list multiple activities together. Just remember that each one is treated as a separate noun and takes its own *das*.

{{item:875924}}

### "While" Doing an Activity

You will frequently see these nominalized verbs paired with prepositions. A very common one is **beim** (a contraction of the preposition *bei* and the dative article *dem*). 

Using *beim* directly followed by a capitalized infinitive is the standard German way to say "while doing" an activity. For example, *beim Meditieren* simply means "while meditating."

{{item:875931}}

Infinitives as nouns (das Lesen)

adjective

adverb

auxiliary verb

conjunction

determiner

interjection

noun

numeral

particle

preposition

pronoun

sentence

verb

Definite articles and gender (der, die, das)

Indefinite articles (ein, eine)

Regular verbs and statement word order (ich -e, er -t)

The second person (du -st, Sie -en)

Yes/No questions

The verb 'to have' (habe, hast, hat)

Plural pronouns and regular verbs (wir, ihr, sie)

Plural 'to be' and 'to have' (sind, haben)

Plural nouns and the plural article (die)

Sentence negation (nicht)

Noun negation (kein, keine)

Question words (wer, was, wo, wie)

Numbers 0 to 12 (null, eins, zwei)

The accusative case (den, die, das)

Indefinite accusative articles (einen, keinen)

Direct object pronouns (mich, dich, ihn)

There is / there are (es gibt)

Vowel changes: e to i/ie (er spricht, sie liest)

Vowel changes: a to ä (er fährt)

Weather and conditions (es regnet)

First- and second-person possessives in the nominative (mein, dein, Ihr)

First- and second-person possessives in the accusative (meinen, deinen, Ihren)

Third-person and plural possessives (sein, ihr, unser, euer)

Possession with names (Annas Auto)

Demonstrative pronouns (dieser, diese, dieses)

Expressing preference (gern, lieber)

Asking about direction and origin (woher, wohin)

Expressing ability (können)

Polite requests (möchten)

Expressing intention (wollen)

Modal verbs of obligation and permission (müssen, dürfen)

Separable prefix verbs

Adverbs of frequency (immer, oft, manchmal, nie)

The Dative case and definite articles (dem, der, den)

Dative indefinite and negative articles (einem, einer, keinem)

Dative personal pronouns (mir, dir, ihm, ihr...)

Dative verbs (helfen, danken, gefallen, schmecken)

Dative prepositions (aus, bei, mit, nach...)

Accusative prepositions (für, ohne, gegen)

Two-way prepositions for location (in, an, auf...)

Informal singular imperative (mach, komm)

Plural and formal imperative (macht, machen Sie)

Coordinating conjunctions (und, oder, aber, denn)

Simple past of sein and haben (war, hatte)

The perfect tense: regular verbs (gemacht, gespielt)

Past tense: irregular verbs (ge-...-en)

The perfect tense: mixed verbs (gebracht, gekannt)

The perfect tense with sein (ist gegangen)

The perfect tense: separable verbs (eingekauft)

The perfect tense: inseparable and -ieren verbs (besucht, studiert)

Informal singular commands (mach, lern)

Numbers 13 to 20 (dreizehn to zwanzig)

Counting by tens to 100 (dreißig, vierzig)

Telling time (Uhr, halb, Viertel, vor, nach)

Numbers 21 to 99 (einundzwanzig, zweiunddreißig)

Greetings and farewells

Thank you, sorry and good wishes

Everyday replies

Numbers 100 to 1,000,000 (hundert, tausend...)

Becoming and getting (werden)

The impersonal pronoun (man)

Indefinite pronouns (jemand, niemand...)

Time sequence prepositions (vor, nach, bei)

Time span prepositions (von... bis, seit, für)

Adverbs of sequence (zuerst, dann, danach)

Two-way prepositions for direction (in, auf, an...)

Directional adverbs (hin, her)

Placement verbs (setzen, stellen, legen)

Months of the year (Januar, Februar)

The four seasons (Frühling, Sommer)

Time prepositions and indefinite pronouns (an, in, um)

Ordinal numbers 1st to 19th (am ersten)

Ordinals 20th and beyond (-ste, -sten)

Placement vs. location verbs (stellen vs. stehen)

Accusative reflexive pronouns (mich, dich, sich)

Accusative reflexive verbs (sich freuen)

Dative reflexive pronouns (mir, dir, sich)

Dative reflexive verbs (sich etwas merken)

Ordinal numbers 11th to 19th (-te)

Temporal prepositions (an, in, um)

Double objects with nouns

Double objects with pronouns

The modal verb for advice (sollen)

Simple past of modal verbs (musste, wollte...)

Simple past of common irregulars (wurde, wusste, es gab)

Adverbial connectors of consequence (deshalb, darum...)

Subordinate clauses for statements (dass)

Question	Answer
the retreat	das Retreat
sensible	sinnvoll
There is a retreat here, and switching off makes sense.	Es gibt hier ein Retreat, und das Abschalten ist sinnvoll.
the program	das Programm
to forbid	verbieten
The program is strict, because we forbid working.	Das Programm ist streng, denn wir verbieten das Arbeiten.
to allow	erlauben
the smartphone	das Smartphone
Do you allow reading on the smartphone?	Erlauben Sie das Lesen auf dem Smartphone?
to fast	fasten
to be silent	schweigen
Fasting and keeping silent are very important here.	Das Fasten und das Schweigen sind hier sehr wichtig.
the participant	der Teilnehmer
to meditate	meditieren
The participants love meditating, but we forbid complaining.	Die Teilnehmer lieben das Meditieren, aber wir verbieten das Meckern.
Ever since I have been at the retreat, I haven't needed a smartphone.	Seitdem ich im Retreat bin, brauche ich kein Smartphone.
The program is hard; nevertheless, fasting helps.	Das Programm ist hart, trotzdem hilft das Fasten.
We allow swimming because it makes sense.	Wir erlauben das Schwimmen, weil es sinnvoll ist.
While meditating, keeping silent helps.	Beim Meditieren hilft das Schweigen.
There are many participants without a smartphone.	Es gibt viele Teilnehmer ohne Smartphone.
the search	die Suche
The search for the apartment is taking long.	Die Suche nach der Wohnung dauert lange.
After a long search we found the car.	Nach langer Suche haben wir das Auto gefunden.

Contributors