Breakdown of Vergiss den Stress und entspann dich.
und
and
vergessen
to forget
der Stress
the stress
sich entspannen
to relax
Questions & Answers about Vergiss den Stress und entspann dich.
Why is the command for forget vergiss and not vergess?
The verb vergessen (to forget) changes its vowel from e to i in the du form (du vergisst). To form the informal singular imperative, we use that changed stem and drop the -st ending, leaving us with vergiss.
Where is the word for 'you' in this sentence?
Just like in English, when you give a direct command to someone (the imperative mood), you leave out the subject pronoun. Instead of saying du vergisst (you forget), you just say vergiss (forget!). You only use a pronoun in commands if you are using the formal Sie.
Why is it den Stress instead of der Stress?
Stress is a masculine noun (der Stress). Because it is the direct object of the verb (it is the thing you are supposed to forget), it must be in the accusative case. The masculine article der changes to den in the accusative case.
Shouldn't the command for relax be entspanne with an -e at the end?
Adding an -e to the end of an informal command (like entspanne) is grammatically correct, but it is totally optional for most verbs. In modern, everyday German, it is much more common to drop the -e completely and just say entspann.
Why is the word dich at the end of the sentence?
Unlike in English, the verb for 'to relax' in German is reflexive: sich entspannen. It literally translates to 'relax yourself'. Because you are giving a command to one person informally, you use the accusative reflexive pronoun for du, which is dich (yourself).
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