Breakdown of Wenn mir kalt ist, nehme ich eine heiße Dusche und wasche meine Haare mit Shampoo.
Questions & Answers about Wenn mir kalt ist, nehme ich eine heiße Dusche und wasche meine Haare mit Shampoo.
In German, feelings like being cold, hot, hungry, or thirsty are usually expressed with a dative person and an adjective, literally “To me is cold”:
- Mir ist kalt. = I am cold. (literally: To me is cold.)
- Dir ist heiß. = You are hot.
- Uns ist langweilig. = We are bored.
So Wenn mir kalt ist literally means “When (to) me cold is,” but idiomatically “When I’m cold.”
Ich bin kalt is grammatically fine, but it describes a property of a thing (e.g. an object is cold) or a person as emotionally cold. It’s not used to say “I feel cold (temperature).”
So, for feeling cold:
- ✅ Wenn mir kalt ist, …
- ❌ Wenn ich kalt bin, … (sounds like “when I am a cold person / my body is cold as an object”)
Wenn mir kalt ist is a subordinate clause (a dependent clause) introduced by the conjunction wenn (“if/when”).
In German subordinate clauses:
- the finite verb (the conjugated verb: ist) goes to the end.
So:
- Main clause: Mir ist kalt. (verb in second position)
- Subordinate clause: Wenn mir kalt ist, … (same words, but ist goes to the end)
Pattern:
- Wenn
- [subject/other elements] + [verb at the end]
Example:
- Wenn ich Zeit habe, lese ich ein Buch.
- Wenn es regnet, bleibe ich zu Hause.
The whole sentence is:
Wenn mir kalt ist, nehme ich eine heiße Dusche und wasche meine Haare mit Shampoo.
When a sentence begins with a subordinate clause (Wenn mir kalt ist, …), the main clause that follows must still respect the “verb in second position” rule. The entire subordinate clause counts as position 1, so the finite verb of the main clause comes directly after the comma:
- (position 1) Wenn mir kalt ist,
- (position 2 = verb) nehme
- (other elements) ich eine heiße Dusche …
So:
- Wenn mir kalt ist, nehme ich … ✅
- Wenn mir kalt ist, ich nehme … ❌ (wrong word order)
If you don’t put the wenn-clause first, you get normal word order:
- Ich nehme eine heiße Dusche, wenn mir kalt ist.
Mir is the dative form of ich; mich is the accusative form.
Some impersonal expressions of feelings and states use the dative for the person:
- Mir ist kalt.
- Mir ist heiß.
- Mir ist langweilig.
- Mir geht es gut.
They all mean something like “To me is cold / hot / boring” or “To me it goes well.”
Mich ist kalt is simply wrong; ist here doesn’t take an accusative object.
So the correct pattern is:
- Mir ist kalt.
- Wenn mir kalt ist, …
This is about adjective endings and gender/case.
- Dusche is feminine: die Dusche
- In the sentence, eine heiße Dusche is a direct object → accusative feminine
- With eine (indefinite article, feminine accusative), the adjective ending is -e
So:
- eine heiß ❌ (missing the ending)
- ein heiße Dusche ❌ (ein is for masculine/neuter, not for feminine)
- ✅ eine heiße Dusche
Pattern:
- eine kalte Dusche
- eine gute Idee
- eine neue Wohnung
Both are correct and common.
Ich nehme eine (heiße) Dusche.
= I take a (hot) shower.Ich dusche (heiß).
= I shower (hot).
Ich nehme eine heiße Dusche sounds slightly more like the English structure “take a hot shower,” and it focuses a bit more on the “event” (the shower as an object/occurrence).
Ich dusche heiß focuses more on the action itself (“I shower hot”).
In everyday speech, Germans probably say Ich gehe duschen or simply Ich dusche more often. But eine Dusche nehmen is perfectly fine and idiomatic.
In German, people normally talk about the hair on their head in the plural:
- die Haare = the hairs (but usually means “hair” as a mass on your head)
- meine Haare waschen = wash my hair
Haar in the singular exists, but it’s usually:
- one single hair: ein Haar
- or used in special contexts (e.g. mein Haar in a poetic or stylistic way)
So for everyday use:
- ✅ ich wasche meine Haare
- more idiomatic still: ich wasche mir die Haare (see next question)
Both are possible and correct, but there is a difference in structure and idiomaticity.
Ich wasche meine Haare.
- Direct object: meine Haare
- Neutral, straightforward: “I wash my hair.”
Ich wasche mir die Haare.
- Reflexive/dative pronoun: mir
- Direct object with definite article: die Haare
- Very idiomatic for body care: literally “I wash myself the hair,” i.e. “I wash my hair.”
For talking about washing parts of your own body, Germans strongly prefer the reflexive dative + definite article pattern:
- Ich wasche mir die Hände. (I wash my hands.)
- Ich putze mir die Zähne. (I brush my teeth.)
- Ich kämme mir die Haare. (I comb my hair.)
So ich wasche mir die Haare is the most natural everyday version, but ich wasche meine Haare is grammatically correct and understandable.
Both are possible, but they mean slightly different things.
mit Shampoo
→ talking about shampoo in general as a substance, no specific bottle or brand in mind.
“with shampoo” (any shampoo)mit dem Shampoo
→ refers to a specific shampoo you both know about:
“with the shampoo (we talked about / that you bought / that is on the shelf)”
German often omits the article with mass nouns / substances when speaking generally:
- mit Wasser (with water) vs. mit dem Wasser aus der Flasche (with the water from the bottle)
- mit Seife (with soap) vs. mit der Seife im Bad (with the soap in the bathroom)
So in this sentence, mit Shampoo is natural because it just describes how you wash your hair in a general way.
German likes to place a lot of information towards the end of the clause, especially prepositional phrases like mit Shampoo.
In the clause:
… und wasche meine Haare mit Shampoo.
the order is:
- Verb: wasche
- Direct object: meine Haare
- Prepositional phrase: mit Shampoo
This is a very common pattern:
- Ich esse einen Apfel im Garten.
- Er liest das Buch im Bett.
- Sie schreibt eine E-Mail an ihren Chef.
You could move mit Shampoo earlier for emphasis or style, but the neutral, most natural place is at the end.
German Präsens (simple present) is quite flexible. In this sentence, it can mean:
Habitual / general truth
- “When I’m (ever) cold, I take a hot shower and wash my hair with shampoo.”
- Describing a routine or what you usually do.
Future with a condition
- In context: Wenn mir (später) kalt ist, nehme ich eine heiße Dusche …
- Similar to English “If I (get) cold, I’ll take a hot shower …”
So even though the form is present tense, context decides whether you understand it as present habit or future condition, just like English “If it rains tomorrow, I stay / I’ll stay home.”
Technically yes, but it’s not idiomatic.
For kalt / heiß + mir/dir/etc., German normally does not use an es as subject. The standard, natural versions are:
- Mir ist kalt. (not Es ist mir kalt in everyday speech)
- Dir ist heiß.
- Uns ist langweilig.
Some speakers or dialects might insert es (e.g. Es ist mir kalt), but in standard, natural German, Mir ist kalt and Wenn mir kalt ist are preferred.
So stick with:
- ✅ Wenn mir kalt ist, …
and avoid: - ❌ Wenn es mir kalt ist, … in normal standard usage.