Breakdown of Danach föhne ich mir die Haare mit einem leisen Föhn.
Questions & Answers about Danach föhne ich mir die Haare mit einem leisen Föhn.
Mir is dative; mich is accusative.
In German, with body parts you very often use:
- dative pronoun for the person
- accusative noun for the body part
So:
- Ich föhne mir die Haare. = literally: I blow‑dry the hair for myself.
- mir = dative (to/for me)
- die Haare = direct object (what is being blow‑dried)
If you said Ich föhne mich, it would mean I blow‑dry myself (my whole body) and sounds odd in everyday language for this situation. The standard pattern is mir + body part with article.
Because the possessor (whose hair) is already clear from the dative pronoun mir.
German usually does:
- Ich wasche mir die Hände. (not meine Hände)
- Er putzt sich die Zähne. (not seine Zähne)
- Wir kämmen uns die Haare.
Here:
- ich / mir already tells you it’s my hair,
- so you use the definite article (die Haare) instead of a possessive (meine Haare).
You can say Ich föhne mir meine Haare, but it sounds more marked/emphatic, as if you're contrasting them with someone else’s hair. The neutral everyday version is with die Haare.
In everyday German, Haare (plural) is normally used when you mean the hair on someone’s head in general.
- Ich föhne mir die Haare. = I blow‑dry my hair (all the strands on my head).
- Haar in the singular is used:
- for one single hair: Da liegt ein Haar auf dem Tisch.
- in more abstract or technical contexts: Er hat sehr dichtes Haar.
So Ich föhne mir das Haar is grammatically correct but sounds unusual and rather stylistic/poetic. The natural choice here is die Haare.
German main clauses follow the verb‑second (V2) rule: the conjugated verb is always in second position, no matter what comes first.
In this sentence:
- Danach (time adverb) is in the first position.
- The verb föhne must therefore come second.
- The subject ich has to move after the verb.
So:
- Danach föhne ich mir die Haare … ✅
- Danach ich föhne mir die Haare … ❌ (breaks the V2 rule)
If you start with the subject, then it’s: Ich föhne mir danach die Haare … — still verb second.
Yes, Ich föhne mir danach die Haare is completely correct.
Differences:
- Danach föhne ich mir die Haare … puts a bit more emphasis on the time sequence (after that).
- Ich föhne mir danach die Haare … starts more neutrally with the subject ich and then mentions after that later.
The basic meaning and naturalness are the same; it’s mainly a question of what you want to highlight first.
Because mit takes the dative case, and the noun Föhn is masculine.
Dative singular masculine (with ein) looks like this:
- Article: einem (not ein)
- Adjective: leisen (adjectives in dative singular almost always take ‑en)
- Noun: Föhn
So:
- mit einem leisen Föhn = with a quiet hairdryer ✅
- mit ein leiser Föhn ❌ (wrong case and wrong adjective ending)
Pattern to remember:
- mit dem alten Mann
- mit einem leisen Föhn
- mit meinem guten Freund
All dative; all adjectives ending in ‑en.
Föhn (or Fön) is a common everyday word for a hairdryer.
A few notes:
- More formal/technical word: der Haartrockner = hairdryer.
- Fön with just ö (no h) is also used and comes from an old brand name; Föhn is now the standard dictionary spelling.
- Der Föhn can also mean the warm Alpine wind (a specific weather phenomenon). Context makes clear which meaning is intended.
In your sentence, Föhn obviously refers to the device.
Föhnen is a regular (weak) verb derived from the noun der Föhn.
Conjugation in the present tense:
- ich föhne
- du föhnst
- er/sie/es föhnt
- wir föhnen
- ihr föhnt
- sie/Sie föhnen
So in Danach föhne ich mir die Haare, föhne is just the normal 1st person singular present. The ö is the umlaut vowel from Föhn; pronunciation is like “fern” but with rounded lips.
Grammatically yes, but it sounds odd in most contexts.
Without mir, it sounds like:
- you’re blow‑drying some hair (maybe someone else’s, maybe a wig), not clearly your own,
- and it breaks the very common reflexive‑with‑body‑part pattern.
Natural choices are:
- Danach föhne ich mir die Haare. (sounds idiomatic and normal)
If you really want to stress that it is your own hair, you could say: - Danach föhne ich meine Haare.
But the standard everyday version is with mir + die Haare.
Yes, that word order is possible and correct:
- Danach föhne ich mir mit einem leisen Föhn die Haare. ✅
German allows some flexibility inside the “middle field” (between the verb and the sentence‑final position). All of these are fine:
- Danach föhne ich mir die Haare mit einem leisen Föhn.
- Danach föhne ich mir mit einem leisen Föhn die Haare.
The version in your original sentence (prepositional phrase at the end) is very typical and sounds slightly smoother, but both are acceptable.
All three relate to time, but with nuances:
- danach = after that / after(wards), normally refers to a previously mentioned action/event.
- nachher = later / afterwards, a bit more informal and often used for “later on (today)”.
- dann = then, very general; can be temporal or logical (if … then).
In your sentence, you could also say:
- Nachher föhne ich mir die Haare … (more like “later on I’ll blow‑dry my hair…”)
- Dann föhne ich mir die Haare … (just “Then I blow‑dry my hair…”, less specific kind of “after”)
Danach fits especially well if you’ve just talked about something else you do first, and now you are clearly saying after that specific thing.
Föhn is pronounced roughly like “fern” in English, but with rounded lips.
Tips for ö:
- Say English “e” as in “bed”,
- At the same time, round your lips as if you were saying “o”.
The complete word:
- F like English f,
- ö as described above,
- hn like n (the h just signals that the vowel is long).
So Föhn has a long ö‑sound: [føːn] in IPA.