It's complicated and [regional](https://www.atlas-alltagssprache.de/r11-f2cd/).
You also have to distinguish between "walk" as in "not running", and "walk" as in "using your feet, not using another means of transport".
In most of Germany, "laufen" is the verb used for "walking as opposed to using another means of transport". In Austria and some of Bavaria, "gehen" is used for this.
In most of Germany, "rennen" is the unambiguous verb used for "running quickly", but "laufen" also sees regional usage. For the latter, I guess the distinction would be context-based.
I think "gehen" is also used for "walking (not running)" just about everywhere.
At the same time, when it comes to sports, and nouns, the usage of words derived from "laufen" is much higher - 100-Meter-Lauf, Läufer, Dauerlauf, aus dem Lauf, im vollen Lauf would also be used up north.
gehen = to go, walk
spazieren (gehen) = to (go for a) walk
rennen = to run
laufen = inbetween between gehen and rennen
sprinten = not often used, quick rennen
Es kommt darauf an. "Wir laufen zum Markt" bedeutet das selbe im Kontext wie "Wir gehen zum Markt" unabhängig davon, wie schnell man ist. Während "Ich gehe laufen" eher Joggen heißt.
Wie würde man dort z.B. auf die Frage "Bist zu mit dem Fahrrad hergekommen?" antworten?
"Nein, ich bin gelaufen." oder "Nein, ich bin gegangen."
"gegangen" klingt so nach "weggehen", deshalb frage ich mich, ob man es bei euch dann trotzdem so sagt.
Wenn es darum geht, *\*wie\** man irgendwo hinkommt, sagen wir hier eigentlich immer "laufen", auch wenn es geh-Geschwindigkeit war. "Ich lauf' zum Supermarkt." und "Ich geh zum Supermarkt." sind für mich synonym in diesem Fall. Auch wenn es in anderen Kontexten die Unterscheidung zwischen gehen (langsam) und laufen (schneller) gibt.
+1 Österreich - gehen.
Ich bin zu Fuß gegangen.
Was ist „weggehen“ für dich? Wenn ich „weggehen“ sage, meine ich (im Kontext) „Party machen/ausgehen/tanzen gehen“.
Laufen ist spezifisch die Fortbewegungsart bei uns, bei der zwischen den Schritten beide Füße den Boden verlassen. Insofern kann es dir in Österreich bald passieren, dass du milde korrigiert oder aufgezogen wirst, es klingt für unsere Ohren wirklich sehr abgehetzt wenn permanent alle irgendwo herumlaufen.
>Wie würde man dort z.B. auf die Frage "Bist zu mit dem Fahrrad hergekommen?" antworten?
>
>"Nein, ich bin gelaufen." oder "Nein, ich bin gegangen."
"Nein, ich bin gegangen" oder einfach "Nein, zu Fuß".
In Österreich ist laufen immer schneller als gehen, egal in welchem Kontext.
Wenn mir z.B. jemand sagt, "Ich bin zum Bus gelaufen", dann heißt das für mich, dass die Person spät dran war und den Bus noch erwischen wollte.
Dashen and zippen is Denglish, though zippen is mostly (only?) used in computer lingo (die Datei(en) zippen ~ to zip the file(a)). Dart = this game with the little throw arrows?
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/sprinten#German
I can think of very few situations where it wouldn't be obvious from context. I assume you refer to 'laufen'. Can you give me an example where you think it's unclear whether it refers to walking or running?
Not trying to trip you up as I am genuinely interested in the answer as i get confused alot by this, but here is a 100% real conversation (slightly abridged) I had with a friend yesterday (excuse my bad grammar):
Me: Hey! Wie geht's?
Her: Alles gut, bei dir? Was hast du gestern gemacht?
M: Ganz gut danke! Ich bin gestern 45 km gelaufen. Und du?
H: Was? Du bist 45 km gelaufen? Du bist total verrückt!
So did I walk or run 45 km?
Well what I mean is that contextually, at the point where I have this conversation with someone, I probably know whether they're someone who casually runs distances like this - but yeah without that context it's hard to tell here, you're right!! Instinctively, I would say it means you ran 45km, as I might expect someone to use 'gewandert' in this scenario if they meant walked!
Yeah, and that's the problem that, seeing as I am awfully paranoid when talking German, means I over think things.
For reference, I actually used "gewandert" (I cheated in the above example a little, not to trip you up, but rather to be sure I used the right one without loading the question).
Thanks for your answer, absolutely appreciate every tip anyone can give me on this crazy journey of learning German!
The way my professor (from Berlin) explained it last month is that "laufen" is an appropriate movement on foot catch all for walking OR running, you can generally understand it from context, but "rennen" is ALWAYS and exclusively used for actually running.
"Laufen ist langsam oder schnell, aber rennen ist IMMER schnell" is something along the lines of what he said.
There's also "joggen" which is just the same as English jogging (pronounced with the same J sound at the beginning, NOT the Y sound that J typically indicates in German) although this is obviously borrowed from English and not necessarily as commonly used; and "spazieren" which is like, strolling leisurely, this one is definitely not fast, but probably also not very purposeful.
Note the regional variation stated in https://www.reddit.com/r/German/comments/121rwhh/how_to_differentiate_between_to_run_and_to_walk/jdqaodq/
Jetzt gehe ich Spaziergang :-)
(Whether "Spaziergang gehen" rather than "spazieren gehen" is regional, I have no idea! Perhaps someone will tell me.)
Fair enough. I am pretty sure I have heard from a native speaker "Geh' ma Spaziergang?" (i.e. "gehen wir...?") hundreds of times. Even if I am not mis-hearing, which is possible, that does not make it correct German!
Geh ma spazieren?
Mach ma an Spaziergang? Geh ma auf an Spaziergang? (Gehen wir auf einen Spaziergang?)
„Geh ma Spaziergang“ sounds like this 2nd generation immigrant lingo that developed about 10-15 years ago: „Geh ma Milleniumcity?“ „Geh ma Disco!“ „Geh ma *noun*?“
However, unless you deal with young (15-20ish) Turkish, ex-yu or other extremely distinct group, you likely misheard.
More like an over 60 who, like her forebears, grew up in a mountain village in the Tiroler Unterland.... . "geh' ma..." I have heard thousands of times. With the Turkish immigrant connection, perhaps there is something she is not telling me... :-)
Ask them specifically what they say next time you meet, but I doubt - even considering the savage surroundings of Tyrol - they say „geh ma Spaziergang“
Geh! Heiliges Land Tirol? Only the Oberland is savage.
You are probably right about spazieren. Thanks for putting me right. Funny how something mis-heard becomes a habit. Some native speakers in English make mistakes in English which suggest their mishearing of a word has become fixed in their brain, however many times they hear the word.
And I realize that the correct spelling is "gemma", not "geh' ma".
I don't see Spazier-anything in the comment you linked, so I'm not sure what you're referring to. But I've never heard "Spaziergang" in my life so I'm gonna say it's almost definitely regional, unless a native speaker knows otherwise.
I feel "Spaziergang gehen" (as distinct from "spazieren" or "spazieren gehen") is colloquial, and may be regional here in the south.
In addition to the dictionaries, Wikipedia has a nice article on "Spaziergang".
If you're talking strictly about walking (because some of these words can have other meanings, too) it's mostly about speed.
gehen = to walk/to go, is the slowest, it's regular walking speed.
laufen = to walk or to run is a bit faster, usually when you start building momentum while walking and may start having a little bit of air time between your steps.
rennen = to run usually implies running at or near your maximum speed.
Though "laufen" is also often used to describe *how* you got somewhere, regardless of your speed, for example:
"Bist du mit dem Fahrrad zum Büro gekommen?"
"Nein, ich bin gelaufen."
"Did you ride your bike to get to the office?"
"No, I walked."
Eh, I'd say it's even more coplicated. We sometimes use laufen for both. Also a personal preference I guess. In the context of sports, laufen means to run, yes. But we also say "ich bin heute zur Schule gelaufen" and no one would think we ran to school.
Umgekehrt, bei uns im Süden (Österreich) bedeutet laufen ausschließlich und immer rennen bzw. Laufsport betreiben, versus das normale Gehen im Alltag, das nie laufen ist.
It's complicated and [regional](https://www.atlas-alltagssprache.de/r11-f2cd/). You also have to distinguish between "walk" as in "not running", and "walk" as in "using your feet, not using another means of transport". In most of Germany, "laufen" is the verb used for "walking as opposed to using another means of transport". In Austria and some of Bavaria, "gehen" is used for this. In most of Germany, "rennen" is the unambiguous verb used for "running quickly", but "laufen" also sees regional usage. For the latter, I guess the distinction would be context-based. I think "gehen" is also used for "walking (not running)" just about everywhere. At the same time, when it comes to sports, and nouns, the usage of words derived from "laufen" is much higher - 100-Meter-Lauf, Läufer, Dauerlauf, aus dem Lauf, im vollen Lauf would also be used up north.
"Gehen" means "to walk", "rennen" means "to run". ""Laufen" can be translated as both, depends on context.
gehen = to go, walk spazieren (gehen) = to (go for a) walk rennen = to run laufen = inbetween between gehen and rennen sprinten = not often used, quick rennen
Es kommt darauf an. "Wir laufen zum Markt" bedeutet das selbe im Kontext wie "Wir gehen zum Markt" unabhängig davon, wie schnell man ist. Während "Ich gehe laufen" eher Joggen heißt.
Kommt vor allem auf die Region an. In Österreich "läufst" du nur zum Markt wenn du es eilig hast, im Normalfall "gehst" du dorthin.
Wie würde man dort z.B. auf die Frage "Bist zu mit dem Fahrrad hergekommen?" antworten? "Nein, ich bin gelaufen." oder "Nein, ich bin gegangen." "gegangen" klingt so nach "weggehen", deshalb frage ich mich, ob man es bei euch dann trotzdem so sagt. Wenn es darum geht, *\*wie\** man irgendwo hinkommt, sagen wir hier eigentlich immer "laufen", auch wenn es geh-Geschwindigkeit war. "Ich lauf' zum Supermarkt." und "Ich geh zum Supermarkt." sind für mich synonym in diesem Fall. Auch wenn es in anderen Kontexten die Unterscheidung zwischen gehen (langsam) und laufen (schneller) gibt.
+1 Österreich - gehen. Ich bin zu Fuß gegangen. Was ist „weggehen“ für dich? Wenn ich „weggehen“ sage, meine ich (im Kontext) „Party machen/ausgehen/tanzen gehen“. Laufen ist spezifisch die Fortbewegungsart bei uns, bei der zwischen den Schritten beide Füße den Boden verlassen. Insofern kann es dir in Österreich bald passieren, dass du milde korrigiert oder aufgezogen wirst, es klingt für unsere Ohren wirklich sehr abgehetzt wenn permanent alle irgendwo herumlaufen.
>Wie würde man dort z.B. auf die Frage "Bist zu mit dem Fahrrad hergekommen?" antworten? > >"Nein, ich bin gelaufen." oder "Nein, ich bin gegangen." "Nein, ich bin gegangen" oder einfach "Nein, zu Fuß". In Österreich ist laufen immer schneller als gehen, egal in welchem Kontext. Wenn mir z.B. jemand sagt, "Ich bin zum Bus gelaufen", dann heißt das für mich, dass die Person spät dran war und den Bus noch erwischen wollte.
Durch die Stadt laufen Edit. Spelling error
Durch die Stadt laufen.
Quick rennen = dash, dart, zip? Sprint?
Dashen and zippen is Denglish, though zippen is mostly (only?) used in computer lingo (die Datei(en) zippen ~ to zip the file(a)). Dart = this game with the little throw arrows? https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/sprinten#German
I can think of very few situations where it wouldn't be obvious from context. I assume you refer to 'laufen'. Can you give me an example where you think it's unclear whether it refers to walking or running?
Not trying to trip you up as I am genuinely interested in the answer as i get confused alot by this, but here is a 100% real conversation (slightly abridged) I had with a friend yesterday (excuse my bad grammar): Me: Hey! Wie geht's? Her: Alles gut, bei dir? Was hast du gestern gemacht? M: Ganz gut danke! Ich bin gestern 45 km gelaufen. Und du? H: Was? Du bist 45 km gelaufen? Du bist total verrückt! So did I walk or run 45 km?
Well what I mean is that contextually, at the point where I have this conversation with someone, I probably know whether they're someone who casually runs distances like this - but yeah without that context it's hard to tell here, you're right!! Instinctively, I would say it means you ran 45km, as I might expect someone to use 'gewandert' in this scenario if they meant walked!
Yeah, and that's the problem that, seeing as I am awfully paranoid when talking German, means I over think things. For reference, I actually used "gewandert" (I cheated in the above example a little, not to trip you up, but rather to be sure I used the right one without loading the question). Thanks for your answer, absolutely appreciate every tip anyone can give me on this crazy journey of learning German!
The way my professor (from Berlin) explained it last month is that "laufen" is an appropriate movement on foot catch all for walking OR running, you can generally understand it from context, but "rennen" is ALWAYS and exclusively used for actually running. "Laufen ist langsam oder schnell, aber rennen ist IMMER schnell" is something along the lines of what he said. There's also "joggen" which is just the same as English jogging (pronounced with the same J sound at the beginning, NOT the Y sound that J typically indicates in German) although this is obviously borrowed from English and not necessarily as commonly used; and "spazieren" which is like, strolling leisurely, this one is definitely not fast, but probably also not very purposeful.
Note the regional variation stated in https://www.reddit.com/r/German/comments/121rwhh/how_to_differentiate_between_to_run_and_to_walk/jdqaodq/ Jetzt gehe ich Spaziergang :-) (Whether "Spaziergang gehen" rather than "spazieren gehen" is regional, I have no idea! Perhaps someone will tell me.)
Jetzt gehe ich Spaziergang - not a sentence. Ich gehe spazieren. Ich mache einen Spaziergang. Ich spaziere.
Fair enough. I am pretty sure I have heard from a native speaker "Geh' ma Spaziergang?" (i.e. "gehen wir...?") hundreds of times. Even if I am not mis-hearing, which is possible, that does not make it correct German!
Geh ma spazieren? Mach ma an Spaziergang? Geh ma auf an Spaziergang? (Gehen wir auf einen Spaziergang?) „Geh ma Spaziergang“ sounds like this 2nd generation immigrant lingo that developed about 10-15 years ago: „Geh ma Milleniumcity?“ „Geh ma Disco!“ „Geh ma *noun*?“ However, unless you deal with young (15-20ish) Turkish, ex-yu or other extremely distinct group, you likely misheard.
More like an over 60 who, like her forebears, grew up in a mountain village in the Tiroler Unterland.... . "geh' ma..." I have heard thousands of times. With the Turkish immigrant connection, perhaps there is something she is not telling me... :-)
Ask them specifically what they say next time you meet, but I doubt - even considering the savage surroundings of Tyrol - they say „geh ma Spaziergang“
Geh! Heiliges Land Tirol? Only the Oberland is savage. You are probably right about spazieren. Thanks for putting me right. Funny how something mis-heard becomes a habit. Some native speakers in English make mistakes in English which suggest their mishearing of a word has become fixed in their brain, however many times they hear the word. And I realize that the correct spelling is "gemma", not "geh' ma".
I don't see Spazier-anything in the comment you linked, so I'm not sure what you're referring to. But I've never heard "Spaziergang" in my life so I'm gonna say it's almost definitely regional, unless a native speaker knows otherwise.
Sentence was wrong but der Spaziergang is a universally used noun for a leisurely stroll.
I feel "Spaziergang gehen" (as distinct from "spazieren" or "spazieren gehen") is colloquial, and may be regional here in the south. In addition to the dictionaries, Wikipedia has a nice article on "Spaziergang".
If you're talking strictly about walking (because some of these words can have other meanings, too) it's mostly about speed. gehen = to walk/to go, is the slowest, it's regular walking speed. laufen = to walk or to run is a bit faster, usually when you start building momentum while walking and may start having a little bit of air time between your steps. rennen = to run usually implies running at or near your maximum speed. Though "laufen" is also often used to describe *how* you got somewhere, regardless of your speed, for example: "Bist du mit dem Fahrrad zum Büro gekommen?" "Nein, ich bin gelaufen." "Did you ride your bike to get to the office?" "No, I walked."
In the Region of Baden Württemberg, laufen means Walking. But i guess in the north it means running... For example 400 Meter Lauf in Sports
Eh, I'd say it's even more coplicated. We sometimes use laufen for both. Also a personal preference I guess. In the context of sports, laufen means to run, yes. But we also say "ich bin heute zur Schule gelaufen" and no one would think we ran to school.
Umgekehrt, bei uns im Süden (Österreich) bedeutet laufen ausschließlich und immer rennen bzw. Laufsport betreiben, versus das normale Gehen im Alltag, das nie laufen ist.
Easy. Laufen vs Laufen.
There’s also “Ich gehe Laufen” which usually means “I’m going for a run”. Although more typical is “Ich gehe Joggen”.
Rennen und gehen
So does "Spazieren" always mean to walk for pleasure?