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bleibe, beliebte, beileibe

The three words above make a nice tongue twister or Zungenbrecher — literally "tongue breaker" in German — though certainly not as difficult as the classic Fischers Fritz fischt frische Fische, frische Fische fischt Fischers Fritz. Best try the latter only if you have a first aid kit around! But I doubt all of us are completely clear on the meanings of the aforementioned "B" words. Let's start with the easiest ones.

BANNER PLACEHOLDER

Bleibe is the first person singular present tense of the verb bleiben:

 

Also, "ich bleibe", das ist Präsens, ja.

Well, "I am staying", that is present tense, yes.

Caption 5, Deutschkurs in Tübingen - Vorbereitung auf den Test

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Ich bleibe einfach hier in Deutschland und werde eine Fahrradtour machen.

I will just stay here in Germany and will do a bike tour.

Caption 50, Jenny - Reiseziele

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Nein, ich komme nicht mit. Ich bleibe hier in Deutschland.

No, I'm not coming with you. I'm staying here in Germany.

Caption 6, Nicos Weg - A2 Folge 17: Unterwegs

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The verb bleiben is very appropriate this summer, as most of us will be doing our best to enjoy staycations

 

The adjective beliebt — most often written as beliebte with the suffix -e when following a definite article in the nominative case — can be translated as "beloved," "favored," or "popular," depending upon the context:

 

Saint-Tropez am Baggersee,

Saint-Tropez on the artificial lake,

so besangen schon die Rodgau Monotones

as the Rodgau Monotones already sang

vor über 30 Jahren das beliebte

over 30 years ago about the beloved

Badeparadies der Stadt Rodgau.

swimming paradise of the city of Rodgau.

Captions 2-4, Rhein-Main-TV - Badesee Rodgau

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Besonders beliebt ist bei den Berlinern der Wannsee.

The Wannsee is especially popular with the residents of Berlin.

Caption 3, Berlin - Wannsee

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Lastly, we come to the least commonly used of the three B words: beileibe. This adverb is similar in meaning to bestimmt ("definitely") or wirklich ("really"), but is used almost exclusively in the negation beileibe nicht

 

Das wird vielleicht was kosten,

It may cost something,

aber beileibe nicht so viel wie der Verlust des gesamten Projekts.

but by no means as much as the loss of the whole project.

Captions 45-46, Marga Engel schlägt zurück - Rache

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Depending upon the context, beileibe nicht can also be translated as "on no account" or "certainly not."

 

Further Learning
Search for variations of the above three words on Yabla German and practice writing some sentences of your own in German that include these words. For some learning fun, go to the Zungenbrecher page on Wikipedia and, after translating a couple, see how fast you can say them without breaking your tongue! 

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