Ich bin dabei, bist du dabei?
I’m all in, are you all in? – "Gewinner" by Clueso
In his 2008 song “Gewinner”, German singer-songwriter Clueso poetically describes two people committing to “lose themselves” in the deep, mysterious waters of a relationship. The original music video, filmed completely underwater, underscores this theme.
While the song’s central refrain seems focused on the idea of loss – “Ich bin dabei, du bist dabei, wir sind dabei, uns zu verlieren” (I’m all in, you’re all in, we’re all in to lose ourselves), the song’s title “Gewinner” (“Winner”) hints that the commitment to lose oneself in something new may ultimately lead to something greater in the long run.
In 2010, Clueso performed “Gewinner” with the STÜBAphilharmonie orchestra, on the occasion of celebrating 20 years since Germany’s reunification – providing an opportunity to find even deeper meaning in the song’s themes of loss and gain found through coming together.
Clueso is a bit of a legend in the German music scene, and has been successfully making music auf Deutsch for more than two decades. While the song is more than 15 years old, “Gewinner” remains one of his most well-known hits.
Ich bin dabei
I’m all in
Du bist dabei
You’re all in
Wir sind dabei
We’re all in
Uns zu verlieren
To lose ourselves
It’s no wonder that “Gewinner” has remained a popular song through so many years – its lyrics are strikingly poetic, with plenty of clever wordplay involved. But the song’s refrain is also, conveniently, a study in personal pronouns in German.
Pronouns are the little words we use in place of nouns or names in order to avoid repetition – some examples from English are I, you, he, she, it, we, or they. Pronouns also change their form depending on how they are used in a sentence.
The chorus of “Gewinner” gives us a quick refresher on personal pronouns in the nominative case (used as the subject of a sentence in this example), as well as the corresponding forms of the verb sein (to be) in the present tense (bin, bist, sind):
Ich bin dabei
I am all inDu bist dabei
You are all inWir sind dabei
We are all in
For extra practice, we could take the example further to see how the sentence would work with additional pronouns and forms of sein:
Ich bin dabei. (First-person singular)
I am all in.Du bist dabei. (Second-person singular, informal)
You are all in.Er ist dabei. (Third-person singular)
He is all in.Sie ist dabei. (Third-person singular)
She is all in.Wir sind dabei. (First-person plural)
We are all in.Ihr seid dabei. (Second-person plural, informal)
You all are all in.Sie sind dabei. (Third-person plural)
They are all in.
We’ll save a full discussion on the informal and formal versions of “you” (du / Sie) for another day – it’s a riveting topic that deserves a post of its own.
But for bonus points – did you notice that when the refrain’s lines are turned into a question, the word order shifts, with the verb moving to the beginning?
Bist du dabei?
Are you all in?Bin ich dabei?
Am I all in?
The standard rule of thumb in German is that a sentence’s verb comes as the second “element” of a sentence, most often directly after the sentence’s subject. But when it comes to questions, it’s not uncommon to see a verb come first – similar to what we see in English.
If you’d like to learn more about personal pronouns in German, check out this article from Lingolia.
Here are a few additional words from “Schenk mir Zeit” to add to your vocabulary list:
egal – all the same / it doesn’t matter
glauben – to believe
fragen – to ask / question
dabei sein – to take part in something
verlieren – to lose
leicht – light / easy
vielleicht – maybe / perhaps
suchen – to search
die Versuchung – the temptation
zulassen – to allow
aufgeben – to give up
auflegen – to hang up
aufregen – to excite
die Ruhe – the calm