Woran merke ich, dass es Liebe ist?
How do I know that it’s love? – "Liebe ist..." by Namika
Fair warning: I can only help you with about half of the language of this song! In “Liebe ist…” (“Love is…”), German singer and rapper Namika teams up with French singer Zaz for the jazzy German/French collaboration we didn’t know we needed, tackling a topic that transcends language and culture: love.
How does one know they are truly in love, and not just infatuated with someone? This timeless question is explored by Namika and Zaz in both German and French, and we are ultimately reminded that not all questions of the heart can be easily answered, in any language.
“Liebe ist…” also gives us a chance to take a quick look at German’s “wo-words”: Woran wissen wir, dass es Liebe ist? (How do we know that it’s love?)
Now to start working on my French…
Woran merke ich, dass es Liebe ist?
How do I know that it’s love?
Ich verstehe meine Gefühle nicht
I don’t understand my feelings
Ich hab’ überall gefragt
I asked everywhere
“Das merkst du dann”, haben sie gesagt
“You’ll notice then,” they said
Woran merke ich, dass es Liebe ist?
How do I know that it’s love?
Das verraten einem die Bücher nicht
The books don’t tell you that
Doch ich lass mich mal drauf ein
But I’ll give it a go
Wenn ich’s weiß, sag’ ich Bescheid
When I know it, I’ll let you know
Woran merke ich, dass es Liebe ist?
“Woran” belongs to a special class of adverbs in German called the “wo-words” or “wo-compounds”. Wo-words are formed by combining the word wo (“where”) with a preposition in a somewhat similar fashion to what we see with the English words “whereby,” “whereas,” or “wherefore.”
Additional examples of wo-words you may have seen in the wild include wobei, wonach, worum, and worauf. Among other uses, these adverbs can be used as question words to begin a sentence.
In our example above from “Liebe ist…”, “woran” combines “wo” with the preposition “an” to ask what could be more directly translated to “on what do I know that it’s love”? Upon what can we base our knowledge that we are really in love?
The counterpart to wo-words are da-words, similarly formed by combining “da” (there) with a preposition: daran, dabei, danach, darauf. Da-words provide an answer to the questions posed by wo-words:
Woran merke ich, dass es Liebe ist?
How do I know that it’s love?Daran weiß ich, dass es Liebe ist.
That’s how I know that it’s love.
For a deeper dive into wo-words (and da-words), check out this article by YourDailyGerman.
Here are a few additional words from “Liebe ist…” to add to your vocabulary list:
bis wann – until when
verliebt – in love / infatuated
die Liebe – the love
gleich – the same
das Gefühl / die Gefühle – the feeling / the feelings
die Mühe – the effort
kapieren – to “get it” / to comprehend something (colloquial)
probierien – to try
die Fachartikel – the specialist articles
studieren – to study
einsam – lonely
der Berg – the mountain
endlos – endlessly
philosophieren – to philosophize
immer – always
verwirrt – confused
woran – by what / on what
merken – to notice
verstehen – to understand
überall – everywhere / all over
fragen – to ask
verraten – to reveal / divulge
das Buch / die Bücher – the book / the books