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I am hearing the phrase “Ich fühl mich wohl” as meaning along the lines of either “I feel me well”, or “I say feel thee better unto me”, that one is commanding theirself.

Is this just a quirk-phrase that has popped up in the language—a queer thing, unique in its own way?

This is my understanding of the words:

  • Ich subject form of the first person singular pronoun (nominative) — I

  • fühl second person singular imperative of feelfeel thee

  • mich direct object form of the first person singular pronoun (accusative) — unto me

  • wohlswell/well

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    You are obviously in a state of learning German, where you try to translate word by word. This would only work, if English and German grammar were identical, but both grammars are different in many different ways. If you want to translate a sentence, do it this way: Read the sentence, understand its meaning (often you will need to read more than one sentence to understand it), and then write down this meaning in the other language. You still try to first translate words, and then try to understand. But this is the wrong order. Don't try to translate words! Translate meanings! Mar 18, 2017 at 9:42
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    "Fühl" ist nicht 2. Person, Imperativ, jedenfalls nicht hier, sondern eine eingeschliffene Kurzform von "Ich fühle (Ich fühl')". "Ich fühl mich krank/schmutzig/wohl/gut/überlegen/unsicher,..." Mar 18, 2017 at 11:03
  • Yes, learning German indeed. Mar 18, 2017 at 20:55

2 Answers 2

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The simple explanation is that "fühlen" in this meaning is a reflexive verb, just as in several other languages. You could translate the "mich" to "myself". In English the corresponding "I feel good" is not reflexive.

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    Thank you... now I gotta learn what a reflexsive verb is, but thank you! Oh... looking it up, I know what those are. Thanks a Million! Mar 18, 2017 at 6:32
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    It's important that (although you say it) it should not be ich fühl but actually ich fühle (or ich fühl' if you want the spoken form), which is the correct first person singular indicative.
    – j2L4e
    Mar 18, 2017 at 8:23
  • THANK YOU! I figured that might be the case. Like how in english "Naught/Nought" was contracted as "not" and somewhere along the line, we lost the either the voiced velar fricative, or the voiceless uvular fricative (whichever of the two "gh" functioned for in this word.) Mar 18, 2017 at 20:58
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Ich fühl mich wohl

means

I feel fine

but more common for that is

Mir geht es gut / Mir gehts gut

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