I just came across a sentence in my textbook: "Ich erzähl's dir gleich." As I looked up in the dictionary, there is no such a word as "erzähl's". So I guessed maybe it's the short form of "erzählen es". But I'm not sure. Also, I saw a sentence "Echt? Erzähl." in the script of a conversation. Is this also the short from of something?
2 Answers
"erzähl's" is indeed short for "erzähle es".
"Echt?" The "Echt?" is equivalent to a surprised "Really?!"
The "Erzähl!" is also short for "Erzähle es". So if you want to know something from a person you say one of those: "Erzähl's mir!" ; "Erzähl!" ; "Erzähle es mir!".
"Erzähle es mir" would be the most "formal" out of the 3.
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"Erzähl!" is the normal regular imperative of the verb "erzählen" and no short form.– IQVOct 27, 2017 at 5:40
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"Ich erzähl's dir gleich." is short for "ich erzähle es dir gleich".
"Echt? Erzähl." is very abbreviated colloquial speech, short for something like: "Ist das echt [=wahr]? Erzähle es mir"
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There are many colloquialisms like that. "Ich sach ma" is very common for "Ich sage einmal". "Sozagn" is very common für "sozusagen". "Buntsreblik" is what you often hear when politicians mean "Bundesrepublik". Oct 26, 2017 at 14:55
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3"Buntsreblik" is not a colloquialism, it's just sloppy enunciation Oct 26, 2017 at 15:24
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Thank you for your explanation. May I ask one more thing about the grammar? I know that most sentences follow the pattern [subj] [verb][indirect obj][direct obj]. In this case, is it ok to say "ich erzähle dir es gleich?" ?– DennisOct 26, 2017 at 15:56
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@PiedPiper - How would you exactly differentiate between colloquialism and sloppyness? Oct 26, 2017 at 16:51
sah'sis the abbreviation ofsah es.erzähl'sseems the same.