There is a stage where the grammar is fine, the vocabulary is right, and the German still sounds like a translation. Usually the cause is a collocation: German pairs particular verbs with particular nouns, and the pairing is a fact about the language rather than a rule you can derive. “Eine Tradition pflegen” — literally to care for a tradition — is simply what German says where English says to keep one up.
A dictionary will not rescue you here, because every individual word in the wrong version is a correct translation. The only fix is to learn the pair as one item.
The pairs that carry a letter or a report
| German | English | Not |
|---|---|---|
| Verantwortung übernehmen | to take responsibility | Verantwortung nehmen |
| Kontakte / Traditionen pflegen | to keep up contacts / traditions | Kontakte halten |
| ein Projekt betreuen | to look after a project | ein Projekt kümmern |
| eine Entscheidung treffen | to make a decision | eine Entscheidung machen |
| eine Frage stellen | to ask a question | eine Frage fragen |
| einen Termin vereinbaren | to arrange an appointment | einen Termin machen (informal only) |
| einen Beitrag leisten | to make a contribution | einen Beitrag machen |
| Kritik üben (an + Dativ) | to criticise | Kritik machen |
| Rücksicht nehmen (auf + Akk.) | to be considerate | Rücksicht haben |
| einen Antrag stellen | to submit an application | einen Antrag machen |
| einen Vorgang beschleunigen | to speed a case up | einen Vorgang schnell machen |
Tipp · The last one is worth reading carefully if you deal with customer service. “Ich kann den Vorgang beschleunigen” is the fixed phrase for moving a case along — it is a statement about the process, not a promise about the outcome, and hearing it as a guarantee is a mistake learners make in both directions.
The machen trap
English “make” and “do” cover an enormous range, and learners map both onto machen. Machen does a lot of work in German too, but not everywhere, and the places it fails are exactly the formal ones where it matters most.
Wir müssen eine Entscheidung treffen.
We have to make a decision.
treffen, not machen. In very formal writing also: eine Entscheidung fällen
Ich habe einen Fehler gemacht.
I made a mistake.
here machen is right — it is not that machen is always wrong
Sie treibt viel Sport.
She does a lot of sport.
Sport treiben in writing; Sport machen is fine in speech
Word choice: erst, nur, zuerst
Three words that English collapses into “only” and “first”, and German keeps firmly apart. Choosing the wrong one does not sound clumsy — it says something different.
| Word | Means | Example |
|---|---|---|
| erst | not until — later than you might expect | Der Prozess startet erst mit dem Scan. |
| erst | only so far — with more still to come | Ich bin erst seit einem Jahr hier. |
| nur | only — that is all there is | Ich habe nur zehn Euro. |
| zuerst | first — the first step in a sequence | Zuerst schneiden wir die Kartoffeln. |
So “ich habe erst zehn Euro” and “ich habe nur zehn Euro” are both correct German and mean different things: the first says ten euros so far, the second says ten euros and no more.
kennen or wissen
Both are “to know”. kennen takes a direct object — a person, a place, a thing you are acquainted with. wissen takes a fact, usually a whole clause after it.
Ich kenne ihn seit Jahren.
I've known him for years.
kennen + a person as direct object
Ich weiß, dass er kommt.
I know he's coming.
wissen + a dass-clause
Kennst du das Lokal? — Ich weiß nicht, wo es ist.
Do you know the place? — I don't know where it is.
both in two sentences, doing their separate jobs
Common mistakes
✗Wir müssen eine Entscheidung machen.
✓Wir müssen eine Entscheidung treffen.
Decisions are “met” in German. This is probably the single most recognisable collocation error in learner writing.
✗Ich möchte eine Frage fragen.
✓Ich möchte eine Frage stellen.
Questions are put, not asked. You can of course say “ich möchte etwas fragen” — but not with Frage as the object.
✗Sie hat Verantwortung genommen.
✓Sie hat Verantwortung übernommen.
übernehmen, not nehmen. This one matters because it appears in almost every Empfehlungsschreiben and Anschreiben.
✗Wir halten seit Jahren Kontakt zu ihnen.
✓Wir pflegen seit Jahren Kontakte zu ihnen.
Contacts are cared for. “Kontakt halten” does exist but is weaker and more casual than a recommendation letter wants.
✗Ich kenne, dass er kommt.
✓Ich weiß, dass er kommt.
A dass-clause is a fact, so it needs wissen. kennen cannot take a clause at all.
✗Ich habe erst zehn Euro, mehr nicht.
✓Ich habe nur zehn Euro, mehr nicht.
erst implies more is coming, which contradicts “mehr nicht”. For a flat limit you need nur.
The efficient way to build these is not a word list but a genre. If you are writing a recommendation letter, collect the pairs that letter needs — Verantwortung übernehmen, Projekte betreuen, Kontakte pflegen — and learn them as that letter's vocabulary. Collocations cluster by situation, which is why they are far easier to acquire from real texts than from an alphabetical list.