komm sofort her
The English phrase "come here now" is translated into German as komm sofort her.
This phrase is used as an urgent command telling someone to move to the speaker's location immediately. The word her is essential in this command because it specifies movement toward the speaker's location.
What does it mean word for word?
The phrase is composed of komm (come), sofort (immediately/now) and her (towards the speaker).
Which one should you use?
To make the command less forceful, you can use komm mal her, which means "come here for a second." In contrast, using sofort makes the command an urgent and forceful instruction.
How does it change in a sentence?
The form changes depending on who you are addressing. If you are addressing someone formally using Sie, the imperative is kommen Sie sofort her. If you are commanding more than one person informally (the ihr form), use kommt sofort her instead of komm. The word komm itself is the imperative form of the verb kommen (to come).
Did you know?
- Using the imperative komm without a softener like bitte or mal is so forceful that it is usually reserved for children, pets or moments of extreme anger.
- While her indicates movement toward the speaker, the word hin is used for movement away from the speaker. A German speaker would never say komm hin because it would literally mean 'come away from me'.
- The word sofort actually contains an old intensifier meaning 'so' or 'just'. It evolved from the Middle Low German 'so vōrt', which literally meant 'so forth' to describe how quickly something should happen.
Examples in context
- Entschuldigen Sie, könnten Sie bitte sofort hierherkommen?Excuse me, could you please come here immediately?
- Komm schnell her, es ist wichtig!Come here quickly, it's important!
Example conversation
Hannah sees Julian playing in the garden while a storm approaches.
- HannahJulian, komm sofort her!Julian, come here now!
- JulianWas ist denn los?What is going on?
- HannahEs wird gleich regnen.It is about to rain.
- JulianOkay, ich komme schon.Okay, I'm coming.
Sources
- Word origins: Wiktionary entries her, sofort, CC BY-SA 4.0.
