All German word comparisons · Back to the topic overview
Meaning, sentence patterns and examples
| Word | Core meaning | Typical context | Grammar |
|---|---|---|---|
| Erinnerung | memory; remembrance; reminder | a remembered experience or prompt | die Erinnerung; die Erinnerungen |
| Gedächtnis | memory faculty; commemoration | storing and recalling information | das Gedächtnis; die Gedächtnisse |
Erinnerung
Meaning and usage: Use Erinnerung for a remembered event, a lasting impression, or something that brings an event back to mind. It can also mean a reminder that an appointment or obligation needs attention. With positive or negative experiences, an adjective describes the individual memory. In recollection expressions the singular may refer to remembering as a whole.
Grammar: Feminine: die Erinnerung, plural die Erinnerungen. An + accusative names what a memory concerns: die Erinnerung an den Urlaub. In in Erinnerung bleiben, in takes dative. Erinnerungen as individual recollections is countable; the memory-faculty sense is normally uncountable.
Die Erinnerung an unseren ersten Urlaub ist noch sehr lebendig.
The memory of our first holiday is still very vivid.
Ich habe eine Erinnerung für den Termin eingestellt.
I have set a reminder for the appointment.
Gedächtnis
Meaning and usage: Use Gedächtnis when discussing memory as an ability or system: remembering names, retaining information, or recalling what happened. It does not normally name one particular holiday memory. Other established senses concern commemoration. Everyday descriptions of one person's memory usually use the singular, although the dictionary records a plural.
Grammar: Neuter: das Gedächtnis, plural die Gedächtnisse. Use ein gutes Gedächtnis for a good memory. In aus dem Gedächtnis, aus governs dative; in etwas im Gedächtnis behalten, im means in dem. Do not change the article because Erinnerung is feminine.
Sie hat ein gutes Gedächtnis für Namen.
She has a good memory for names.
Ich habe die Nummer aus dem Gedächtnis aufgeschrieben.
I wrote the number down from memory.
Overlap and context
In meiner Erinnerung and in meinem Gedächtnis can both introduce something retained from the past, with slightly different emphasis. Erinnerung may foreground a personal recollection; Gedächtnis may foreground stored information. That is not a scientific division between emotional and factual memories. A remembered fact can be eine Erinnerung, and an emotional experience can remain im Gedächtnis. Established phrases matter more than a rigid translation rule.
Common mistakes
- Do not write ein Gedächtnis an meinen Urlaub when you mean one memory of the holiday; eine Erinnerung an meinen Urlaub is natural.
- Remember das Gedächtnis but die Erinnerung, and die Erinnerungen for several individual memories.
- Do not teach that Gedächtnis has no plural at all; die Gedächtnisse exists, although it is unusual in ordinary personal-memory descriptions.
Memory aid: Think of Gedächtnis as the capacity to remember and an Erinnerung as one item or prompt. Keep a separate note that both words have broader uses and fixed expressions.
Try it
You want to say that you remember people's names easily. Complete: Ich habe ein gutes ___ für Namen.
Show the answer
Gedächtnis
This sentence describes memory as a faculty. A particular remembered experience would normally be eine Erinnerung an something.