German Questions

[LMAshton]

I've come across these words in Memrise's A1 German course: gehen vs. fahren. Gehen is said to be "to go" whereas fahren is "to go (by car)". But one example include "wir müssen nach Japan fahren", except you can't get to Japan by car. So what does it really mean and when would I use which one?

I know, it's a really really basic question...

[Kulelyn]

"gehen" means to go by foot. "fahren" means to use some kind of vehicle that does not fly (i.e. this includes ships). For flying vehicles you would say "fliegen".

[LMAshton]

Ah, that makes sense. Thank you very much!

[LanguageSponge]

While we're on this topic, assuming that I am allowed to complicate things slightly, I am sure I remember hearing and seeing 'gehen' being used in reference to countries. Now, assuming that you don't live pretty much directly on the border with said country, you'd be mad to actually walk there, unless your name is Usain Bolt. I have had the vague feeling for a long time that there's a twist to it. Making an example up on the spot, I might have heard something like "Ich will nach Deutschland gehen."

Clearly this doesn't mean anything like "I have the specific desire to walk to Germany", I wonder whether it implies, as I've always interpreted it, "Ich will nach Deutschland ziehen/auswandern". "I want to move/emigrate to Germany"?

[LMAshton]

Oh, please complicate matters. I would very much like to understand this, too.

[Stefan]

I recall reading this (part 1 / part 2) which basically confirms everything said here. It also mentions zu/nach.

Gehen = walk
Fahren = bike, car or any kind of public transportation
Fliegen = airplane

Using the three German verbs above with the preposition “zu” is not the only option you have in German. You can also use these verbs with the German preposition “nach”, but this is only possible when the object of your sentence is not a concrete person, but a point on a map, so to speak. In other words, you have to use the preposition “nach” (instead of “zu”) when you say that you go or travel to another city, country, or continent.

"nach München gehen" = move to Munich
"Ich fahre mit dem Zug nach Düsseldorf" = I go to Dusseldorf by train

[Bao]

LanguageSponge is absolutely correct. I wanted to reply with exactly that caveat - the explanation given is the correct one for A1, but it's not the complete one.
Gehen means to walk. It also means to move towards a specific goal, and the exact nuance changes depending on context, tense and adverbs used, but I would say that it either means to go somewhere and stay there, or to go to some place habitually.
zur Schule gehen - to attend school
nach Hause gehen - to go home
nach Australien gehen - to emigrate to Australia, to stay in Australia for a prolonged period of time
in den Ferien nach Frankreich gehen - to spend one's vacation in France

Fahren means to move using something other than your feet, though originally it included walking. There also used to be the meaning of having the semi-nomadic lifestyle of the "Fahrendes Volk", vagrants.

Fliegen for flying with an areoplane is just a weird exemption, and for all I can tell it doesn't really make sense to use fliegen when you want to emphasize the distinction between going somewhere to stay there, or going and returning. (But people laugh at you when you use 'fahren' to say you'll go there by plane and return.)
Ich gehe nach Berlin - I am moving to Berlin
Ich fahre nach Berlin - I'll go to Berlin (and probably return)

Other native speakers may have a slightly different understanding of how these words work.

[Random Review]

I knew it was usual to use "fliegen" rather than "fahren" when you are flying but I didn't realise it was obligatory. Beginner's courses have a lot to answer for.

[jeff_lindqvist]

Doesn't it depend on what you're saying, emphasis etc.? A sentence like "Sie ist nach Mallorca gefahren" only implies that she went to Mallorca, and it's not important to know whether she flew there or took a ship.

However, a sentence like "Wie lange bist du geflogen?" specifically asks for how long you were in the air (and not how long you've been travelling, if you took a train to get to the airport and so on).

By the way, you find fahren in the word Fahrzeug vehicle, vessel (also present in related Germanic languages, e.g. Swedish: the verb fara with the same general meaning, and fartyg - ship).

[LMAshton]

Thanks, all, for your responses. It really does help to have context for things, even if I won't necessarily really get this entirely straight in my head for a while.