How to talk about moving in German

The German word for “to move”, in the sense of moving to a new house, flat or city, is “umziehen” or just “ziehen” with the preposition “nach”:
– “Wir sind letztes Jahr umgezogen.” – “We moved last year.”
– “Wir sind im Sommer nach Berlin gezogen.” – “We moved to Berlin in the summer.”
The word for “to move in” is “einziehen”:
– “Ich ziehe am Donnerstag in die neue Wohnung ein.” – “On Thursday I’m moving into the new apartment.”
The word for “to move out” is “ausziehen”:
– “Ich ziehe morgen aus.” – “I’m moving out tomorrow.”
Note: The word “umziehen” can also mean “to change one’s clothes”, the word “ausziehen” can also mean “to undress”, and the word “einziehen” sounds quite similar to the word “anziehen”, which means “to put on clothes”. However, context and the reflexive “sich”/”mich”/”dich” usually takes care of any confusion:
– “Ich ziehe mich erst an und dann ziehe ich ein.” – “First I will get dressed and then move in.”
– “Ich ziehe erst aus und dann ziehe ich mich aus.” – “First I will move out and then I will take off my clothes.”
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