to motivate
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to motivate
To encourage or inspire someone to do something specific by giving them reasons or incentives.
Der Trainer versucht, die Mannschaft vor dem wichtigen Spiel zu motivieren.
The coach is trying to motivate the team before the important game.
to motivate oneself
To find the inner drive to begin or continue a task, especially when one does not feel like doing it.
An manchen Tagen fällt es mir schwer, mich zum Sport zu motivieren.
On some days, I find it hard to motivate myself to exercise.
to justify
In a formal or academic context: to explain the reasons or motivation for something; to justify something.
In seiner Abschlussarbeit muss er die Wahl seiner Forschungsmethode genau motivieren.
In his thesis, he has to justify his choice of research method precisely.
'Motivieren' (to motivate) belongs to a word family related to reasons and drive. 'Die Motivation' (motivation) is the inner drive, and 'das Motiv' (motive) is the reason behind an action.
Geld war sein einziges Motiv für den Jobwechsel.
Money was his only motive for changing jobs.
When motivating someone to do a specific activity, you use the structure: 'jemanden (Akkusativ) zu etwas (Dativ) motivieren' (to motivate someone to do something).
Ihre Freunde motivierten sie zur Teilnahme am Marathon.
Her friends motivated her to participate in the marathon.
When a person drives themselves to do something, the verb is used reflexively: 'sich motivieren' (to motivate oneself). Here too, the preposition 'zu' often follows, with the goal in the dative.
Ich kann mich einfach nicht zum Aufräumen motivieren.
I simply can't motivate myself to clean up.
The meaning 'begründen' (to justify) is used almost exclusively in formal, scientific, or academic texts. This meaning is not used in everyday speech.
Der Antragsteller muss seine Entscheidung für das Projekt schriftlich motivieren.
The applicant must justify his decision for the project in writing.
to convince
„Überzeugen“ aims to get someone to adopt an assessment or consider something correct. „Motivieren“, on the other hand, is intended to provide the drive to actually take action. Good reasons can achieve both, but agreeing with something does not automatically mean that someone will also act.
Mit einer ermutigenden Rede motivierte die Trainerin das Team, den Plan sofort umzusetzen.
With an encouraging speech, the coach motivated the team to implement the plan immediately.
Mit klaren Gründen überzeugte die Trainerin das Team davon, dass der Plan funktionieren kann.
With clear reasons, the coach convinced the team that the plan could work.
