{"id":984,"date":"2010-06-30T08:03:10","date_gmt":"2010-06-30T07:03:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jabbalab.com\/blog\/?p=984"},"modified":"2014-01-02T14:36:39","modified_gmt":"2014-01-02T13:36:39","slug":"german-separable-verbs-and-verbs-prefixes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jabbalab.com\/blog\/984\/german-separable-verbs-and-verbs-prefixes","title":{"rendered":"German Separable Verbs and Verb Prefixes"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>What is a Verb Prefix in German?<\/h3>\n

A verb prefix in German is an additional word such as an <\/strong>(on, to, by), zu <\/strong>(to), weg <\/strong>(away), which is added to the beginning of a verb to change its meaning. We have a similar occurrence in English but the extra word goes after the verb, e.g. shut \u21e8 shut up \u21e8 shut down.<\/p>\n

Examples of Verbs with Prefixes:<\/h3>\n

zugeben<\/span><\/strong>, zumachen<\/span><\/strong>, ausgehen
\n<\/span>
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

German Separable Verbs and Inseparable Verbs, What is the difference?<\/h3>\n

Inseparable verbs keep the prefix on the beginning of the verb at all times. German Separable verbs split into 2 parts (the extra word and the original verb) and are often placed in different parts of the sentence. The way to tell if a verb is separable or inseparable depends on the prefix and if the emphasis of the word is on the prefix or at the end of the verb. If the emphasis is on the prefix, the verb will be separable. If the emphasis is not at the prefix, it will be inseparable. <\/p>\n

Here are a few examples of German separable verbs and inseparable verbs with the emphasis written in italic:<\/p>\n

Inseparable verbs:<\/h3>\n

Ich verlier<\/em>e immer meinen Geldbeutel.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Ich verges<\/em>se jedes Jahr deinen Geburtstag.
\n<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Separable verbs:<\/h3>\n

an<\/em>kommen<\/span><\/strong>
\nIch komme um 15 Uhr in M\u00fcnchen an.<\/span><\/strong>
\n
\n<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

What are the prefixes that can create a German separable verb?<\/h3>\n

There are many words that can be added to a verb to change its meaning and result in a German separable verb. These are:<\/p>\n

ab-, an-, auf-, aus-, bei-, da-, ein-, her-, hin-, mit-, nach-, vor-, zu-. <\/strong><\/p>\n

These can also be combined further to create further meanings, e.g:<\/p>\n

dabei-, daher-, dahin-, daran-, darauf-, darein-, davor-, dazu-, hinab-, hinan-, hinzu-, voraus-, vorbei-, vorher-.<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

What are the prefixes that can create a German inseparable verb?<\/h3>\n

be-, ent-, er-, ge-, miss-, \u00fcber-, ver-, zer-<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

How is the sentence structured with a German Separable Verb?<\/h3>\n

As mentioned above, the extra word part separates from the verb. In basic one verb sentences, the verb part stays at the beginning of the sentence, after the pronoun (ich, du, sie…etc). The extra word part moves to the end. Here are some examples:<\/p>\n

Ich schaue ihm zu.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Where the sentence is in a tense, or has 2 verbs, which places it at the end of the sentence, the separable verb stays in one piece.<\/p>\n

Wir m\u00fcssen jetzt weggehen.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Where the sentence requires the additional word zu<\/a>, this gets placed in between the extra word part and the verb part. See below for some examples:<\/p>\n

Der alte Mann braucht Hilfe, um in den Zug einzusteigen.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n


\n<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

The most common German seperable verbs are:<\/h3>\n

abfahren – to leave<\/p>\n

ankommen – to arrive<\/p>\n

aufstehen – to get up<\/p>\n

ausgehen – to go out<\/p>\n

einsteigen – to get in<\/p>\n

herkommen – to come (here)<\/p>\n

hinlegen – to put down<\/p>\n

mitmachen – to join in<\/p>\n

vorziehen – to prefer<\/p>\n

zuschauen – to watch<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What is a Verb Prefix in German? A verb prefix in German is an additional word such as an (on, to, by), zu (to), weg (away), which is added to the beginning of a verb to change its meaning. We have a similar occurrence in English but the extra word goes after the verb, e.g. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jabbalab.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/984"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jabbalab.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jabbalab.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jabbalab.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jabbalab.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=984"}],"version-history":[{"count":51,"href":"https:\/\/www.jabbalab.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/984\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15469,"href":"https:\/\/www.jabbalab.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/984\/revisions\/15469"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jabbalab.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=984"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jabbalab.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=984"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jabbalab.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=984"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}