Learn about German prefixes
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| Chuck: This is Advanced Focus Lesson 5. | |
| Judith: Willkommen! | |
| Chuck: Welcome to another Advanced Focus Lesson. Here we improve our understanding of German vocabulary, by analyzing verb prefixes. | |
| Judith: When you understand how a German word came to be, you’ll find it a lot easier to remember this word and to use it correctly. | |
| Chuck: So, which prefix are we looking at today? | |
| Judith: Today we shall look at the German prefix [ver-]. | |
| Chuck: But wait, didn’t we have it last week? | |
| Judith: No, last week we had [zer-]. | |
| Chuck: Okay, great. Before we dive into the lesson, I want to remind our listeners about the free vocabulary trainer in the learning center. | |
| Judith: Yes, you can practice your vocabulary right there in the learning center of GermanPod101.com. We’ve even added the words from the lessons already, so you don’t need to enter them yourself. | |
| Chuck: For this lesson, you can find not just the words we mention here. But also another useful words that use the prefix [ver-]. | |
| Judith: I hope you’ll use this tool to improve your German by leaps and bounds. But, let’s speak German now. | |
| Chuck: Okay. | |
| Judith: [Die Vorsilbe ver- spaltet sich nicht ab]. | |
| Chuck: Unlike the other prefixes we’ve covered, this one does not split off. | |
| Judith: [Meistens haben die Wörter mit “ver-” eine negative Bedeutung]. | |
| Chuck: Most of the time, verbs with [ver-] will have a negative meaning. At least in comparison with the same verbs without [ver-]. | |
| Judith: [Zum Beispiel “verkommen”]. | |
| Chuck: “To become run down”. | |
| Judith: [Oder “verschlafen”. “Verschlafen” bedeutet “zu lange schlafen”]. | |
| Chuck: “To oversleep”. | |
| Judith: [Genau. “Verlassen” ist ein anderes Beispiel]. | |
| Chuck: “To abandon”. | |
| Judith: [lassen] is to “let” and, [allein lassen] is “to leave”. | |
| Chuck: [Allein lassen] can be either positive or negative. But, [verlassen] has a clear negative connotation. | |
| Judith: As an adjective, [verlassen] means “deserted”. | |
| Chuck: Can you think of another clear cut example? | |
| Judith: Yeah. [Zum Beispiel “verachten”, “achten”] is “to respect and esteem someone”, where else [“verachten”] is to “stain”. | |
| Chuck: [Sind alle Wörter mit “ver-” so]? | |
| Judith: [Nein, nicht alle]. For some words, you also can’t tell what [ver-] adds to the word. For example, in [versprechen]. | |
| Chuck: “To promise”. But, yes, this has nothing to do with speaking negatively. | |
| Judith: And there are a couple of words that still appear to use the prefix [ver-] but don’t actually have a valid withstand underneath that. | |
| Chuck: Really? I can’t think of any. But, what do you think of? | |
| Judith: For example, I was thinking of [vergessen]. | |
| Chuck: Oh, how could I forget that one? | |
| Judith: Yes. [gessen] is not a German word at all. | |
| Chuck: Yeah. I think this is something to remember about the other prefixes as well. There’s always the possibility that the word is a pretender. It looks like a prefix but it´s actually a part of the word stamp. | |
| Judith: You learn something new every day! Every day that you listen to GermanPod101 that is. | |
| Chuck: And then you have to make sure you don’t forget it again. Just review the PDF´s of past lessons occasionally, that’s a refresh of memory. | |
| Judith: Okay. [Also bis nächstes Mal]! | |
| Chuck: See you next time! |
5 Comments
HideHello Swami,
Thank you for your question. Other students
may be wondering the same thing.😉
If you are not accessing a lesson via youtube or another outlet but
via our website www.GermanPod101, you have already found the learning center.
At the top of the page you have all the links and resources combined and
you have a search function if what you are looking for is not readily visible.
If you have any further questions, please let us know.
Kind regards,
Reinhard
Team GermanPod101.com
How do I go to the learning center
(sich) versprechen can also mean to misspeak. Ver- would add something negative in this case :)
Versteht ihr diese Vorsilbe jetzt? Do you understand this prefix now?