Learn the verb prefix be-
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| Chuck:This is Advanced Focus Lesson 8. |
| Judith: Willkommen! |
| Chuck:Welcome to another Advanced Focus Lesson. Here we improve your 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 [be-]. |
| Chuck:Great, but before we dive into this 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 this lesson already, so you don’t need to enter them yourself. |
| Chuck:For this lesson, you can find not just the words from we mentioned here, but also some other useful words that use the prefix [be-]. |
| 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 “be-” spaltet sich nicht ab]. |
| Chuck:This prefix is not split off. |
| Judith: [Außerdem hat sie keine greifbare Bedeutung]. |
| Chuck:No meaning that you can grasp? |
| Judith: [Es ist mehr grammatikalisch. Wenn man “be-” vor einem Verb setzt, nimmt es immer ein Akkusativobjekt, egal was vorher war]. |
| Chuck:So, this is a grammatical prefix indicating the verb can take an accusative object. [Judith, was sind Beispiele für diese Vorsilbe]? |
| Judith: [befolgen]. |
| Chuck:“To follow a command”. |
| Judith: [folgen] alone is “to follow” in a natural sense, so you can also [Ich folge deinem Rat]. |
| Chuck:“I followed your advice”. In this case, [deinem Rat] is dative. |
| Judith: But, if you use [befolgen] it becomes accusative. [Ich befolge deinen Rat]. |
| Chuck:The most common verb with [be-] is probably [bekommen], a trouble maker, cause it has nothing to do with the English word “become”. |
| Judith: [bekommen] means “to get”. |
| Chuck:And also, how do you get from the meaning of [kommen] to [bekommen] but in English is hardly more logical. |
| Judith: Sometimes English uses the prefix [be-] where Germans use it too. For example, in [befreunden]. |
| Chuck:“To befriend”. Are there any other really common verbs with the prefix [be-]? |
| Judith: There’s [bemerken], “to remark”, based on [merken]. |
| Chuck:“To notice”. |
| Judith: And there’s [sich befinden]. |
| Chuck:“To be located”. |
| Judith: Based on [finden]. |
| Chuck:“To find”. Just go to the learning center and just look at our list of vocabulary for this lesson. There, you’ll find more verb with [be-] that you can study. Oh, and next time when you hear a German say “I want to become a beef steak.” You know what they’re talking about. |
| Judith: Thank you very much for listening. |
| Chuck:See you next time! |
| Judith: [Bis nächstes Mal]! |
9 Comments
HideAbout which German prefix would you like to learn more?
Hallo robert groulx,
You are very welcome. 😇
Feel free to contact us if you have any questions.
Good luck with your language studies.
Mit freundlichen Grüßen,
Levente
Team GermanPod101.com
thanks for the lesson
my favorite is [Ich folge deinem Rat]
robert
Vielleicht könnten wir "er" lernen? Ich sehe diese Vorsilbe oft, zum Beispiel "erkennen" und "erwachen".
Vielen Dank!
Hallo Vanessa. I am impressed how you make complex sentences :) But still there a a few mistakes. If I may correct your sentences (again).
"Ich habe die Vorsilbelektionen befolgt." _-> "Ich habe die Vorsilbenlektionen verfolgt." to follow in this context is verfolgen. Only if you follow orders or instructions you use befolgen.
It's just a typo probably but "...wenn ich diese Seite besuchen." -> "...wenn ich diese Seite besuche" is without n. first person singular ich besuche (first and third person plural would be besuchen. Wir besuchen, sie besuchen)
"Es tut mir leid, aber bemerkte etwas, darüber ich beklagen muss." -> "Es tut mir leid, aber ich bemerkte etwas, worüber ich mich beklagen muss."
I amnot sure about the usgae of worüber and darüber (some Gpod members, help?) but I'd say darüber is if that something you want to talk was already mentioned. Like "that is something I want to talk about" that is something = darüber wheres worüber is unspecified "there is something I want to talk about"
beklagen doesn't stand alone most of the time.
ich beklage mich
du beklagst dich
er/sie/es beklagt sich
wir beklagen uns
ihr beklagt euch
sie beklagen sich
There a a few cases like Sie beklagt sich über das Fehlern der Wörter im Learning Center (she complains about the missing words in the learining center). It when you say exactly what is wrong. But "darüber" or "worüber" is not exact since you already explained what is wrong and use worüber as placeholder that means you have to use sich (or in your sentence mich)
"Ich benutze gern das Learning Center zu üben." -> "benutze gern das Learning Center um zu üben." I believe "Ich benutze gern das Learning Center zum Üben." is also possible.
Wir lernten die Vorsilbe "an" in Lektion 2.
Ich habe die Vorsilbelektionen befolgt. Ich bin damit sehr beeindruckt, und ich lerne viel, wenn ich diese Seite besuchen. Es tut mir leid, aber bemerkte etwas, darüber ich beklagen muss. Ich benutze gern das Learning Center zu üben. Die "be" und "ein" Wörter befinden sich nicht in dem Learning Center. Ich möchte lernen, was diese Wörter bedeuten. Können Sie mir helfen? Vielen Dank!
(We learned the prefix "an" in Lesson 2.
I have been following the prefix lessons. I am really impressed by them, and I always learn a lot when I visit this site. I am sorry, but I noticed something I must complain about. I like to use the Learning Center to practice. The "be" and "ein" words are not located in the Learning Center. I would like to learn what these words mean. Can you help me? Thanks a lot!)
very importent: beantworten *g*
Ich antworte auf diese Lektion und ihr beantwortet meine Frage^^
un- is also a nice prefix. ungeduldig, ungemein, unhaltbar, unentschuldbar, unhöflich, unvorsichtig, unbedacht,...
an!