Learn some common verb prefixes in German
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Intro |
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| Michael: What are some verb prefixes in German? |
| Igor: And why are they useful to know? |
| Michael: At GermanPod101.com, we hear these questions often. Imagine the following situation: Ben Lee and Sarah Schmidt are attending a Japanese crafts workshop for origami. The instructor tells them to unfold the paper when Ben asks, "What does 'entfalten' mean?" |
| Ben Lee: Was bedeutet 'entfalten?' |
| Dialogue |
| Ben Lee: Was bedeutet 'entfalten?' |
| Emil Eichmann: 'Ent-' bedeutet das gegenteil einer Aktion, z.B. falten und entfalten. |
| Michael: Once more with the English translation. |
| Ben Lee: Was bedeutet 'entfalten?' |
| Michael: "What does 'unfold' mean?" |
| Emil Eichmann: 'Ent-' bedeutet das gegenteil einer Aktion, z.B. falten und entfalten. |
| Michael: "'Ent-' indicates the opposite of an action, for example 'fold' and "'unfold.'" |
Lesson focus |
| Michael: While studying German, you might have come across a large number of identical verbs that differ only in the syllables at the beginning of the word. Those syllables are called |
| Igor: Präfixe |
| Michael: meaning "prefixes" or |
| Igor: Vorsilben |
| Michael: literally translating to "before syllables," meaning syllables in front of a word. German verbs consist of a stem to which a German speaker usually attaches a prefix and a suffix to give the verb a form and a concrete meaning. |
| [Recall 1] |
| Michael: To understand how it works, let's have a closer look at the dialogue. |
| Do you remember how Ben says "What does 'unfold' mean?" |
| (pause 4 seconds) |
| Igor: Was bedeutet 'entfalten?' |
| Michael: And do you remember Emil's answer? "'Ent-' indicates the opposite of an action, for example 'fold' and 'unfold.'" |
| Igor: 'Ent-' bedeutet das gegenteil einer Aktion, z.B. falten und entfalten. |
| Michael: So, basically, just imagine a prefix as a fixed idea, which, attached to a verb, transforms the activity into an activity done in the context of this idea. Complicated? So, let's look at our verb from the dialogue again, |
| Igor: entfalten |
| Michael: meaning "unfolding." The prefix of this verb is |
| Igor: ent-. |
| Michael: and can stand for three ideas, the first is the one used in our example, which is giving the verb an opposite meaning to the base verb, meaning if |
| Igor: entfalten |
| Michael: is "unfolding," and we take the |
| Igor: ent- |
| Michael: away, we'll get the verb |
| Igor: falten |
| Micheal: meaning "folding." |
| But, as mentioned before, the prefix |
| Igor: ent- |
| Michael: can carry two more ideas. |
| The next one is indicating the beginning of something. |
| For example, if we look at the word, |
| Igor: entzünden |
| Michael: meaning "ignite." Here, the prefix |
| Igor: ent- |
| Michael: combined with the word |
| Igor: zünden, |
| Michael: also meaning "to ignite," indicates the moment something has begun to burn. |
| The meaning of the prefix |
| Igor: ent- |
| Michael: here is removing something. In order to visualize this, the best example is the word |
| Igor: entdecken. |
| Michael: The actual translation is "discovering," but literally it means "uncovering" something, or to remove a cover. |
| Another often used word using this meaning of the prefix |
| Igor: ent- |
| Michael: is |
| Igor: entfernen |
| Michael: meaning "to remove." Note that, after removing the prefix, the word |
| Igor: fernen. |
| Michael: Unlike our previous examples, does not have any meaning. It doesn't exist in German in this form, although the stem |
| Igor: fern |
| Michael: means "far" or "distant." Literally, |
| Igor: entfernen |
| Michael: would mean something like "creating distance," but translates into the verb "remove." |
| Sometimes the meaning of a word is not clear from looking at the stem, and they have to be memorized by heart, although having an idea of what a prefix could mean will help you categorize and understand words you might hear or read for the first time. |
| [Summary] |
| Michael: In this lesson, you learned that words get their meaning from a syllable attached in front of the stem. Looking at the prefix will give you an idea about what the word could mean. |
| Let's have a look at some other prefixes. The first is |
| Igor: auf- |
| Michael: giving the idea of "up" or a start. |
| For instance, the word |
| Igor: aufstehen |
| Michael: means "to stand up." |
| Next is the prefix |
| Igor: durch-. |
| Michael: This prefix carries the meaning of "through," just like the regular word |
| Igor: durch. |
| Michael: An example of a word used with this prefix is |
| Igor: durchbrechen, |
| Michael: meaning "to break through." |
| Another prefix is |
| Igor: zer-. |
| Michael: This prefix indicates that something is pulled apart into pieces or spoiled. |
| Let's take, for instance, the word |
| Igor: zerstören, |
| Michael: meaning "to destroy." Make sure to look into the Lesson Notes, where we have prepared a list of German prefixes for you. |
| Expansion/Contrast |
| Michael: There's one more thing important to know about German prefixes. In German, prefixes are categorized into two different categories, the |
| Igor: trennbare Präfixe |
| Michael: meaning "separable prefixes," and |
| Igor: untrennbare Präfixe |
| Michael: meaning "inseparable" or "non-separable prefixes." What are separable and inseparable prefixes? |
| Igor: This is where the fun starts. |
| Michael: You have learned before that German words consist of a stem, prefix, and a suffix. Let's have a look at a word consisting of all these parts, such as |
| Igor: ankommen, |
| Michael: meaning "to arrive." Now, if the word stands on its own, it's written as one, but if we use it in a sentence, for example |
| Igor: Morgen komme ich in Berlin an |
| Michael: meaning "Tomorrow, I'll arrive in Berlin," you'll notice that |
| Igor: kommen |
| Michael: is in the second position of the sentence and |
| Igor: an |
| Michael: is at the end of the sentence. Nevertheless, even if the prefix and the stem are separated, they are still seen as one word. This is called a "separable prefix." The prefixes can be detached from their stems, if the stress lies on them. |
| Some other prefixes that belong to this group are |
| Igor: ab-, auseinander-, entgegen-, hinterher-, mit-, nach-, vor- oder her-. |
| Michael: They aren't always separated and can also occur as one word as in the following sentence. Let's take our previous word |
| Igor: ankommen |
| Michael: and let's listen to another example, |
| Igor: Mein Vater ist nach seiner Geschäftsreise zuhause angekommen, |
| Michael: meaning "My father arrived at home after his business trip." |
| However, if the stress lies on the stem of the word, the prefix can't be detached from the stem at all. These are called the "non-separable prefixes." They will always appear in a sentence as one word. Let's take, for instance, the word |
| Igor: bestehen |
| Michael: meaning "to pass" or "to consist," and consisting of the prefix |
| Igor: be- |
| Michael: and the stem |
| Igor: stehen. |
| Michael: Now, let's use it in a sentence, |
| Igor: Ich habe meine Prüfung bestanden, |
| Michael: meaning "I've passed my exam." As you can hear, it appears as one word. Even if we change the tense, |
| Igor: Ich werde meine Prüfung bestehen |
| Michael: meaning "I will pass my exam," or |
| Igor: Ich bestehe meine Prüfung |
| Michael: meaning "I pass my exam," the word always stays together. |
| Other non-separable prefixes are |
| Igor: ent-, ge-, er-, miss-, ver-, hinter- oder zer-. |
| Michael: Now, you might also come across prefixes that can be separable, and non-separable, and it only depends on the individual word that is formed by using that prefix. To give you a better idea of how it works, let's take the prefix |
| Igor: um-. |
| Michael: The rule here is the same as before; once the stress is on the prefix, the word can be separated, like for |
| Igor: umpflanzen, |
| Michael: meaning "transplant." |
| Igor: Am Sonntag pflanze ich die Rosen um, |
| Michael: meaning "On Sunday, I'll transplant the roses." |
| Did you hear how Igor stressed the prefix in the word? |
| Igor: Umpflanzen. |
| Michael: Now, let's have a look at a word, where the stem is stressed, such as |
| Igor: umarmen |
| Michael: meaning "to hug." |
| Igor:Wenn meine Oma aus dem Krankenhaus kommt, möchte ich sie umarmen. |
| Michael: meaning "When my grandmother comes back from the hospital, I want to hug her." |
| Could you hear how Igor stressed the stem here? |
| Igor: Umarmen. |
| Michael: Other common prefixes that can be either separable or non-separable are, |
| Igor: über-, durch-, um-, wieder-, wider-, unter-. |
Outro |
| Michael: Do you have any more questions? We're here to answer them! |
| Igor: Tschüsschen! |
| Michael: See you soon!" |
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