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Title: LANGUAGE TRAINING CENTRE - GERMAN | ENGLISH | FRENCH | CHINESE | SPANISH | SWAHILI | KENYA SIGN LANG
The Secrets to German Verb Prefixes That No One Told You
My students who really know their stuff at the B2 and C1 level often list verb prefixes as their main difficulty with German. Whether they’re separable or inseparable, these verbs add nuance that’s hard to express in English—so no matter your starting point, learning them will pay off in the long run. Let’s unlock the secrets of the German separable verbs (trennbare Verben), inseparable verbs (untrennbare Verben) and what all those verb prefixes mean.
What is a (German) verb prefix?
No, it’s not a minor character in the Asterix comics. This is a small unit of meaning attached to the beginning of a word. Common prefixes in English are un-, re-, non-, pre- and post-, among others. In English, it is obvious to us that ‘unhappy’ has a different meaning to ‘happy’ and ‘predate’ has a different meaning to ‘date’. The German prefixes, whether separable or separable, perform a similar function – they differentiate the meaning of a word from its root word, as we saw in the examples above.
Separating Fact from Separable Verb Fiction
Separable verbs (in German: trennbare Verben) are one of the concepts learned at A1 level, which can make German learners strongly question their life choices (other strong candidates: noun gender, accusative and dative). English speakers are not used to having a prefix that goes walkabout in the sentence. To use an example word from earlier, I would be extremely surprised to read the sentence, “The dinosaurs date the Stone Age pre.” We can therefore consider all prefixes in English to be inseparable prefixes.
Not to worry, though, because English does have something analogous to separable prefixes – verb particles. Consider these two example sentences: “He looked the German word up in the dictionary,” and “They wrapped the project up.” ‘Looked up’ and ‘wrapped up’ would be our verb-particle combinations here. The particle is a preposition, but it is not functioning as a preposition here, because it has nothing to do with location. Rather, it is altering the meanings of ‘look’ and ‘wrap’. You will also see that the particle ‘up’ separates from the verb in both cases.
This is exactly what separable prefixes in German are doing, except that they hide at the front of the word in the dictionary. Examples of such verbs are ‘anziehen’ (to get dressed), ‘aufstehen’ (to get up) and ‘wegnehmen’ (to take away).
‘Separable verbs’ is a bit of a misnomer because it sounds like the separation is optional. It is not. As soon as those prefixes/particles get a chance, they are getting away from the main verb. Note these example sentences:
- Ich ziehe mich an. (I get dressed)
- Ich stehe jeden Morgen um 7 Uhr auf. (I get up at 7 every day)
- Ich nehme das Spielzeug weg. (I take away the toy)
- Er ruft seine Mutter an. (He calls up his mother)
You will notice that the prefix is as far away from the verb as it is possible to get – the end of the sentence. I frequently liken these prefixes to naughty children – they run away as soon as the chance presents itself. Another chance is when we build the perfect tense. Let’s see what happens to the sentences above in perfect:
- Ich habe mich angezogen. (I got dressed)
- Ich bin um 7 Uhr aufgestanden. (I got up at 7)
- Ich habe das Spielzeug weggenommen. (I took away the toy)
- Er hat seine Mutter angerufen. (He called his mother)
Here, the prefix and the verb are separated by the (other) prefix ge-, thereby following the cardinal rule of separable verbs, which is, “If they can be separated, they must be separated.” Even if it’s just by ge-.
How do we know when a prefix is separable?
There are two possible ways to know if a prefix is separable or not. The first is to memorise the list of prefixes that are always separable. In case you were curious, they are:
- ab-
- an-
- auf-
- aus-
- bei-
- ein-
- fern-
- fort-
- frei-
- hoch-
- mit-
- nach-
- tief-
- vor-
- weg-
- zu-
- zurück-
So if you see a verb such as ‘eingreifen’ (to intervene), ‘abwerten’ (to devalue) or ‘beibringen’ (to teach), you can know for sure that the verb is separable.
However, there are certain prefixes (such as über- and um-), which are sometimes separable and sometimes inseparable. Also, you might forget the list of always separable prefixes. In that case, hearing the word can tell you definitively if the prefix is separable or not. How? If the prefix is separable, it is stressed (i.e., louder and longer than other syllables). So we say ‘eingreifen’ as EINgreifen and ‘beibringen’ as BEIbringen, but an inseparable verb such as ‘übersetzen’ as überSETZen. Another way to put it would be to say that an inseparable prefix is NEVER stressed.
Practically Inseparable
This brings us neatly to the topic of inseparable verbs. Inseparable verbs, as you might expect, are verbs where the prefix cannot be separated from the word stem. The extent to which this is the case will be revealed shortly, but as with the separable verbs, there is a list of inseparable prefixes which we can memorize, and it is thankfully short. Here is the line-up:
- be-
- ent-
- er-
- ver-
- zer-
- ge-
- miss-
If memorizing these strikes you as difficult, listen to this song to drill them into your brain:
Let’s look at some example sentences now to see the inseparableness in action:
- Sie vergisst oft ihren Schlüssel. (She often forgets her key)
- Ich entscheide mich für die Pizza. (I opt for the pizza)
- Wir beginnen um acht Uhr. (We start at eight o’clock)
- Dieses Video gefällt mir. (This video is pleasing to me, i.e., I like this video)
Unlike the separable verbs, nothing has moved around in the sentence, so you might be forgiven for not even noticing that there were prefixes in the first place. But look what happens in perfect tense:
- Sie hat oft ihren Schlüssel vergessen. (She often forgot her key)
- Ich habe mich für die Pizza entschieden. (I opted for the pizza)
- Wir haben um acht Uhr begonnen. (We began at eight o’clock)
- Dieses Video hat mir gefallen. (I liked this video)
If we compare these perfect forms to the forms without prefixes or even the inseparable verbs, something is missing. What is it? It’s ge- (unless the prefix of the verb is ge-, obviously)! These verbs are so inseparable that not even ge- can get between them. If separable verbs are the naughty children, inseparable verbs are the newborns that cannot be separated from their mother at any cost, and any ge- that gets in the way will be cast out.
What do the German prefixes mean?
You may have started to consider if these prefixes have meanings as clear as un- does in English. Things are not quite as clear-cut in German, but there are general meaning directions, which I shall now go over in these comprehensive tables below:
| Separable Prefix | Meaning(s) |
| ab | off of, away from (e.g., abfahren, abgeben) |
| an | towards (e.g., ankommen, anhören) |
| auf | up, on, open, stopping (e.g., aufbauen, aufmachen, aufhören) |
| aus | out of, expanding, to endure (e.g., ausbreiten, aushalten) |
| bei | with, at (e.g., beibringen, beitragen) |
| ein | in, into (e.g., einsehen, einkaufen) |
| hoch | to a high place (e.g., hochladen, hochrechnen) |
| mit | towards , with (e.g., mitbekommen, mitbringen) |
| nach | to copy or follow, after (e.g., nachahmen, nachholen) |
| vor | before it happens (e.g., vorschlagen, vorstellen) |
| weg | away, away from (e.g., wegwerfen, weggehen) |
| zu | to, towards, with attention towards, close (e.g., zunehmen, zuhören, zumachen) |
| zurück | back (e.g., zurücknehmen, zurückgehen) |
| Inseparable Prefix | Meaning(s) |
| be | often (but not always) turns a verb which cannot take an object into one which can take an object (e.g., begehen, bestehen, besprechen) |
| ent | Away from, in another direction (e.g., entkommen, entführen) |
| er | often indicates either the very first (e.g., eröffnen) or the very last (e.g., ertrinken) of something, a permanent result (e.g., erhalten, erreichen, erfahren) |
| miss | Going in the wrong direction (e.g., missverstehen, missachten) |
| ver | Indicates either a holistic result (e.g., verstehen) or a more negative result (e.g., sich versprechen, verhindern, verlieren) |
| zer | Related to destruction and decay (e.g., zerfallen, zertreten, zerbrechen) |
Hope this all helps you get to grips with the German verb prefixes. Remember, Übung macht den Meister. (Practice makes perfect) And what better place to practice than on Clozemaster? Get stuck into your collection and see how many separable and inseparable verbs you can spot!
