If you’ve ever found yourself scratching your head over why a verb suddenly splits in half, fear not! Because today we’re looking at German separable verbs, and we’re here to shed some light on this special category of verbs that can be confusing for learners.
The Coffee Break German Show is a podcast series of short discussions in which we chat about interesting topics for German learners. In the latest episode, Mark and Thomas talk about separable verbs, and about which prefixes are separable, inseparable, or can be either!
Watch the video version of this episode, or listen to the podcast as you read along, and look out for your free worksheet download at the bottom of this article, which will allow you to practise what you learn.
German separable verbs
So, what exactly are separable verbs? Well, put simply, they’re verbs where the prefix, often a preposition, is split from the main verb and placed at the end of the sentence when used as the main verb. Let’s take a look at some examples to make things clearer.
Martin macht jedes Mal, sobald er vom Fußballtraining heimkommt, erstmal alle Fenster im ganzen Haus auf/zu.
Every time, as soon as he comes home from football training, Martin opens/closes all the windows in the whole house.
In the example above, auf or zu is separated from the main part of the verb macht and placed at the end of the sentence. The infinitive form of the verb is aufmachen/zumachen.
The power of the prefix
Now, let’s break down some key points about German separable verbs.
Some prefixes always form separable verbs, such as ab, an, auf, aus, ein, mit, nach, vor, and zu. Each of these prefixes has a different meaning and each can change the meaning of a verb when added to it. Let’s see some examples:
Meine Freunde kommen morgen früh an.
My friends are arriving early tomorrow.
Sie denkt oft über die Zukunft nach.
She often thinks about the future.
Wir haben das Paket abgegeben.
We delivered the package.
Note with this last example in the perfect tense in German, the prefix is separated from the rest of the past participle by the -ge- in the middle: abgeben > ab + ge + geben.
Separable verbs in um…zu constructions
With infinitive constructions, such as um…zu, meaning “in order to”, note how zu comes between the prefix and the main part of the verb. For example:
Wir warten, um uns einen besseren Plan auszudenken.
We are waiting in order to come up with a better plan.
Prefixes that don’t separate
Conversely, some prefixes never form German separable verbs, including be, emp, ent, er, ver, and zer. For example:
Er hat uns ein gutes Restaurant empfohlen.
He recommended a very good restaurant to us.
Dieses Gefühl ist nicht leicht zu beschreiben.
This feeling is hard to describe.
Prefixes that sometimes separate, and sometimes don’t
And then, there are prefixes that can form both separable and inseparable verbs, such as durch, über, um, unter, and wieder. The meaning of verbs can change depending on whether these prefixes separate or not. Hopefully, some examples will make this clearer:
Das findest du nie wieder.
You will never find that again.
This is the verb wiederfinden meaning “to find again”.
Yet, in other contexts, the prefix changes the meaning of the verb, as can be seen in the next example:
Der Moderator wiederholt sich die ganze Zeit.
The presenter is repeating himself all the time.
It’s the same prefix, wieder, but as part of the verb wiederholen and it doesn’t separate.
Let’s look at another:
Ich übersetze sehr gerne alte Kinderlieder.
I really enjoy translating old children’s songs.
Note that it’s not a separable verb in that example. But here, the prefix über does separate from the main verb and has a different meaning:
Das Boot kippte über.
The boat tipped over.
Stress that prefix
When the prefix is separable you can hear the difference in the infinitive.
The prefix is stressed when it is spoken. If there is no stress on the prefix, then we know it is not separable.
A visual summary of German separable verbs
German separable verbs are incredibly common, and understanding them helps getting to grips with the language. Recognising them and knowing how to use them will undoubtedly help you improve your German.
If you found this interesting, make sure to listen to the full episode with Thomas and Mark on The Coffee Break German Show. We will regularly be uploading more episodes for German learners, so make sure to subscribe to our podcast feed and our channel on YouTube to find out when the next episode is available.
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Bis bald, and happy Coffee Breaking!
