Compound Verbs
Prefixes and Verbs
(Compound Verbs)
All the verbs which you have studied up to now have been simple verbs. That is to say, they are one unit, without prefixes.
In German, however, just as in English, new verbs conveying new or expanded ideas are made by combining such simple verbs with prefixes. In English, for example, we have as simple verbs: to take, to come, to go, and to say. From these are made: to undertake, to overtake, to mistake, to retake, to overcome, to become, to welcome, to undergo, to gainsay, and similar new words. In German the same phenomenon takes place on a larger and more complex scale.
| geben | to give | |
| angeben | to declare | |
| aufgeben | to give up | |
| ausgeben | to distribute, give out, spend | |
| sich | begeben | to go, set out for, happen |
| vorgeben | to pretend, allege | |
| übergeben | to hand over, to vomit | |
| vergeben | to forgive |
One great difference exists, however, between these German forms and their English relatives. In English, verbs built out of simple verbs and prefixes are used exactly like other verbs and present no special problems. In German, on the other hand, compound verbs behave differently from simple verbs, and you must master their use before you speak correct German. Even though this use may be somewhat difficult for you at first, it must be learned.
There are two groups of compound verbs:
1. verbs formed with prefixes which can be detached from the verb. These are called separable verbs.
2. verbs formed with prefixes that cannot be detached. These are called inseparable verbs. We shall consider each group separately.
Separable Verbs
The first group of compound verbs which you should learn to use are the so-called separable verbs. They are called separable because in certain situations (which we shall discuss below) the prefix and the verb itself become separated from one another.
In quite a few cases you can tell a separable verb by its prefix. If a verb has one of the following prefixes it is separable:
| (examples) | ||
|---|---|---|
| PREFIX | BASIC VERB | SEPARABLE VERB |
| ab | nehmen | abnehmen |
| (off) | (to take) | (to take off) |
| an | sehen | ansehen |
| (at, on) | (to see) | (to view) |
| auf | stehen | aufstehen |
| (up) | (to stand) | (to stand up) |
| aus | gehen | ausgehen |
| (out) | (to go) | (to go out) |
| bei | bringen | beibringen |
| (by, with, at) | (to bring) | (to teach) |
| ein | laden | einladen |
| (in, into) | (to load) | (to invite) |
| empor | heben | emporheben |
| (up) | (to lift) | (to lift up) |
| fort | gehen | fortgehen |
| (away) | (to go) | (to go away) |
| heim | kommen | heimkommen |
| (home) | (to come) | (to return home) |
| her | stellen | herstellen |
| (hither, here) | (to place) | (to manufacture) |
| hin | fahren | hinfahren |
| (thither, away) | (to travel) | (to travel, sail to) |
| los | lassen | loslassen |
| (loose) | (to let) | (to release) |
| mit | nehmen | mitnehmen |
| (with) | (to take) | (to take along) |
| nach | lassen | nachlassen |
| (after) | (to let) | (to slacken) |
| nieder | reissen | niederreissen |
| (down) | (to tear) | (to tear down) |
| vor | ziehen | vorziehen |
| (before) | (to pull) | (to prefer) |
| weg | gehen | weggehen |
| (away) | (to go) | (to go away) |
| zu | machen | zumachen |
| (to) | (to make) | (to close) |
| zurück | bleiben | zurückbleiben |
| (back) | (to remain) | (to remain behind) |
Separable verbs make the same changes to indicate tenses and persons as their original parent verbs. If the original parent verb is a weak verb, the separable verbs that are formed from it will be weak. If the original verb is a strong verb, the separable verbs made from it will make the same stem changes as the parent verb, and will be strong. For example, abnehmen (to take off) is derived from nehmen, to take, which has as its simple past nahm, and its past participle genommen. Abnehmen will make the same changes. The difference between separable verbs and simple verbs lies not in endings and stem changes, but in the position of the prefix in the sentence.
How Separable and Simple Verbs Differ
The position of separable verbs differs from simple verbs in three situations: (i) the present tense, the simple past, the command forms, (2) the past participle, and (3) the infinitive with zu. We shall describe each of these in detail.
Difference 1. In the present tense, the simple past, and the command forms, the prefix and the verb separate in all situations except in clauses where transposed word order is used. (See Rule 4, under word order, p. 87). The verb stays in its normal place in the sentence, while the prefix is placed at the very end of the clause.
Ich nehme meinen Hut ab.
[I take my hat off.]
I take off my hat.
Nehmen Sie die Einladung an?
[Take you the invitation on?]
Are you accepting the invitation?
Geben Sie mir mein Geld zurück, bitte.
[Give you to me my money back, please.]
Give me back my money, please.
If, on the other hand, the separable verb is in a clause that is using transposed word order (Rule 4), the prefix and the verb do not separate, and the separable verb is treated exactly like an ordinary simple verb.
Wenn ich meinen Hut abnehme, werde ich mich erkälten.
[If I my hat off-take, shall I myself catch-a-cold.]
If I take my hat off, I shall catch a cold.
Als wir die Einladung annahmen, waren wir in Hamburg.
[When we the invitation accepted, were we in Hamburg.]
When we accepted the invitation, we were in Hamburg.
As you will observe, the first clause in both of the above examples is in transposed word order because the clauses begin, respectively, with wenn and als, which take this word order. The second clause of each sentence is in inverted word order (Rule 3, p. 86), because the first element in the sentence is not the subject, (ich and wir), but rather the two first clauses.
Difference 2. To form the past participle of separable verbs, -ge- is used, as in most simple verbs, but it is placed between the prefix and the verb itself. This compound is never broken.
This past participle is used for exactly the same purposes as the past participle of a simple verb.
Wir haben unsre Hüte abgenommen.
[We have our hats off-taken.]
We took off our hats. We have taken off our hats.
Difference 3. When zu is used with the infinitive of separable verbs, -zu- is placed between the prefix and the verb proper, and the three parts form a single word:
Um Bilder des Waldes aufzunehmen, müssen Sie am Fluss entlanggehen.
[In order pictures of the forest to take, must you the river along go.]
In order to take pictures of the forest, you must go along the river.
In all other circumstances, separable verbs are treated exactly like their parent verbs, and prefix and verb proper are not separated.
Der Kellner wird uns drei Glas Bier herausbringen.
[The waiter will us three glasses of beer out-here-bring.]
The waiter will serve us three glasses of beer out here.
Since the prefixes of separable verbs are placed at the end of the clause in some occasions, you must get in the habit of waiting for the end of the clause before deciding what the verb means. Such prefixes at the end of the clause may change the meaning of the verb considerably from the meaning of the simple verb form that you met in the earlier part of the sentence.
Man warf es die Treppe hinunter.
[One threw it the stairs down-way.]
They threw it downstairs.
Man warf es die Treppe herauf.
[One threw it the stairs up-here.]
They threw it upstairs.
Inseparable Verbs
The other group of compound verbs that you must study is called the inseparable verbs. Unlike separable verbs, they do not split into components, but remain units under all circumstances. In this respect they are like simple, verbs.
Inseparable verbs take the same endings and make the same alterations in their stems (if they are strong verbs) to form persons and tenses as their parent verbs do. In only one respect do they differ from simple verbs: they do not place a ge- before their past participle.
AN INSEPARABLE WEAK VERB
| besuchen | to visit (from suchen, to seek) |
| ich besuche | I visit (present) |
| er besuchte | he visited (simple past) |
| wir haben besucht | we have visited, we visited (conversational past) |
| AN INSEPARABLE STRONG VERB | |
| erfinden | to invent (from finden, to find) |
| ich erfinde | I invent |
| er erfand | he invented (simple past) |
| wir haben erfunden | we invented (conversational past) |
How to Tell Whether a Compound Verb is Separable or Inseparable
All compound verbs that begin with be-, ent-, ge-, ver-, zer-, miss-, or er- are inseparable. They do not divide into components.
Examples:
| besuchen | to visit | (from suchen, to seek) |
| entstehen | to come into existence | (from stehen, to stand) |
| erzählen | to narrate, tell | (from zählen, to count) |
| gehören | to belong | (from hören, to hear) |
| verstehen | to understand | (from stehen, to stand) |
| zerbrechen | to shatter | (from brechen, to break) |
| missdeuten | to misinterpret | (from deuten, to explain) |
Note: Do not confuse the ge- which is used to form the past participle in simple and separable verbs with the ge- which is a part of an inseparable verb. Consult your dictionary if you are in doubt.
There is no simple rule for identifying separable verbs. It will help you, though, if you remember the table of separable prefixes given on pp. 75–76 and repeated here for emphasis. You have already met these words as either prepositions or adverbs.
There are some other prefixes, however, which do not lend themselves to easy classification. Sometimes they form separable verbs, sometimes inseparable verbs, depending upon the meaning of the compound. You will either have to remember individual verbs, or get into the habit of checking your dictionary.