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! German Grammar Explained / Separable verbs

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German is well known for its long, compound words such as

Rechtsschutzversicherungsgesellschaft, for example. And much like it’s done with nouns, verbs
can also be made up of several words that will end up with fairly predictable meanings most of
the time.

Let's look at an example:

stehen stand
+
auf up
=
aufstehen get up

Verbs that are made up of a verb and a prefix are called trennbare verben (separable verbs).
There are quite a few trennbare verben in German!

How do separable verbs work in a sentence?

In the present tense, the prefixes are separated from the verb and placed at the very end of the
sentence.

aufstehen

Ich stehe jeden Morgen um 7 Uhr auf.

I get up every morning at 7.

Wann stehst du jeden Morgen auf?

When do you get up every morning?

Just for the record, these sentences are grammatically incorrect:

Ich aufstehe um 7 Uhr.

Wann aufstehst du?

Common separable prefixes and their meanings

It is a very good idea to know the meanings of common prefixes to help you learn separable
verbs quicker.

auf up
aufräumen to clean up, to tidy up
aufstehen to get up, to stand up

aus out, off

ausgehen to go out
ausmachen to switch off

zurück back
zurückgeben to give back
zurückkommen to come back

zusammen together
zusammenkommen to come together
zusammenziehen to move in together

Because of the way they are constructed, it is possible that you might be able to guess words
and say something that is actually a word! It doesn’t quite always work though. For example,
ausgeben, doesn’t mean “to give out”, it means “to spend”.
But feel free to try it out...probiere es aus!

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