Hello everyone,
and welcome to a new episode of the series
German Prepositions Explained
In this series, we’re looking at German prepositions, one at a time, and explore what they mean as a stand alone, as a prefix and ALSO as part of those infamous verb-preposition combinations. You know, like “warten auf” or “werfen auf”.
If you don’t know what that is, well, you’ll find out soon enough ;).
Today (and in part 2), we’ll take a detailed look at the meanings and uses of
auf
We’ll jump straight in and as usual, we’ll start with a look at the preposition itself.
“auf” as a Preposition
9 out of 10 German learners agree on what German prepositions do:
they suck!
But they do something else beside that. Their actual function in language is to express relations between action and entities of a sentence. Take this example:
- I put beer fridge.
Sure, context suggests that the beer is put IN the fridge but hey, we could also put it next to the fridge. Or under it.
“Hey man, when you’re in the kitchen, could you put me another beer under the fridge? I like it flat.”
Just like my jokes.
Anyway, so each preposition carries a more or less “spatial” idea and the core idea of auf is the idea of on top. That can be super literal but auf is also used in more abstract contexts, like for instance stuff on a paper.
- Die Tasse ist auf dem Tisch.
- The cup is on the table.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Auf den Preis kommt noch die Steuer.
- The tax goes on top of the price.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Auf dem Foto ist ein Einhorn.
- In the photo, there’s a unicorn.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
It’s pretty straight forward, I think and the only real difficulty are – the colors. Dun dunn dunnnn.
Well, not the colors but what they stand for.
The colors are there to bring our attention to the fact that there are different cases in the example. Der Tisch and der Preis are both masculine but in the first example we used Dative (dem) while in the second one we used Accusative (den). So auf must be one of what is commonly called two-way preposition.
In a nutshell it’s like this:
Two-way prepositions can be followed by Dative OR Accusative. The case depends on what YOU want to express. Dative “marks” something as answer to “Where something is (happening)”, Accusative marks something as a destination.
That is a very crucial concept in German and we’ve talked about in detail in a separate article. So if you feel shaky about it you should really check that out (you can find it here).
Anyway, so yeah… auf is a two-way-preposition. The Dative expresses that something is on top of something and Accusative tells us that on top of something is the destination of the action.
- Die Katze sitzt auf dem Tisch.
- The cat is sitting on the table.(stationary)
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Die Katze springt auf die Tastatur.
- The cat jumps ontothe keybagiusgdiaszdgfiasgdfiuasgib
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
God damn it, Meowzilla. I’m trying to explain something here. Go fix me a beer if you have nothing to do, stupid …
“Meow, meow, meow!”
Ugh… my cat is bored and wants to move on to the prefix-auf. But there isn’t all that much to say about the preposition so I guess, let’s do that.
“auf” as a Verb Prefix
If you’ve read a few articles of my series on Separable Prefix Verbs, you’ll know that many prefixes can add two notions to a verb. One is based on “locational” idea of the preposition, the other one is a random idea German has pulled out of “Meanings for Prefixes”-hat, just for the lulz. Well… at least it seems that way.
Auf is no exception, so it has two notions. And there are many many really useful auf-verbs built with more or less crazy interpretations of the idea of on top or upward.
Some are pretty obvious… .
- Ich setze mir meine Mütze auf.
- I put my hat on. (“on top of my head”)
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Thomas legt bei meiner Party auf.
- Thomas djs at my party (“puts records on top of the player”)
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Die Sonne geht auf.
- The sun is rising. (“goes upward“)
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
For others, you need a bit of mind bending…
- Ich schreibe mir das Wort auf.
- I write down the word. (“onto a paper”)
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Ich stelle ein Schild auf.
- I put up a sign. (onto a place, upright position)
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Ich stehe um 9 auf.
- I get up at 9.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
And for some, the idea is quite obscured…
- Das ist eine einfache Aufgabe.
- That is an easy task. (“something put upon you”)
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Ich gebe nicht auf.
- I won’t give up. (think of a knight on his knees yielding his weapon upward)
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
And then, there’s this one…
- Thomas ist froh, weil Maria endlich aufhört zu meckern.
- Thomas is happy, because Maria finally stops complaining.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
Now you’re like “Wait, this is the second notion, right? The weird one.” But no, aufhören is actually still based on this upward idea. It’s all one. You’ll understand if you take Ayahuasca like Eso-Hipsters do. Or you can read my article about it. Much easier and no risk of vomiting.
Anyways, the second idea of auf, the weird one, is open-ness.
In fact, auf is THE everyday word for open in context of stores and it’s more common than offen and there are many useful prefix verbs with it.
- Hey, dein Hosenstall ist auf.
- Hey, your fly is open.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Bis wann habt ihr heute auf?
- Till what time are you open today?
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Hast du das Fenster aufgemacht?
- Did you open the window?
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Ich habe das Fenster aufgelassen.
- I left the window open.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Mein Scheißschuh geht immer auf.
- My goddamn shoe always opens (by itself).
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
Now, the open-idea is pretty clear and easy to spot, I think. But I think most of you are wondering is what on earth the idea of on top has to do with an open door. Like… is there even a connection?
Well, check out these two examples.
- Ich drehe die Heizung auf.
- I turn up the heater.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Ich drehe den Wasserhahn auf.
- I open the tap.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
One English speakers would associate with upward, the other clearly with open and it’s the same verb in German. So looks like it’s not just random. There is a connection. And .. ahem… a deeply rooted one. Like… literally.
Because all these words, auf, up, open, offen and also über and over come from the same dramatically ancient Indo-European root for upward.
People very early on connected the idea of upward with the idea of open. In fact, take the English verb to open up (vs. to close down) boom, both ideas combined.
I think the missing link is a notion of coming into the open. Just think of a tree growing out of the soil. Or a the chieftain standing on top of a rock.
Of course an open door doesn’t have much to do with idea of on top of. But it does have something to do with being accessible, visible. Meh… no idea if that makes sense.
If not, don’t worry. I’m just kind of nerding out a bit with these connections.
You don’t really need them in daily life.
But you do need auf-verbs, so here’s a little overview over the most important auf-verbs with their most common translations (when there’s “…”, that means, there are some other not so common translations. )
Useful Verbs with “auf-” as a prefix – Overview
And a link to a separate article on the verb, if we’ve talked about it in the series about prefix verbs. Because… you know… German prefix verbs are not like “Oh, this the core idea? Well, I’ll have this meaning then.”
They’re more like “Oh this is the core idea? Great, I’ll twist and bend that till I have like a dozen meanings. ” And then there’s the r-versions and maybe the dr-versions and the related nouns. So… if you want to take a closer look at one of them, just click the link.
I categorized them by core idea, but please please please don’t take this too literal!! We’ve learned that the ideas (on top, open) are connected, so there isn’t really a sharp line between them. It’s more of a continuum.
| verb | idea of “up” | idea of “open” |
| auffallen | notice, catch the eye | catch the eye |
| aufgehen | rise (sun, dough) | open by itself, … |
| aufhaben | have on/wear (hats) | be open (for store, from perspective of store/owner) |
| aufhalten | hold up, stop | hold open |
| aufhören | cease, stop | – |
| aufkommen | arise, hit the ground, … | – |
| auflegen | hang up phone, to dj, … | – |
| aufnehmen | record, take in, pick up,… | – |
| aufmachen | – | to open (up) |
| auftun | put food on a plate | – |
| aufgeben | to give up,… | – |
| aufdrehen | turn up (radio, heater), … | tap |
| auflassen | leave on (for hats) | leave open |
| aufpassen | pay attention, watch | – |
| aufschreiben | to note down (onto the paper) | – |
| aufsetzen | put on (hats), … | – |
| aufstehen | get up (bed, chair,…) | (“stand open”; rarely used) |
Of course there are plenty of verbs out there that we didn’t mention here, and I am sure some will make you go like “Huh? This meaning doesn’t fit in with either of the two cores.”
If that happens, then just have some red wine.
Uhm… I mean, go to the comment section and ask. And have some red wine while doing that :).
Anyway, I hope you’ve got a rough idea, maybe even a feel for auf as a prefix.
All that’s left now for the auf-mastery-certificate are these infamous fixed prefix verb combinations like warten auf or sich freuen auf. And speaking of those two, waiting for and looking forward to is exactly what you’ll be doing for the next few days, because we’ll talk about all that in part two.
“WHAT? Part two?!?! More like part boooooooh…..”
I know, I know, I don’t really wanna wait either (#lie).
The thing is… we’ll not just list the most common combos. We’ll actually analyze them and see if there’s an underlying theme (hint: there is). And also, we’ll take a look at common phrasings with rauf and drauf and all that would be a bit too much for today.
But okay… I’ll give you a little preview. Here are some of the most common combos…
- warten auf (to wait for)
- sich freuen auf (to look forward to)
- sich vorbereiten auf (to prepare for)
- zielen auf (aim for, target)
- werfen auf (to throw at)
- zeigen auf (point at)
- achten auf (pay attention to, to heed)
- aufpassen auf (pay attention to, to watch)
- sich verlassen auf (to rely on)
- ankommen auf (to depend on)
- kommen auf (think of)
Can you see a common theme ;)? Feel free to speculate on the comments.
And of course, if you have any questions about what we learned today or if you want to mention a few other auf-verbs or if you want to try out some examples, or if you just want to troll, just leave me a comment.
I hope you liked it, have a great week and see you next time.
Ready for part two?
Then here you go…
Hey, Emanuel. I was curious how you would classify constructions of „auf“ in a sentence like „sich auf etwas einlassen“? Why is it not „an“ or even „in“? Why specifically „auf“?
There’s no real objective reason why “auf” is better than “an” or “in”.
I think it might fit in with the broader notion of “targeting” that “auf” expresses.
– antworten auf
– warten auf
– reagieren auf
– einlassen auf
– reinfallen auf
But at the end of the day, “auf” just happened to be the preposition of choice.
Your quick answers are really appreciated. Thanks a lot!
(this is a short annex to my previous comment that I cannot edit anymore, sorry )
Hi,
for the ‘open’ notion of aufstehen, you said that is rarely used.
So the sentence Die Tür stand weit auf is uncommon? What would be the common way to say the the door is open? Just Die Tür ist auf?
Thank you
You can find “Die Tür stand offen” in conversation here and there, but “Die Tür war auf” is definitely the better option.
While we’re at it, I feel like “aufstehen” only works for actual room or building doors. Not for a car door, for example.
Hi, thank you for your content
For verbs like auflassen, aufsetzen, aufhaben you write in comments (hats).. does this mean that is restricted for hats or can be used for other clothes or accessories to wear?
Also, you say aufhabe is used for the idea of bein open, like a store can be open. But can be applied for phisically open objects like “Ich habe das Fenster auf”, I believe this use is completely valid.
What do you think?
Thank you
You can also use it for hoods, headphones (those DJ phones that go across the head) and glasses. And a wig. Basically stuff that “sit on top” of you.
And yes, “Ich habe das Fenster auf.” is idiomatic.
Thank you for clarification. So it wouldn’t work for earbuds? What if I wear two wigs and a cap? ; )
Thank you
I would not use it for earbuds, I would say “drin haben” for those.
– Ich habe zwei Perücken und eine Mütze auf, damit mich alle sehen, aber niemand erkennt.
Works fine :)
Thanks! This was very helpful. Also thank you to all who sponsor memberships. I’m grateful that someone out there can assist me in my german journey. Danke schön :)
With 100 comments below, using the ‘search comments’ helped me know that this question isn’t a duplicate.
Reading a story – and someone is looking for a letter/paper. “Sie schaut auf dem Tisch und im Drucker nach.”
ABER…!
DeepL and Google both are wanting den Tisch (and den Drucker). I understand that auf goes both ways (wo oder wohin), but DAMN…why do I keep finding every crack and exception in the German language when making what I thought were simple sentences? Is the story wrong? This almost makes me want to get a ChatGPT account and ask the new AI übermensch about this.
So I come before you (human überDeutscheSprachenMann), when you are looking on something for something else, is auf dative or accusative?
UPDATE: DeepL keeps flipping and sometimes gives both answers:
Ich habe schon hinter das Sofa geschaut.
Ich habe schon hinter dem Sofa nachgesehen.
First of, don’t use ChatGPT for more specific grammar questions.
It’ll say something with confidence but you’re none the wiser because it’s 80/20. 80% is accurate, 20% of the times, it’s complete nonsense.
That said, on to your question:
Google and DeepL are both
WRONG
about the original sentence.
(and I am really happy to see them flat out fail for some reason :D)
Accusative is NOT an option here.
Why not?
Because the verb is “nachschauen” and that cannot take a destination, only a location (Dative).
Both these super smart AIs apparently are still not able to identify a lonely prefix at the end. It would be funny, if German also turns out a issue even for computers, even though it “should” be easy.
Anyway, the other example that DeepL gave, with a simple “schauen”… that DOES work with Accusative (and Dative)
Why does “nachschauen” not work with Accusative?
Well, my personal theory (and that’s one core point about prefixes IMO) is that “nach” is a generic sense of direction.
The verb “nachschauen” already has a destination/direction… even though it’s super abstract.
So adding another one with Accusative is kind of doubling destinations. For some verbs it no doubt works, but for others it doesn’t.
Take this as a trend, not a rule :)
Just to be clear, in the original sentence: “Sie schaut auf dem Tisch und im Drucker nach.”, you are saying above that EITHER dative or accusative is good (?) <your response is right above the bullet point above>
This really ‘feels’ like Tisch and Drucker are answering the where-it-would-have-been-AT question, and not the where-did-you-GO-to-search question. But that is the issue, right? This is why it could be either. (?)
NOTE <nachschauen was not in the sentence – that was another example I was trying to make for my flashcards and DeepL gave me those two answers as possibilities for the same prompt “I already looked behind the couch”>
And also to clarify your answer to me – the reason you said that “So adding another one with Accusative is kind of doubling destinations” is because the thing-we-are-looking-for is that destination. If I am looking/checking for my sock behind the couch, the sock is accusative (‘the destination’).
If the verb is “nachschauen” then ONLY Dative work, if it is “schauen” then Dative and Accusative work.
The sentence is not about where stuff is. The verb is “to look” and an indication of place in such a sentence will be information about where you are looking, not where “it” might be. You have to stick with the verbs – can’t do much inference or abstraction :).
About the second part of your comment:
The examples you gave do NOT contain the object that you’re looking for. It’s irrelevant here, for semantic and grammatical analysis.
The act you’re doing is “(nach)schauen” and we’re adding location to it.
I feel like you might be hung up on “looking for [object]”, which does sound like a statement with a directionality, but that’s not what we’re looking at here.
Both work. With Accusative, you direct your gaze into the kitchen, with Dative you go into the kitchen and then look around there.
Here, only Dative is idiomatic because “nach der Pasta” is a destination-type phrase, so combining that with an Accusative “in die Küche” sounds weird. Not necessarily wrong, most native speakers won’t be able to tell what the problem is. But the problem is that we are giving two different senses of direction to the “schauen”… into the kitchen and after the pasta.
Let me know if that makes sense.
Ich habe diese Website vergessen. Ich liebe sie. UND Ich habe ein neues Wort gelernt. Scheissschuh (or fill in the blank to make any compound word!) Ich habe gelacht und gelacht und gelacht. Ich werde das Wort sofort benutzen. Ich habe einen Scheisshund, der immer bellt. Danke für diese lustige Website! Ich komme wieder zurück, weil ich Deutsch lerne.
Wie kannst du die Seite denn vergessen :)? Das darf nicht nochmal passieren.
Ich mag ScheißXYZ auch, aber es ist ein bisschen vulgär, also überleg dir, wann und wo du das verwendest.
“think of a knight on his knees yielding their weapon upward”
You become less specific about the gender in the second possessive of this sentence, so it reads like there are two different people being described. With no other party mentioned, I think the meaning is perfectly clear, but it certainly sticks out.
Fixed it, thank you!
Do you have an article related to how the different prepositions are used when in different places, as in “at work”, “at the university”, “at the supermarket”, or “at a festival”? I find it really hard to keep track of the different prepositions needed for these kinds of locations. As an example of what I am talking about, consider the following sentence:
Ich bin bei meiner Arbeit an der Universität. Danach kaufe ich im Supermarkt ein und bin dann auf dem Festival
(I am at my job at the university. Afterwards I am shopping at the supermarket and then will be at the festival.)
There is some flexibility with the prepositions you could use in this sentence in English (e.g., I could shop IN the supermarket instead of AT). However, it seems like I can mostly get away with “at” for all of these locations whereas German seems to prefer different prepositions for a lot of these places.
Thanks in advance for any comments or insights you may provide!
I don’t really have an article about that, but I do have a rough chart. You can find it here:
https://yourdailygerman.com/german-location-cheat-sheet/
The main distinction is between places you enter/with a door and locations you’re “at”.
And then, there’s like a couple dozen or so exceptions like “auf dem Festival”, but these are really prominent, so learners tend to think it’s pure chaos, when it’s not.
I’d say, learn the chart and then add the exceptions by learning them by heart and that should do it.
Ich habe eine Frage! :)
Wenn man ‘werfen auf’ benutzt, braucht das akk. oder dativ?
Und wie kann ich das herausfinden?
Wir werfen Kartoffel auf sie.
ODER
Wir werfen Kartoffeln auf ihr.
“auf sie” mit Akkusativ.
Lies mal Teil zwei von diesem Artikel, da geht es genau um diese Sachen :)
Ich habe es gelesen – vielen Dank, alles klar. Ich liebe die Erklärungen, sie sind klar und lustig, danke! :)
Super, das freut mich :)!
1.AUF einer Basis sein=basieren auf,beruhen auf,bestehen auf,bauen auf 2.AUFPASSEN-konzentrieren=aufpassen auf, achten auf,hören auf,richten auf 3. ZUKUNFT= sich freuen auf,warten auf, vorbereiten auf,vertrauen auf,haben Lust auf
Were you meaning to take this as a note with the notes feature?
Hi, just discovered this existed, and I love it!
Happy to hear that! Viel Spaß :)
Zum Bild:
Die Maschine ist offen oder aus (von mir aus auch aufgedreht (an), aber so sieht das Bild nicht aus). Aber auf allein? Auf den Boden vielleicht. Das passt irgendwie nicht.
Doch, passt. “auf” heißt “offen”. Hast du den Artikel gelesen? ;)
Ich spreche lieber auf deutch.
What is the use of “auf” here?
maybe with the example “something put upon you” where Im putting my own preference?
Good question!
And your explanation is as good as what I could come up with.
There’s no real deeper logic behind the “auf” and it would make more sense if it was “in”. But “auf” just happened to be idiomatic.
Actually, now that I think about it, it IS part of a larger theme… the theme of settings.
When set a device to a certain setting, “auf” is generally the preposition to use.
That’s in line with English “on”.
So we could say German considers the language you use as a “setting”. Which does make sense if you speak more than one.
Hope that helps.
Hi
Can I just say that this is exceptional work?
I have been trying to find articles that would explain the meaning of prefixes for ages.
Glad you enjoy it :).
I haven’t covered all of them, but I do have “zu”, “vor”, “um” and “aus” and a few inseparable prefixes. Let me know if you need help finding them on the site!
Very nicely explained so that I (almost) get it. If you had been my German teacher at school I might have stuck with it, rather than feeling like my brain was going to explode when we got to the FVCPTGOENS :)
What’s the FVCP… thing :)?
Hi –
Would you use auf to describe swimming on “top” of the water: Der Schwamm schwimmt auf dem Wasser. If describing swimming in the water would you use “in” – Ich schwimme in dem See?
Thanks!!
Nice question. It depends on how much of the object is submerged. For a sponge, it’s probably gonna be “auf”, but for a person, “auf” would imply that only the back touches the water.
For objects, it’s not that precise though, so some people might use “auf” where others might use “in”.
Hallo, this type of article really helps me. with my particular form of LD, knowing the whys, wherefores and (especially ) the history of the word use is critical to learning. the obsessions with why and how is, also, one of those little Aspergers traits that can drive some others a bit crazy. ;)
I’ve read the article and I liked it a lot. I’m from Colombia and I’m trying to learn German using the english to also improve it. In this way, I practice both languages.
Cool, glad I can help :). Viel Spaß hier!!
die Wut auf der Turkei ist spuerbar – what does this mean?
It means that the anger toward Turkey is “tangible”.
“wütend” (angry) goes with the preposition “auf” in German.
The sentence should be “… auf DIE Türkei” though.
Hope that helps :)
“auf der Türkei” is also grammatically correct, but it means the anger IN Turkey is tangible. “auf die Türkei” means the anger TOWARDS Turkey is tangible
Uh, nope, “Ärger auf der Türkei” means that Turkey has a surface all over it and there is anger on top of that… so pratically it means nothing and native speakers would hear it as a mistake.
It does NOT mean “IN Turkey”.
You’re right that Dative tends to be taken literally in the sense of location, but you have to stick to the preposition then, so you can’t just go from “auf” to “in” :9
Can you explain the heading in my A2 book – Auf der Bank (with a pic of a lady in front of a ATM)????? Could that mean upward to the Bank, open the bank? No clue. Help, love your site.
It means “at the bank”.
It doesn’t really make sense because you’re “inside” a building but “auf” is the idiomatic preposition for a few “chore”-locations…
– auf der Bank/Post/Arbeit/Amt
But you can also use “bei” and “in” and it will be understood.