“aufhaben” – Prefix Verbs Explained

Hello everyone,

And welcome to a new episode of Prefix Verbs Explained, today, with a look at the meaning of

aufhaben

Which at least in my opinion is an A1 verb.

So it’s a nice one to learn very early on, not only because it’s pretty easy to use and you can practice the whole prefix verb stuff. It’s also very useful and it’s one of those verbs that just sounds super natural and authentic but that you wouldn’t necessarily pick up if you follow a normal textbook or that Green Owl of Stagnation.

And because we always also talk about what I call The Versions™ in these episodes, we’ll also get to know draufhaben, which is a REALLY nice colloquial gem.

Anyway, if you’re ready to dive in, let’s go!

And I actually want to start with a quick look at the prefix itself.

The Prefix “auf” in a Nutshell

The prefix auf has two ideas that it can add to a verb. One is the “local” or “spatial” sense of upward, on top and the other is open.
Seems a bit random at first, but the words up, auf, open and offen actually are all related. And the connection makes a lot of sense if we look a little bit closer.

Imagine you’re in nature and there’s a cave. And now think of standing on top of the cave and standing inside of the cave. When you’re inside, you’re somewhat safe and separated from wind and weather. But when you’re on top of the cave, you’re in the open and you’re exposed to rain and wind and whatever. Can you see the connection of being “on top” and being “open”?

And if that is a bit too abstract, just think of our eyes. To open them, we move the upper eyelid upward. When it’s up, at the top, it’s open.

So yeah, the prefix auf has these two ideas upward/on top and open, and both of them are “expressed” in aufhaben and its meanings.

The meanings of “aufhaben”

The first one is to wear but ONLY in the sense of having something ON TOP of you, on your head. Like a hat, a hood, a helmet, a pair of glasses or a headset.

• Ich habe Kopfhörer auf.
• I’m wearing headphones.
  (NOT the best for earbuds, that would be “drinhaben”)
  
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• Gut, dass ich einen Helm aufhatte.
• Good thing I had a helmet on/ was wearing a helmet.
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“So, can we just think of aufhaben is like to have on basically?”
Well, no.
You can have on a pair of jeans, but that would be anhaben, not aufhaben in German.
And the same goes for having on some music in the background or having the heater on.
Those are anhaben as well.
For aufhaben, the focus is really on “on top” in a vertical sense.
Well, with the one exception being a backpack.

• Ich habe einen Rucksack auf.
• I’m wearing a backpack.
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But if you think of a really heavy backpack that makes you bend forward, then it’s kind of actually “on top” of you again.

Cool.
So this meaning alone already makes aufhaben quite useful and I’d even say it’s a must have for beginners.

But the second one, the one based on the idea of open, might be even more useful in daily life.
You can use it like having open in English, for a window for example.

• “Ich habe einen Waschbär im Zimmer!”
  “Ja, keine Wunder, wenn du den ganzen Tag das Fenster aufhast.”
• “I have a raccoon in my room.”
  “Yeah, no wonder if you have the window open all day.”
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But beyond that, German also uses it for to be open, in the context of stores being open.

• Bis wann habt ihr heute auf?
• Till what time are you open today?
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• Der Supermarkt hat immer bis Mitternacht auf.
• The supermarket is always open till midnight.
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• Was mich an dieser Stadt nervt, ist, dass nach um 10 nix aufhat.
• What annoys me about this town is that nothing is open after 10.
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Could we also use auf sein? Yes, that works too. There’s no real difference, so it depends on the speaker. I use aufhaben way more, others might prefer auf sein.

But you’ll definitely hear aufhaben a lot, and I would recommend you add it to your active vocabulary because it sounds super natural and authentic.
Oh and you can add the opposite zuhaben as well.

• “Der Supermarkt hat zu.”
  “Bless you! What’s with the supermarket?”
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Get it? I… I tried to do a pun but everyone is just looking at me confused. Is it because of the explanation?
I’m not sure, maybe it wasn’t clear.
“Explanation is fine. It’s the pun…”
I meant that hat zu sounds bit like the English atchoo.
“Yeah, yeah it’s just not funny. Let’s just move on, okay?”
Uhm… sure!

So wearing for stuff like hats, hoods or glasses and being open for stores. Those are the two main meanings of aufhaben.
There is a third use for having homework…

• “Mom, ich geh raus spielen.”
  “Hast du keine Hausaufgaben auf?”
• “Mom, I’ll go outside to play.”
  “Don’t you have homework ?”
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but that really only applies to actual SCHOOL homework and the broader sense of it. And haben alone also works, so I’d say let’s put this to our passive vocabulary.

Cool.
So now we know the meanings of aufhaben itself.
But of course, with prefix verbs, that not the full story. Because there are also… The Versions™.

raufhaben and draufhaben

Often when we have both, a r-version (raufhaben) and a dr-version (draufhaben), they mean more or less the same thing. or at least similar things.

But sometimes, one of the versions has taken on a life of its own, and that is the case here.

Let’s start with raufhaben because that’s the less useful one.
This is pretty much a typical r-version. Prefix verb veterans will now be like “Yup, I know what that means.” but if that’s not you, don’t worry, it’s something that’ll come up again and again here, especially in my lessons on prefix verbs, so you’ll pick it up over time. I’ll also link my lessons about it below, if you really want to dig in.

Typical r-version means that it carries the most straight-forward, literal, directional meaning that you can create from the prefix and the verb.
That just sounded SUPER complicated, but it’s way more clear with an example.

• Kann ich Chili-Soße raufhaben?
• Can I have chili sauce on top of it?
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Can you see what I mean?
I am asking if I can have chili sauce “go on top” of whatever I’m eating… like a burger or fries or whatever. It’s super literal, not abstract at all, and it’s about “location”.
So this is what I mean when I say “typical r-version”.

Do you need raufhaben in particular? Well, for this one particular context, getting some sort of topping, it’s one of the best options, but I wouldn’t really create a flashcard for it. You see, the cool thing with these r-versions is that once you understand the logic at play, you can pretty much just make them up as you go. No need to treat them as a real word.

What IS probably worth a flashcard is draufhaben. Usually, the dr-version is very similar to the r-version with the one big difference that the dr-version sounds stationary, while the r-version sounds has a sense of direction.

However, draufhaben has evolved into an actual colloquial verb that expresses the idea of being good at something.
The exact translation depends on the context, but this is the core idea.

• Thomas hat es echt drauf, Maria sauer zu machen.
• Thomas has a real knack for/is really good at making Maria angry.
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• “Hast du Marias Zaubershow bei der Firmenparty gesehen?
  “Ja, sie hat es echt drauf.”
• “Have you seen Maria’s magica show at the company party?”
  “Yeah, she’s really good.”

Now, some of you probably noticed that I used es and echt in both examples and are now wondering if we can skip them.
And the answer is:Not really, but!
The echt is just an intensifier, but the verb draufhaben is usually used in contexts where you talk about someone being REALLY good at something, so it just feels natural to have it there. But you can also find other intensifiers like voll or total or krass.
And the es… well, the thing is that draufhaben really likes to have a direct object along with it. And so whenever the thing you’re good at is a verb, you’ll have that little es there as a placeholder object.

• Ich habe es echt krass drauf, meinen Schlüssel zu verlieren.
• I‘m really really good at losing my keys.
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You can also use draufhaben with nouns, but that’s less common and can sound weird.

• Ich habe Mathe drauf.

This sounds a bit odd to me and I would not use that if I want to say that I’m good at math. I’d just say “Ich bin gut in Mathe.”

Actually, I’d say draufhaben with a noun leans a lot more toward having fully “learned” a topic.

• “Hast du deinen Text drauf?”
  “Nee, noch nicht ganz.”
• “Do you know the text by heart?”
  “No, not completely yet.”
  (one actor asking another)
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You can think of this as having the text on your hard-drive, if you will. Which actually kind of gives the whole meaning of the verb some logic.
But of course the verb is way older than hard-drives. Maybe it evolved from a waiter or servant carrying a tray with stuff. Like… whatever you have on your tray is what you can offer. It’s not know for sure where it comes from, but that would at least make sense.

But anyway, I think I actually hyped draufhaben up quite a bit, so let me add a little disclaimer here, before we wrap it up for today. The verb is quite colloquial and I feel like it’s mainly used in contexts where you express some emotion. Either when you’re really impressed or you’re being sarcastic or ironic.
It is NOT the best choice if you just talk about what you’re good at. For those, either können or gut sein in are the better options.

So yeah… maybe wait till you’ve seen draufhaben a few times in daily life before you use it.

Anyway, I think that’s enough for today.
As always, if you want to check how much you remember, just take the little quiz I have prepared for you.

And of course, if you have any questions or suggestions, just leave me a comment.
I hope you liked it, have a great day and see you next time.

further reading:

• The German “auf” Explained – Prefix and Preposition (Part 1)
• What are r-versions (part 1)