Hello everyone,
and welcome to another episode of our series on German Prefix Verbs. This time we’ll have a look at the meaning of
aufhalten
Halten is of course related to holding and halting and the core idea of the family is something like keeping from moving/changing.
The prefix auf can add two ideas to a verb and in the case of aufhalten, we’re dealing with both of them.
The first idea that auf carries is open, and aufhalten literally means “to hold open”.
- “Ihr seid so ein süßes Paar. Wie habt ihr euch eigentlich kennengelernt?”
“Er hat mir im Supermarkt nicht die Tür aufgehalten. Da wusste ich – er ist es.” - “You’re such a sweet couple. How did you meet each other?”
“He did not hold the door open for me at the supermarket. That’s when I knew – he’s the one.”
- Der Investmentbanker wird gefeuert – und hält die Hand auf.
- The investment banker gets fired – and expects substantial settlement.
And these are actually the only two uses for the verb: holding doors open and the figure of speech die Hand aufhalten which despite being a begging gesture actually means to expect or demand a high sum of cash.
For any other context where you could use the idea of holding or keeping open, you’d use offen halten.
- Das Team hält das Rennen um den Titel offen.
- The team keeps open the race for the title.
- Thomas hält sich alle Optionen offen.
- Thomas keeps all his options open.
So this first aufhalten really isn’t something to get held up with.
Hey, did I just say “held up”? What a good script.. uh… I mean coincidence. Because that brings us right to the second meaning of aufhalten – the idea of holding up.
Holding up is about the idea of keeping from moving ahead. It’s a bit obscure what exactly the up does but German can help clear that up. Because the second idea of auf, which is also its main idea, is the idea of “on top” and with a little bit of mind bending we can think of aufhalten as to hold on top of a certain position.
Now, even though they are essentially siblings, in practice aufhalten and to hold up are only “meh” translations for each other. Sure, in some instances it works.
- “Sorry, dass ich zu spät bin. Ich wurde aufgehalten.”
- “Sorry I’m late. I was held up.”
- Wir dürfen uns nicht mit Details aufhalten.
- We shouldn’t get bogged down/held up with details.
But aufhalten can be much more definite and is often used in the sense of to stop as in stopping someone or something.
- Pony-Man will die Welt zerstören. Wir müssen ihn aufhalten.
- Pony-Man wants to destroy the world. We have to stop him.
- Die digitale Revolution lässt sich nicht aufhalten.
- The digital revolution cannot be stopped. (lit.: won’t let itself be stopped)
And aufhalten is usually used with a direct object, so you’re usually “aufhaltening” someone.
- “Hey echt toll dich zu sehen, aber ich bin ein bisschen in Eile…”
“Oh ja sorry, ich will dich nicht aufhalten.” - “Hey it’s really great seeing you but I’m in a bit of a hurry….”
“Oh, sure sorry… I don’t want “to hold you up”
(what would be idiomatic English? Thanks :)
- “Geh ohne mich weiter. Ich halte dich nur auf.”
“Niemals. Wir kommen zusammen auf den Gipfel oder gar nicht.” - “Go on without me. I’m only slowing you down (lit: holding you up)”
“Never. We’ll reach the summit together or not at all.”
I mean… English is not my native language so I might be wrong here but I feel like to hold up just doesn’t sound idiomatic in these examples and more often than not, it isn’t a good translation for aufhalten. Oh and while we’re at it… aufhalten totally isn’t a translation for “Hoooold up”. That would be “Warte mal” or “Mooooment mal.”
Cool.
Now let’s get to the third use of aufhalten, or sich aufhalten to be precise. Literally, it means to hold oneself up but over time it has lost all the negative tone and changed into a word for simply to stay, to be, in a sense of temporary location.
- Der Schauspieler hält sich angeblich zur Zeit in Berlin auf.
- The actor allegedly is/is staying in Berlin at the moment.
- Aus Angst vor Nachbeben halten sich viele Menschen in der Region im Freien auf.
- Because of worries about aftershocks many people in the region are staying out in the open/outdoors.
- Die jungen Bären halten sich immer in der Nähe ihrer Mutter auf.
- The bear cubs always stay near their mom.
It’s not something you’d use in daily conversation if you just want to say where you are. You’d just say
- Ich bin im Park.
and not
- Ich halte mich im Park auf.
Sich aufhalten is more common in writing but what makes it REALLY useful is the noun der Aufenthalt.
- Wir wünschen Ihnen einen angenehmen Aufenthalt.
- We wish you a pleasant stay.
Der Aufenthalt means the stay and it is part of a LOT of really useful compounds like Aufenthaltserlaubnis (residence permit) , Aufenthaltsraum (break room, hang out room), der Auslandsaufenthalt (stay abroad) or the cute little Aufenthaltswahrscheinlichkeitsdichte which means something like “cuddle bear” and which is one of the most common words in kindergarten.
Okay, kidding… it comes from quantum physics and it has something to do with the probability of a particle at a certain point in space. I can’t really explain it. And while we’re at things I can’t explain… I have no clue why it is der Aufenthalt and not just der Aufhalt.
But there is something that I do know the answer to, so let’s move on to that.
draufhalten
If you’ve read a few episodes of this series on German prefix verbs you might be wondering “Wait, why draufhalten and not raufhalten?”. Well, this is another good example for the difference between r-versions and dr-versions. R-versions usually carry some notion of directed movement. Dr-versions on the other hand are often stationary. Let’s take auf.
We’ve learned that auf can express on top-ness. Rauf- covers the directed aspect of that – the idea of change from “not being on top” to “being on top” or in a more general sense upward.
Drauf on the other hand can also express the idea of being on top.
Now, these are not super strict distinctions, and especially spoken colloquial blurs the lines completely, but generally, this difference is a good guideline. And it helps understand why for raufhalten you only get about 4,000 hits on Google while for draufhalten you can find 100,000. The reason is that halten is inherently stationary. Like… it’s essence is about PREVENTING movement. So that’s why the stationary dr-version feels MUCH more natural than the r-version with its “directed-ness” would.
Cool.
And what does draufhalten mean? Well, it’s used for the idea of directly aiming (and shooting) at something and today it’s commonly used for photo, video and sports. It’s hard to explain so let’s just look at the examples.
- Mehr als einfach nur draufhalten – so machen Sie richtig gute Fotos.
- More than just “pointing your camera at it/taking a shot” – here’s how to make really good photos.
- Vater schreit, Mutter auch, Kind weint – und die Kamera hält drauf. Dokus im Privatfernsehen werden immer dümmer.
- Dad is yelling, mom too, the kid is crying… – and the camera is right on it. Documentaries in private television are getting ever dumber.
- Die Spieler spielen schön, aber sie passen zu viel. Einer müsste einfach mal richtig draufhalten.
- The players are playing beautifully, but they’re passing too much. One of them should really just try and take a shot/put one on target for once.
(primarily common in soccer commentary)
But this is really not all that useful so … passive pile :).
And I think that’s it for today. This was our look at aufhalten and the two uses you’ll really need are to stop and to stay. As always, if you have any questions or suggestions or if you want to try out some examples just leave me a comment.
I hope you liked it and see you next time.
** aufhalten – fact sheet **
meanings:
– hold open (mostly for doors, also for hands)
– to stop someone from doing something
– to get caught up with, to slow down oneself with (sich aufhalten)
– to be/stay at a place (sich aufhalten)
spoken past:
haben + aufgehalten
written past stem:
– hielt
related words:
der Aufenthalt – the stay
die Aufenthaltserlaubnis – the residence permit
der Auslandsaufenthalt – the stay abroad
“Oh ja sorry, ich will dich nicht aufhalten” – “I don’t want to hold you up” is a perfect translation, we would definitely say that.
however for “Geh ohne mich weiter. Ich halte dich nur auf” – “Go on without me, I don’t want to hold you up” is very slightly wrong.
We would say “I don’t want to hold you back.” In general, holding up is preventing someone from moving/leaving, while holding back is hindering someone’s progress or slowing them down.
Ah, the subtle differences :).
Vielen Dank!!
omgod I love these articles… They make it SO EASY to understand German. Thanks a million
Glad you’re enjoying them :)!
Sehr interessant!! Danke viel viel mals für diese Erklärungen. Kannst du bitte auch schreiben wie kann man das wort “einzuhalten” verwenden?
Your example about “holding someone up” (in context of delaying them from getting somewhere on time) is 100% idiomatic in English.
The core behind “holding someone/something up” is causing a delay. A very common way for Americans to express their frustration with slow traffic is the phrase, “C’mon, what’s the hold up?!”
I know aufhalten has many meanings but it feels like it is closely related to abhalten when stopping someone from doing something?
Ich werde ihn davon abhalten, diese Entscheidung zu treffen
Ich werde ihn aufhalten, diese Entscheidung zu treffen
Am I off the mark?
Ciao
They are indeed similar. “abhalten” sounds more like “keeping from doing” while “aufhalten” would be “to stop”. … in that sense, anyway.
And “aufhalten” usually doesn’t take an object or sentence.
Your example sounds much better with “abhalten”.
Does that help?
Interesting, I was expecting a meaning like think in head as well. I donot know which world I confuse with this aufhalten
Hmmm not sure either. Do you maybe mean “halten von” ? Because that’s used for opinions.
Can you explain word aufsteigend?
Do you have a specific sentence in mind?
Also, did you check out my article on “steigen”?
Hold your horses guys, why hasn’t anyone commented on Pony-Man yet? I’m still laughing!
Dude, Pony-Man is no laughing matter. He is pure evil.
Behold:
Ich möchte mich ganz herzlich bedanken, dass ich umsonst member bekommen werden.
vielen vielen dank
Im Namen aller Sponsoren sage ich: gerne! :)
Hier mal eine Korrektur:
-… dass ich umsonst Member geworden bin. (anstatt “bekommen werden”)
Lieber Gott! Aus Versehen/Glück bin ich auf dieser “Seite?” aufgestoßen, und dachte: Was für Spaß es machen könnte, als Weg nach meiner Deuschverstehensverbesserung! Wie bekommt man denn kostenloses “Memberstatus?”
Dazu musst du eine Mail schicken. Den gibt’s aber nur, wenn man ihn wirklich braucht ;)!
Emmanuel ich habe ein kleine pause gemacht von dein seit….ich habe ein buch gelesen…Reise Nach Ixtlan im meine reise durch die Amerikas. I highly recommend it. Anyway..thanks for another great post..I will try to catch up..but thanks auch fur dein artikel
Danke für noch einen tollen Blog-Post. :D Und meine Meinung nach werden deine Audioclips jedes Mal noch besser. Die lustigen Stimmen gefallen mir sehr :) Jetzt versuche ich, mein Hörvertändis zu verbessern, und ich finde es sehr hilfreich, deine Clips anzuhören, bevor ich den Texte lese.
Also, danke!
Cool, freut mich :)
Kleine Korrektur: “meiner Meinung nach”… nicht “meine”
Danke :)
Unfortunately you mistyped “Aufenthalt” (two fs) three times in your “related words” section. Keep up the good work :-))
How embarrassing :) Danke dir!
love your blog, man. real helpful with my german studies than any textbook. here comes the suggestion: could you please make an article about the common german words for ‘cancel’? like, i tried to look it up, and there are a lot of results; abbrechen, absagen, stornieren, annullieren,… so on and on. (why!?) like, what word would be suitable for translating ‘my trip was canceled’? Vielen Dank im Voraus.
That’s a good suggestion and I’m sure lots of people would be like the idea. But the problem with a post like this would be that it’s just an endless list of contexts with the respective word to use. Take your examples for instance… it could be “annuliert”, “abgesagt” or “storniert” depending on who did the cancelling and how the word “trip” would be translation. A good dictionary for such stuff is Pons.com. They have their translations sorted by theme and they are given a few examples for each.
It’s community driven so the lists are not super perfect but I think you might really find this helpful.
Here’s the link for “to cancel”
http://de.pons.com/%C3%BCbersetzung?q=cancel&l=deen&in=&lf=en
Let me know if you like it
“Probability density” appears to be the English for Aufenthaltswahrscheinlichkeitsdichte. English just doesn’t bother with the Aufenthalts bit.
German exchange student in physics lecture:
“Uhm, excuse me, which probability density are we talking about? English… it’s almost as unprecise, as the location of particles… Ha.Ha.Ha”
Everybody else silently sighs.
Just want to endorse Julia’s comment and add “I won’t hold you up”. Excellent matches.
So what would be the translation of: “What is the hold up?
Wow, that’s a tough one. Depending on context I’d say
– Wo ist das Problem?
or
– Wo(ran) hängst denn?
or
– Wo bleibst du?
The last is if someone is really waiting for someone to come, the others are more general and abstract.
Auffenthalt wouldn’t work at all.
Hey Emanuel. New member from India here. Popped in to say Thanks for extending a free membership to me as I couldn’t afford one.
Love the site!
Are these any good?
Ich wollte früher ankommen, aber der Regen hat mich aufgehalten.
Draußen ist es megakalt, Laß uns mal hier im Cafe aufhalten.
Die Scharfschützerin hält ihr Gewehr genau den Geiselnehmer drauf.
Das war mein Kommentar, ich habe vergessen am Smartphone einzuloggen :)
The first one is perfect, the second one is technically perfect but in practice you wouldn’t hear something like that because “sich aufhalten” sounds to stilted for such a colloquial sentence.
In the last one there’s a preposition missing. “der Geiselnehmer” is not connected to the rest in any way (akkusativ doesn’t work here)
– Die Scharfschützin hält ihr Gewehr genau auf den Geiselnehmer drauf.
That’s not pretty though. People do say stuff like that every now and then but it’s nothing to use in writing.
love your sense of humour. I can’t believe I am laughing over a blog post.
Actually, both the ‘don’t want to hold you up’/’only holding you up’ examples are perfect translations
Oh great, so there’s actually a fair bit of overlap between “aufhalten” and its English sibling