Hello everyone,
and welcome to a new episode of the series Prefix Verbs Explained, the series that starts to get on everybody’s nerves.
Come on, I know.
This series is a bit like mom spoon-feeding you spinach; a LOT of spinach.
“One prefix verb for mommy, one prefix verb for daddy, one for grandma… (1 hour later) … one for daddy’s coworker’s friend, one for the guy at the bakery, come on SWALLOW!”
Seriously though, we don’t need to talk about all the prefix verbs that exist in detail. And we’ve actually already covered many of the really important ones. But there are still some left that need special attention, so let’s buckle up and do this, despite the slowly rising reluctance.
Hey, speaking of rising reluctance … what a coincidence … that would be a perfect context for the verb we’ll look at today.
aufkommen
Quick insert here, which is totally an ad, but for my own stuff, so it’s okay.
If you want just a quick overview of the meanings, you can find it in my second project – the prefix verb dictionary. There, you can find a lot of the most common prefix verbs like angehen, bekommen or aufmachen, and you don’t only get hand made translations that actually make sense and that come with audio examples – no, you also get a really cool an unique interface that let’s you explore prefixes and verbs like nowhere else. It’s a new project, but growing fast, so check it out :)
But now let’s start our look at aufkommen.
And the big question many of your are askig themselves is of course:
“aufkommen means to come up, right? It just has to, right?”
I mean… auf is up and kommen is to come.
But it’s a German prefix verb we’re talking about, so we’re always in for a curveball.
Place your bets now :).
If you want to stop hitting the wall in German – Join as a member!
As a member, you can study as much as you want and find lots of information you won’t find anywhere else. Not in class, not in a textbook and not Duolingo or Youtube.
You’ll also get pdf-download, progress tracking, note taking, comment notifications and all practice tools.
Already a member?
Log in here:
What about the use as in: “Er ist auf mich zugekommen.”
The verb there is “zukommen”, not “aufkommen”. It (zukommen) just goes with the preposition “auf”. It’s easy to get confused between what’s a prefix and what’s a preposition, but if it’s in the middle, followed by a noun or pronoun, it’s usually a preposition.
Hope that helps.
THANKS A MILLION! I FINALLY got it
Einhorn 1 : Ausstrahlung meiner Mutter kommt auf,denn Ich will für das Glas nicht aufkommen und Ich müsste auf das Dach raufkommen.
The Aura of my mother built up rapidly,beacuse I did not want to compensate for the glass and I had to go up the roof.
“Aufkommen” sounds like a decent TV title
Anyways, what verb for actual emerging,like in “The mountain suddenly emerged from the sea”. Also what If it’s an emotion but its quickly and sudden, “That event triggered it : Emerging emotions”
“aufkommen” is not “to build up”. It’s not about an increase, but about an initial apperance. Also, “aufkommen” is rarely rapid. So it’s not a good fit for the context you used it in.
As for emerging… that strongly depends on context. For the mountain you could say “erscheinen” or “sich erheben” but also “steigen”.
For an emotion “entstehen, erscheinen and wachsen” are idiomatic choice. But there might be more. As I said, it depends on context.
So translating it (While removing the word “rapid” ) to “the aura of my mother (slowly) emerged” would be more correct.
The words above seem interesting. German never fails to give 10 words ;)
Jokes aside, would “a problem emerges” work with “entstehen”
Just forget your example with the aura. It will not work with “aufkommen”, no matter how you phrase it.
Same for a problem. Those usually “auftreten”.
You will never need this “aufkommen” in your active vocabulary, trust me. It’s enough if you understand it.
Kann man ‘aufkommen’ benutzen im Sinn von “to land (a plane)”? Ich weiß, es gibt schon das Wort ‘landen’ dafür, also würde es komisch/einfach falsch klingen, wenn ich etwas wie ‘mein Flugzeug wird um 3 Uhr aufkommen’?
Du kannst das sagen, aber das klingt als ob das Flugzeug abstürzt :)
We use “come up” in reference to money as well in English (at least in the U.S.). It is informal though and not formal. We say things like “I need to come up with the money”, “you better come up with the money soon!”, or “he came up with the money”.
I agree with berlingrabers that we use “cover” in the more formal sense. “My insurance will cover that”, “my employer will cover that”, or “that cost is covered”.
That verb phrase “to come up with sth.” is used in England too. Not just for money though. A solution, a plan or just an idea are all things that a person can “come up with”. If we’re talking about money though and the amount you’ve come up with isn’t enough, then you’ve “come up short”.
Just to make sure… in German, you CAN’T use “aufkommen” in combination with the word “Geld”.
That is implied. The main idea is really “to compensate”.
If ,,aufkommen” implies emerging slowly, what is the correct verb for things (e.g., problems) that come up suddenly?
The verb that came to my mind first was “auftreten”. It’s idiomatic in context of problems but probably won’t work in all cases.
Do you have some more contexts, maybe? My mind is a bit blocked :)
Leider klappt der link zum pdf nicht.
Sorry, sollte jetzt funktionieren.
President Trump said “covfefe”on twitter vor zwei tagen and noone knew what it meant. I still do..-..not.
He and a small group of people knew exactly what he meant, is what Sean Spicer said :)
Hello Emanuel A small favour to ask of you and of German in general. You see this sentence here:
“Maria ist traurig, weil man bei ihr im Haus nicht mehr auf das Dach raufkommt.”
If it had said “… raufkommen kann” I would have understood it immediately. This dropping of “redundant” (i.e. indispensible) verbs is surely one of the most confusing things German does and I would politely ask that it cease forthwith.
I forwarded your request to German and it just laughed in my face and said: “Ab jetzt lass ich noch mehr weg.”
Seriously though… “raufkommen kann” is absolutely not idiomatic and adding “kann” would not come to my mind in a million years so I can’t really stop doing these things in the example. I honestly don’t realize it. It doesn’t feel like skipping something.
It’s really interesting that it makes such a big difference for you, though, and you’re most likely not alone.
Well, thanks for trying Emanuel. Can I just check something that may have got missed? To me the Maria’s roof sentence reads in my English head as “Maria is sad, because nobody comes up to her roof any more”, whereas you’ve snuck a “can” in there that just isn’t apparent to me in the German. Can it be read both ways (don’t come up / can’t come up) or is there something in the context that strongly implies the “can’t” version over the other?
Ah, now I see where the confusion comes from. The example is clear to a native speaker because “man” can’t be understood as “nobody” here. There might be instances where “man” in combination with a “nicht” would be translated as “nobody” combined with an affirmative verb, but not here.
– Maria ist traurig, dass keiner mehr auf ihr Dach kommt.
This would actually be ambiguous and could mean either. Most people would understand it as “nobody visits her roof”, though, because for the other option “man” would be the better choice.
Hope that helps :)
Nice post. Here is another common use for “draufkommen”:
Was ist die richtige Antwort? Ich komme nicht drauf.
What’s the right answer? It slips my mind.
And one that is actually drauf + ankommen.
A oder B? Das kann man so nicht sagen. Es kommt drauf an.
A or B? That’s not easily answered. It depends.
This one is a bit tricky because one could argue that it is not a prefix verb. The basic phrase is this:
– auf etwas kommen
– Ich komme auf deinen Namen.
So we have “kommen” combined with a preposition, just like for instance “warten auf”. Then, you can of course use a da-word in place of the preposition-thing combo
– Ich komm’ nicht d(a)rauf.
But to say then that the verb is “draufkommen” would mean that “draufwarten” is also a verb.
I know that Duden lists “draufkommen” but it is a slippery slope.
Um Lisas Frage noch etwa zu erweitern (wo die Antwort nämlich darauf natürlich ‘ja’ lautet)… Mir schiene es, wenn gerade du den Dativ anstelle des Genetivs benutzt, dass es heutzutage dem jungen deutschen Mensch nicht nur altmodisch, sondern pedantisch, ja vielleicht geradezu FALSCH vorkommt, den Genetiv zu verwenden. Was meinst du Emanuel?
I’m gonna answer in English since Lisa asked in English and it’s probably interesting also for beginners…
This is an interesting topic, indeed. In my opinion, the idea that “wegen” is a Genitive preposition is a myth perpetrated by the prescriptive grammar branch.
It has little to do with contemporary German though. For one thing, many people including me, tend to use Dative instead of Genitive in colloquial speech
– Ich hab mich wegen dem Regen so geärgert.
“wegen des Regens” has a rather high brow ring to it and I doubt many people would say it (except for the very language aware ones)
But the real argument against “wegen” being a genitive preposition is what people do in combination with pronouns.
– wegen mir/dir/ihm
NOONE would seriously argue that I should say
– wegen meiner/deiner/seiner
let alone
– wegen ihrer instead of wegen ihr
– wegen unser instead of wegen uns
Using Genitive with pronouns like that is HIGHLY unidiomatic and has been for more than a century.
So calling “wegen” a genitive prep neglect reality.
What, you don’t use “meinetwegen” in daily speech?! :)
You really do see a lot of “dative creep” with those few theoretically genitive prepositions. I’ve heard “während dem ______” often enough, and you tend to see “außer-/innerhalb von…” or “aufgrund von…” more than just those prepositions plus genitive.
I think for English speakers, there’s a certain comfort level with using genitive with those prepositions, just because that mostly corresponds nicely to “because of” etc.
For all the nerds: here’s an etymological discussion about why “wegen” is a actually Dative preposition…
https://www.belleslettres.eu/content/genitiv/wegen-genitiv-dativ.php
It’s in German and VERY dense, so be warned :)
Isn’t “wegen” a genitive preposition? Shouldn’t it be “Wegen des schlechten Wetters…” ?
I answered one comment below :) (thought they were threaded but they weren’t so this one is just so you get a notification)
Thanks again, I came up with lots of examples once I thought about it.
The “niche-y” version related to money is also rather common in English – you need to come up with the money, or else! It usually implies that there is a certain amount of effort involved in finding the money, not just to pay it.
And the “landing” version, das hat mich nicht gut in den Ohren aufgekommen ;)
Two little things:
In German you wouldn’t use “aufkommen” in direct combo with “money”
– Ich muss mit dem Geld aufkommen… that wouldn’t be idiomatic.
And then, you wrote “das hat mich nicht gut in den Ohren…”
That should be
– das ist mir …
“aufkommen” goes with “sein” fpr the spoken past :)
In English, there are a couple of additional uses that come to mind.
When you toss a coin, you might say “it came up heads”. This is similar to your toast example.
Or you could say that an animal “came up lame” – example, “In the horse race, the favorite came up lame.” In this case, it is consistent with your appearance use, but not of a thought or idea.
One might say of a seldom used objection that “it doesn’t come up very often”. Or of a familiar situation – “It comes up all the time”. So “comes up” as a synonym for “happens”.
I think the coin example is probably closest, although the emphasis there (like with the horse) is really on the result, which doesn’t fit “aufkommen.” The “happen” version corresponds more to “vorkommen.”
I think some meanings of “come on” are closer to “aufkommen”:
– I feel a headache coming on.
Nice examples!! I like the one with the coin. In my mind, this felt like “coming up” as in “turning up” but the whole landing notion of the German “aufkommen” actually makes total sense there, too.
Just to make sure, for people skimming the comments… none of the examples would be translated using “aufkommen” :)
For an idea that came on the scene, I would be inclined to say either a new idea arose or it emerged.
Interesting – I don’t know that there’s a consistent metaphor for the “emerging” sense in English. I’d really probably translate every single one of those examples with a different expression.
For the monetary compensation “aufkommen,” I’d use “cover.”
This was a great one for me – I really wasn’t familiar with any of the non “r”-forms.
Wow, really? That’s surprising to me. I’d have bet money that you were familiar with at least stuff like “Stimmung kommt auf” :).
Isn’t that always how it is? You always have those weird gaps in what you know how to say or consciously understand. I suppose it’s possible I’ve seen it or heard it somewhere, but no, it was all pretty much new to me. I guarantee I’ll now be seeing and hearing it everywhere for the next week or two, though!