Hello everyone,
and welcome to a new episode of German Prefix Verbs Explained. And if usefulness could shine, today’s word would be as bright as the sun. Hmm… I’m not sure if the money I spend for that metaphor-app I bought was worth it.
Hey but speaking of spending money… today we’ll have a look at the meaning of
ausgeben
Aus can add two notions to a verb: switched-off-ness and outside-ness. Usually it adds both, but not this time. The idea of switched-off doesn’t really make any sense in combination with geben. Turning something out by giving. Like… you’d have to make donations to your lamp to turn it off. That would be the stupidest light switch ever. So, in case of ausgeben we’re only dealing with the outside-aus. And the big question is:
Does ausgeben mean to give out, like logic and common sense suggest? Or is there some crazy, stupid twist because … German.
Well… ausgeben actually is about the idea of giving out BUT the tricky thing is that ausgeben only works in a few rather specific contexts. The most important one is shopping! Ausgeben in combination with money is THE German word for to spend.
- Boah, ich hab’ im Urlaub so viel Geld ausgegeben.
- Man, I spent so much money while I was on vacation.
- Ich will nicht 5 Euro für einen Kaffee ausgeben.
- I don’t want to spend 5 Euro for a coffee.
- Wieviel Geld gibst du im Monat für Essen aus?
- How much money do you spend for food per month?
The next context for ausgeben has a lot to do with spending money, too. Ausgeben is the word for paying for someone else’s drink.
- Ich geb’ dir einen Kaffee aus.
- I’ll buy/treat you a coffee (as a courtesy).
- Wer zu spät kommt, muss den anderen ein Bier ausgeben.
- Whoever comes late has to buy the others a beer.
In fact, this use is so common and widespread that you don’t even need to say what drink you’re buying.
- Ich geb’ dir einen aus.
- I’ll buy you a (few) round(s).
Now, to an extent, this ausgeben also works for food… but only casual, small bill food.
- Ich geb’ dir einen Döner aus.
- I’ll treat you to a kebab.
- Ich geb’ dir einen Hummer an Püree von der Kartoffel mit Zitronen-Butter-Schaum aus.… NOPE
- I’ll treat you to a lobster with purée from the potato with lemon-butter foam.
In the second example the proper word would be einladen, which can also be used for drinks.
- Ich lad dich ein.
- Lit.: I’m inviting you
- I got this. (in context of bills)
This is what people usually say when the waiter comes with the bill and they want to pay it in full. Ausgeben only feels idiomatic BEFORE you get the drink. Cool. Now, buying a lot of rounds is a good way to pretend to be a rich person. And that brings us right to the third meaning of ausgeben: to pass something or someone off as something.
- Der Mann gibt sich als Arzt aus.
- The man passes himself off as a doctor.
- Maria gibt ihren Bruder bei der Firmenparty als ihren Freund aus, damit sie nicht angebaggert wird.
- At the company party Maria passes off her brother as her boyfriend so she’s not hit on.
- Der Manager gibt den Plan des Praktikanten als seine Idee aus.
- The manager passes off the intern’s plan as his idea.
I think ausgeben has a stronger notion of pretending than to pass off. So you’d only use it if the thing or person is not what you make it seem. All right. Spending money, inviting someone for a drink and passing something or someone off as something – those are the three main uses of ausgeben. You can find it in other, sometimes rather literal contexts here and there. For example, a company issuing stock or a technical device that’s giving out a sound signal. But you’ll definitely get it from context and they are really not that useful.
What is useful is the noun for ausgeben: die Ausgabe which basically means “the giving out”. Really straight forward. The Gepäckausgabe for instance is the place where they “give out” the luggage (baggage claim/pick up), a Sprachausgabe is the voice output of a computer and a Wochenendausgabe … well… that’s gonna be a place where they give out weekends. Wait, what? That is AWESOME, I gotta go there right … oh… oh that’s not what it means? Sigh, another dream shattered. But seriously… what is a Wochenendausgabe? It is something they give out on weekends. We could say, something they issue on weekends. We could say, the weekend’s issue :). That’s the main meaning of die Ausgabe: issue.
- Thomas ist auf dem Cover von der nächsten Ausgabe vom People Magazine.
- Thomas will be on the cover of the next issue of People Magazine.
- Clinton ist nicht in der Juli-Ausgabe vom Playboy.
- Clinton is not in the July issue of the Playboy.
Ausgabe is issue in sense of newspapers and magazines (also for non-fiction TV and radio programming). And that brings us right to the her-version of the verb
rausgeben and Herausgeben
Herausgeben is the official word for publishing/editing a newspaper or a book.
- Thomas’ Opa war mal Herausgeber einer Tageszeitung.
- Thomas’ grandpa once was the (main) editor/publisher of a daily newspaper.
(The Herausgeber is not just some random editor in a newsroom. It is THE editor)
- “Die 10.000.000 besten Katzengedichte” – herausgegeben (hrsg.) von Kitty Thomas.
- “The 10.000.000 best cat poems” – published (pub.) by Kitty Thomas.
But herausgeben can also express the more general idea of releasing something that was being withheld prior.
- Nachdem 90% aller Studenten in der Prüfung durchgefallen sind, fordern sie nun die Herausgabe der Klausuren.
- After 90% of all students failed the exam, they are now demanding the release of the exams.
- Der Politiker fordert von dem Sender die Herausgabe des Videos.
- The politician demands the TV channel hand over the video.
- Muss mein Arbeitgeber Informationen über meinen Verdienst an meinen Vermieter (he)rausgeben?
- Does my employer have to hand out/give out information about my income to my land lord?
- Man sollte bei Gewinnspielen nicht einfach seine E-Mail (he)rausgeben. Sonst kriegt man sehr wahrscheinlich Spam.
- You shouldn’t give out your email address for random raffles. Or else you’ll most likely get spam.
Now, this more general herausgeben can be shortened to rausgeben in more mundane, colloquial contexts. That is NOT the case for the sense of editing, publishing. Like… saying so and so is the “Rausgeber” of the New York Times is not colloquial or slangy… it’s just wrong and I don’t think anyone would ever say it. Which means that someone likely did say it at some point… because as Justin Bowie put it: “Never say Never” when it comes to languages. Anyways… there is a use for rausgeben, however, where you’d never hear herausgeben, simply because it would sound super mega stiff. It’s a very common every day meaning that brings us full circle to the first meaning of ausgeben… the spending money. Rausgeben is THE word for giving out (small) change in return to a bill…. and I do not know if there’s an English word for it.
- Haben Sie es passend? Ich kann nämlich leider nicht rausgeben.
- Do you have “the exact amount of money it costs in cash”? Because I don’t have change to break your bill.
(sorry for this very clumsy translation. “es passend haben” and “rausgeben” are super uber common in German but I have no idea how to express that in English)
- Der Polizist konnte nicht rausgeben, deshalb musste ich dann doch nichts bezahlen.
- The police officer couldn’t give me back change, so that’s why I ended up not having to pay anything after all.
- Können Sie auf einen Hunderter rausgeben?
- Can you give back change if I give you a hundred?
Sounds like a rather specific word to have but the phrase “auf einen * rausgeben” (with the asterix being a random bill) yields half a million results on Google, more than you can find for the word herausgeben. So it’s definitely something people use quite a bit and it’s worth remembering. As is the word ausgeben itself. Because even though it applies the idea of giving out to rather specific contexts, the sense of to spend in context of money makes this word a definite must have. And that’s it for today. As always, if you have any questions or suggestions just leave me a comment. I hope you liked it and see you next time.
** click here to download all audio files as a zip-archive**
** ausgeben – fact sheet **
meanings:
to spend
to buy a drink (jemandem etwas ausgeben)
to pass off as (sich/etwas als jemand/etwas ausgeben)
to issue (specific contexts)
spoken past:
form of haben + ausgegeben
related words:
die Ausgabe – the issue, the counter, the expense (usually plural: Ausgaben)
die Herausgabe – surrender (of stolen things), also: act of publishing (rare)
der Herausgeber – the publisher (common)
herausgeben – give out/release (for stuff that has been withheld, or pieces of information)
rausgeben – give back change
We’d just say “do you have the right change?” or “sorry I don’t have change for a note”. You wouldn’t necessarily need to say both as one assumes the other.
Or, “do you have exact change? Because I can’t break your bill. or I can’t break a 10 / a 50.”
That makes me wonder… did anyone ever make this very obvious and very stupid joke:
– Can you break a 50?
No, but I could rip it.
About as funny as
– Can you tell me the time?
Yes. (doesn’t continue)
And that’s a “joke” people do every once in a while.
It’s only obvious and stupid if you say it. If you do it, though…that’s funny. You’d want to pay them back, but I think making that joke is worth at least 1 or 5 dollars.
But, yeah, I’ve never heard anyone say that joke.
Here in Liverpool that would be “Ave yer got the right money luv? A’m ourra change”
Cute… I don’t have much trouble understanding Liverpool English. Any further north, however (esp. Glasgow Scottish – or “Glaswegian”), and I’m lost :)
What does the “luv” mean? “Love”?? If so then wow… Germans are waaaaayyyy to formal and uptight for that, even the most open ones. I can’t imagine somebody saying that on a festival. It’d probably be received as condescending.
That ‘s right. In Tyneside (Newcastle & thereabouts) it would be “pet”, and down in The West Country you might get “my lover” from a complete stranger. In other places, including Australia, a lot of people will call anyone “mate”. Australian pronunciation often more like “mite”, so it is possible to get the impression that everyone is called Mike.
Other regional examples I have come across of intimate terms used with strangers: Liverpool – “babe”; Manchester – “chuck”; South Yorkshire/Derbyshire – “duck”; London – “darling”, “sweetheart”. I’m sure there’s plenty more!
Be careful! Such speech is tolerated (and its use even celebrated) among the proletariat but, in England at least, any such usage by the bourgeoisie is regarded as a bit phoney.
Saying that, as a foreigner you may be granted more licence. My wife is Iranian and a senior cardiologist but she calls all her work colleagues “babe”. I cringe when I hear it but it seems to go down well.
Wow, crazy. Does it work for both genders?
Sorry my mistake, not “babe” but “honey”, which if anything is even worse.
So she’d call her assistant surgeon “honey”??
Perhaps also more acceptable from a woman than from a man.
Very much easier than remembering lots of strange names and how to pronounce them all. (Plenty of that in medicine, anyway.) I admire the approach.
Lancashire – we use “cock” : “how’s it going cock”.. to male or female, and “sunshine”, although “sunshine” is used in context of being a tad irritated with the person.
“Cock”… really? Have you ever used it accidentally somewhere else? Like… to a Starbuck’s employee in New York :)
I’ve heard her speak to fellow consultants on the phone and call them “hon” and “honey” and also seen her speak to the nursing staff that way. She doesn’t have an assistant surgeon so I can’t speak for that!
As far as genders go, women can use such intimate language with either sex but men can only really use it with women, although they run a certain risk of being labelled patronising and sexist. For man-to-man pseudo intimacy there is a small selection of comradely alternatives like “mate”, “my mate” and “pal” although “pal” is a funny one and best avoided (can sound threatening).
So “paymate” would be the friendlier “paypal”? Sorry, I’m writing something right now so I’m in “unfunny pun” mode.
The only thing I can imagine people use in Germany is “Schatz” and variations like “Schätzchen” or “Schatzilein” but the person using it would come across somewhat resolute … like… trying to ascertain or create higher status.
While we’re at it… among people coming from a Turkish background it’s common to call foreign men “großer” or “Meister”. The latter is also used by construction workers. I find that really weird and oddly even a bit disrespectful, even though the term itself puts me at a higher status. I just don’t feel taken seriously if a construction worker who is twice my size says “Na, großer.”… I’ve also not really warmed up to “mein Freund” coming from strangers. I guess I’m super uber German stiff as shit when it comes to these things :D
Using overly respectful terms of address is I think the exact opposite of weirdly intimate ones. Like American cops calling you “sir” is really just meant to make you shit your pants.
Perhaps Australians just have smaller vocabularies. “Mate” can be used fairly threateningly here, though also with genuine warmth. Context and tone are important. It’s also not specifically male-to-male here.
So two women would call each other “mate” and a man would call a woman “mate”? That’s super weird to me but I guess it’s a bit the same with “dude” in the states
Calling a female “dude” is also a fairly recent thing here in the States too, and I laugh every time I hear young people use it that way (it sounds very funny to my 56-year-old ears). I watched an episode of a comedy show on TV a couple weeks ago — called “The Goldbergs” about a family, and it supposedly takes place in 1985ish. In the episode, one of the sons, who is about 12 years old, is upset with something his mother has done, and he says “Dude! What did you do?!!” It immediately sounded completely phony to me, because in 1985, no one used that word in that way. Today it’s pretty common, but as I said, it’s cute/funny/strange every time I hear it used towards a female.
Yes, super common in the UK and took me a while to get used to, but then I came to love it!! Hon or Honey to me sounds more American; you’ll get that here in the US in smaller places and probably more down South. I think it’s rather sweet! But I agree with you, it just wouldn’t work in Germany
Ich bin in den Süden USA geboren, wo man häufig “hon” (honey), “sweetie-pie”, oder “pumpkin” von Umbekannten genannt wird (meistens von Frauen). Meine Schwester hatte einen Kollegen, der gerade aus Osteuropa umgezogen war. Der war völlig entsetzt, als eine Kellnerin ihm gesagt hat, sie habe ihn gerne zum Nachtisch gegessen.
[Lancashire – we use “cock” : “how’s it going cock”].. it originates from an old English nursery rhyme ‘Little Cock Sparrow’, we used to say ‘how are you my little cock’, but that became shortened to ‘ how are you cock’. I still use it with my family and friends, and yes I have said it elsewhere..to raised eyebrows.
I’ve never heard a guy call a woman “mate”
Perhaps with a “wanna” in front… as a question ;)
In the United States, the most common phrasing would be: “Do you have exact change?” and “Sorry, I can’t make change.” As Julia says, one wouldn’t ever really say both. It is common to see written signs saying “Exact change required.”, “Cannot make change for $50”, “No change for $50”.
Oh, and “Do you have change for a [name of note]?” is very common.
BTW… did Obama have enough change, after all? (sorry, but the pun was just too cheap to pass on it)
For completion… these sign writings would be
” Bitte passend zahlen” (which translates to exact change required, I think) and
“Bitte haben Sie Verständnis, dass wir eine 100€ Scheine annehmen können. Vielen Dank” (or something of similar length)
Hmm. This would have been a very handy word(s) to have had in my arsenal when I lived in Germany. Very well explained.
Oh, I have to comment. You really have a great ear for current, colloquial English. This sentence, “Does ausgeben mean to give out, like logic and common sense suggest? Or is there some crazy, stupid twist because … German.” made me laugh out loud. Very clever and funny, and contemporary (because this formulation is something quite recent in today’s English). Kudos.
English is water and I’s a spongin’ :D… seriously though, we do some similar stuff in German. One is to just say “Weil” as an answer to because and the other one, which I like quite a lot, is doing the same in the negative
– “Warum??”
“Weil!”
– “Warum nich’?”
“Weil nich'”
Looking forward to doing that to my kids. They’ll be so annoyed.
This must, once again, be a regional thing as I would never say that and have never heard it – in the same context, I’d say “warum? Darum!”
Can I ask you what region you’re from? Also, what age demographic, wenn’s nicht zu unhöflich is :)
(ich bin aus Berlin und 35)
Ueberhaupt nicht unhoeflich – du kannst ja nix dafuer, dass ich so steinalt bin :-) Ich bin aus Bayern und 46
Ach komm, “steinalt”, also bitte :). Ich glaube, das ist dann eher die Region, die da ‘ne Rolle spielt. Ich kenn Leute aus dem Pott, die Sagen das auch.
“Warum, darum” kenn ich natürlich auch.
Komisch, dass ich hier auf einmal als Anonymous erscheine – das war nicht geplant :-) Ja, ich glaub auch, dass das eine regionale Geschichte ist, denn wir zwei hatten das ja schon oefters! Sind ja auch irgendwie zwei Welten…
These days, if you’re buying several rounds, you can’t just pretend to be rich, you’d HAVE to be LOL
Berlin is still pretty cheap though. Pick the right bar and you can get 9 large beers for 30. Or 7 gin tonics. No kidding.
“Wieviel Geld gibst du im Monat für Essen aus?”
How would you ask how much someone spends on eating out? “Wieviel Geld gibst du im Monat für auswärts Essen aus?” ? Is the the aus-heaviness a problem to native ears?
Haha… no, to my ears that’s totally fine. “auswärts” is a bit heavy on the tongue though, and I think I’d say “Essengehen”
– Wieviel Geld gibts du im Monat für Essengehen aus.
The problem is the spelling. “Essengehen”, “Essen-Gehen”, “Essen Gehen”… all look wrong.
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Was ist denn der Unterschied zwischen herausgeben und veröffentlichen? Und herausbringen?
Meine Lieblingsband hat letzte Woche eine neue Platte _____. (Laut Google ist “veröffentlicht” bevorzugt)
Gute Frage! “herausgeben” ist “the most editorial”, wenn das Sinn macht. Es geht nur für Geschriebenes und ist zur Hälfte eine Verntwortungsbezeichung. Für eine Platte würde ich “rausbringen” sagen, oder “veröffentlichen” wenn es formal klingen soll. Ich weiß nicht genau, was der Herausgeber einer Zeitung eigentlich macht und was der Unterschied zum Chefredakteur ist. Vielleicht kann mir da ein anderer Muttersprachler aushelfen …
Vielen Dank, Das hilft mir. :)
Sehr guter Artikel. Vielen Dank!
I would like to mention the prefix version of this word. ;) “verausgaben”. Okay, it is not a perfect prefix word of “ausgeben” as you have another vowel in there but the words are close enough to consider their relationship. As often the case “ver-” adds a “depleting” or a “nihilating” touch to the word. As “verausgaben” means to “to burn yourself out” or “to overwork yourself” (to give it all). Still it has often a not so bad ring to it. You would use it for sports when you try to test your limit. But also in your work when you make double or triple shifts, sitting there with your not so hot coffee, the almost last one in the building and your coworker about to go, aking: “Machst du noch lange?” – “Nein, nur noch ein Artikel für die Wochendausgabe.” – “Okay, aber verausgabe dich nicht zu sehr.” = “Are you still going on for long?” – “No, just one article for the weekend edition.” – “Okay, but do not overwork youself too much.”
The word is conjugated like a weak verb and not separable. And duden.de lists two quite uncommon usages of the word in very formal writing and for the mailbusiness where it somehow can mean “ausgeben” and “herausgeben” respectively. Although I have never heard of this usage for giving out stamps. Well, probably because I always send my mailage directly in the mailoffice without buying stamps first.
Anyway, nice article again, keep up your good work.
And great addition, as usual :). I really completely forgot about this one. I think a fairly good translation is “to exert oneself” though not all instances of this would qualify as “verausgeben”. As for the Duden entry… I have never heard of these uses either but in special fields of work there are hidden many of such weird uses. Some time ago, I found that “verbringen” apparently still means “bring something away” in some work context.
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Is ausgeben the most common verb to denote spending ?
Definitely yes. But only spending money, not spending time.
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Ich habe vor, jeden Tag ein bisschen Deutsch zu lesen und lernen, sodass ich endlich gut Deustch sprechen kann.
Viele grüße aus Taiwan :D
Na dann viel Erfolg :)
Ich habe ein Beispiel gefunden, in dem man “herausgeben” benutzt für “Kleingeld rausgeben”.
-“Dafür kriegen Sie bei mir nichts,” sagte der Fahrer. “Auf 20 Mark muss ich nicht herausgeben.”
Benutzt der Autor vielleicht diesen Ausdruck (anstatt rausgeben), damit der Busfahrer super streng und hochnäsig klingt?
Hmm, das wäre dann schon sehr raffiniert. Ich glaube eher, dass “rausgeben” dem Autor (oder dem Lektor) zu umgangssprachlich erschien und er deshalb “herausgeben” gewählt hat. Einen Berliner Busfahrer, der das sagt, kann ich mir eher schwer vorstellen. Es kann auch sein, dass das Buch schon ein bisschen älter ist (es wird ja non in Mark gezahlt). Das könnte dann auch was damit zu tun haben. So vor 40 Jahren hat man das noch “korrekter” gesprochen.
Print ist doch sowieso oft anders, foermlicher
Ja, das kommt auch noch dazu. Wobei es ja ein Dialog ist, und da sollte der Autor ja so schreiben, wie die Charaktere reden.
Im Prinzip ja, in der Praxis aber oft anders – einer der Gruende, warum ich wahnsinnig gerne audio books hoere, weil oft die SPrache so viel schoener ist! Uebrigens etwas, das ich allen Sprachstudenten waermstens empfehle!!
Da stell ich doch direkt mal die Frage, die sich jetzt dann ganz viele Lerner stellen… hast du gute Hörbuchtipps?
Naja, ich hoere ja immer Englisch – das waere ja nicht so angebracht fuer Deutschlernende :-) Fuer Studenten, die in D leben, wuerde ich einen Besuch in der Buecherei empfehlen, die haben meist eine gute Auswahl. Ansonsten online – bei Amazon Audible z.B.
Stimmt, die öffentlichen Bibliotheken haben Hammer das Angebot (um mal ein bisschen Umgangssprache zu verwenden). Und in Berlin kosten die so 10 bis 20 Euro … im Jahr.
Haha, ok. FYI, das Buch speilt im Jahr 1989 in Westberlin, aber es wurde 2001 geschrieben. Mir scheint, dass es bezeichnend für den Autor ist, eine Art “raffinierte Umgangssprache” zu benutzen. In seiner Antwort auf die Forderung des Busfahrers, benutzt die Hauptfigur aber den Ausdruck “rausgeben” (und nicht “herausgeben”):
-“Die Beförderungsbedingungen der BVG sagen aber auch, dass Sie mir, wenn Sie nicht _rausgeben_ können, eine Quittung über den Restbetrag geben müssen, die ich am Kleistpark einlösen kann.”
Dennoch, weil ich kein Muttersprachler bin, ist es natürlich immer schwierig, genau die Laune von einem Text zu verstehen.
Das ist dann allerdings interessant. Vielleicht wollte er dann doch, dass der Busfahrer leicht pissig(genervt) rüberkommt. Oder es ist ein sehr gebildeter oder belesener Busfahrer. Oder ein Busfahrer der Deutsch nicht als Muttersprachler hat sondern im Sprachkurs alles schön ordentlich gelernt hat :)
Bisher hab ich nur “wechseln” benutzt, wenn ich Papiergeld zu Müntzen rausgeben wollte. Was passt am bestens in diesem Zusammenhang?
Das kommt auf den Kontext an. Wenn du einen 10-Euro-Schein hast und dafür 10 Euro in Münzen haben willst, dann ist “wechseln” perfekt. “rausgeben” passt dann nicht. Das funktioniert nur im Kontext von Restgeld zurückgeben. Jemand kauft was bei dir für 8 Euro und gibt dir 10, dann gibst du raus.
Mir wird beim Lesen der Kommentare immer wieder bewusst, wie krass schwer Deutsch ist!! Bin ich froh, dass ich das nicht lernen muss :-)
ich glaube, man muss es schaffen, die ganzen Kleinigkeiten (Endungen, dies das) erstmal zu ignorieren. Sonst macht einen das verrückt :)
Vielen vielen Dank für den Artikel von “ausgeben”. Super hilfreich.
Freut mich :)