Prefix Verbs Explained – “aushalten”

Hello everyone,

and welcome to a new episode of our series on prefix verbs, this time with a
verb that is kind of what German learners do with German grammar.
And I don’t mean wegwünschen :).
Get ready for a look at the one meaning of

aushalten

Now you’re like “What?!Only one meaning?!?!”
And yes, it’s super unusual for a prefix verb but aushalten really only has one meaning. Here it comes:
stand, bear, deal, tolerate.

“Haha, Emanuel very funny. So it has like 10 meanings, right?”
But no, I actually wasn’t joking. Aushalten really only has one meaning that’s relevant and it is where is where the huge amorphous multidimensional meaning clouds of the four verbs I just mentioned intersex.
I mean intersect….  oh boy…  these “jokes”. They must be hard to bear sometimes. Or should I say the “joke” is hard auszuhalten?! Because this idea of putting up with challenging conditions, holding out despite shitty circumstances is precisely what aushalten is all about.
And man… this is SUPER common in daily life.

• Manchmal sind die “Witze” hier schwer auszuhalten.
• Sometimes the “jokes” here are hard to bear/deal with.
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• Hoffentlich schläft Thomas bald ein. Ich halte sein betrunkenes Gelaber nicht mehr lange aus.
• I hope Thomas falls asleep soon. I can’t bear/keep/take his drunk blabber much longer.
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• Es ist komisch, dass Leute nicht mal 5 Minuten Warten aushalten, ohne auf ihr Handy zu gucken.
• It’s a pity that people can’t bear waiting for even 5 minutes without looking at their phone.
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• “Hey, kann ich bei dir pennen? Ich halte es zu Hause grad einfach nicht aus.”
  “Ja, klar, komm rein.”
• “Hey, can I crash on your couch? I just can’t stand being at home at the moment.” (lit.: I can’t stand it to be at home)
  “Sure thing, come on in.”
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And because it’s so common, here are some more :)

• “Hast du schon gehört? Maria hat mit Thomas Schluss gemacht.”
  “Na endlich, ey. Ich versteh echt nicht, wie die es überhaupt so lange mit dem ausgehalten hat.
• “Have you heard? Maria broke up with Thomas. ”
  “Gee, finally. I really don’t get how she put up with that guy for so long to begin with.”
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• Mit diesen 7 Tipps kann man den grauen Berliner Winter gut aushalten.
• With these 7 tips you can put up with/deal with the gray Berlin winter just fine.
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• Boah, dieser Lärm ist nicht zum Aushalten.
• Man, this noise is too much.
  
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And Germans actually also use it when they’re really really amazed by something. Because… you know… Germans are the absolute masters of hedged enthusiasm.

• Schönes Ferienhaus… mit dem Garten und dem See und so… doch… hat was… hier kann man es aushalten.
• This vacation home is soooo beautiful…. my god, the garden and the lake, it’s amazing… A-MA-ZING…  this is like super charming. I wanna live here.
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Okay, that’s a bit of an exaggeration. But Germans do say that at times.

Now, some of you might be wondering how aushalten relates to the English to hold out. Well, it’s better to not think of them as translations. To hold out is just MUCH broader, it’s a much bigger meaning bubble and aushalten is only like a small part of it. And even when holding out is actually used with the underlying abstract idea of “holding your position, till something is over/out”, durchhalten or just halten are the more fitting translations.

• Der Motor hat (durch)gehalten, bis wir an Land waren.
• The engine held out till we reached the shore.
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• Der Spieler hat trotz Verletzung bis zum Ende durchgehalten.
• Despite the injury, the player held out till the end.
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All right.
Now, there aren’t actually any related nouns or anything to mention for us here so let’s get right to the r-version.

raushalten

And like usual, the r-version can express the literal combination of the local idea of the prefix and the verb…. holding something outside in some way.

• “Sind die giftigen Gasaliens noch da?”
  “Halt mal die Hand raus, dann wissen wir’s”
  “Haha, sehr lustig.”
• “Are the poisonous gas aliens still there?”
  “Hold your hand outside, then we’ll know.”
  “Haha, very funny.”
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But this meaning isn’t really all that useful. Still raushalten is definitely something you should add to your active vocab. Why? Because it has an abstract meaning.
Combined with a person, raushalten expresses the idea of keeping someone from getting involved in something.  And usually, this is used with a self-reference in context of some sort of debate or conflict.

• Beim Meeting gab es eine krasse Diskussion darüber, ob wir eine Pad- oder eine Kapsel-Kaffeemaschine kaufen sollen. Aber ich hab’ mich da komplett rausgehalten.
• At the meeting, there was a huge discussion/argument about whether we should buy a coffee maker with pads or one with capsules. But I stayed out of it completely.
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• “Ich finde du solltest Thomas noch mal eine Chance geben.”
  “Halt dich da bitte raus, du kannst das nicht verstehen.”
• “In my opinion, you should give Thomas another chance.”
  “You keep your thoughts to yourself, you can’t understand this.”
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And i think  this is it. this was our look at the menaing of aushaletn and for absoultly no resaon this  bit  is full of typo’s.  i know it sucks and U h8 it but its not that long so i hope its “aushaltable”.
“Just read summary of FAKE NEWS @yourdailygerman. Total disaster. Worst summary ever. SAD!”
Hey, stay out of this, Don!
So yeah… that’s it. As always, if you have any question or suggestions about today’ word or if you want to try out some examples and get them corrected, just leave me a comment.
I hope you liked it and see you next time. 

** aushalten – fact sheet **

meaning:

to bear, to put up with, to withstand

past:

form of haben + gehalten
hielt aus (written past not used in spoken)

related words:

etwas raushalten – hold something out of a window (or something) … rare
sich raushalten aus – not get involved in something (usually discussions or the like)