Hello everyone,
and welcome to another episode of Prefix Verbs Explained. And before we even get to the topic let me say that this is:
The 300th article !!!
That’s crazy!! And it’s all because of YOUR support. Because clearly I wouldn’t do this if no one read it. Your comments, questions, likes and donations are super super motivating. Danke, danke, danke. I’d say… let’s do 500 next (UPDATE: done). And then 1000. And then the world… buahahahahah… okay. Time to get to the topic.
Today, we’ll have a look at
auslegen
and we’ll start with a little quiz. Which of the following is NOT a translation for auslegen:
a) to interpret
b) to comb down a horse
c) to lay out
If you pondered c) for a second, then you’ve clearly had some experiences with prefix verbs already ;). So, auslegen can mean to lay out but the two don’t always fit. And then there’s of course the other meaning. Clearly, we have enough talk about, so let’s jump right in.
As pretty much any prefix verb, auslegen has several meanings.
The first one is a rather literal take on the combination of laying and out. Auslegen expresses the idea of putting something “out there”, putting something on display.
- Hilfe! Tauben kacken mir den Balkon voll. Ich will kein Gift auslegen, aber die Viecher müssen weg.
- Help. Doves are shitting all over my balcony. I don’t want to lay out poison but these critters got to go.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Kann ich hier ein paar Flyer auslegen?
- Can I leave some flyers here?
(typical question in a café )
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Entschuldigung, vor ein paar Tagen hatten Sie so ein wunderschönes Kleid in der Auslage. Ist das noch da?
- Excuse me, a few days ago you had this beautiful dress on display/in your shop window. Do you still have that?
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
Information material and (possibly poisoned) bait are the usual contexts for this auslegen. What it is NOT used for is laying out in sense of presenting, explaining.
- Ich habe im Meeting einen Plan ausgelegt.
This is NOT a translation for the English laying out a plan. You’d use erklären or präsentieren for that. When you use auslegen, it sounds like I have put down a physical map at the meeting.
So even though auslegen and lay out are using the same idea here, the use is a bit different.
And that’s even worse with the second idea of auslegen. The notion of design, layout.
- Die Flüchtlingsunterkunft ist eigentlich nur für 1000 Personen ausgelegt. Zur Zeit wohnen dort fast doppelt so viele Menschen.
- The refugee accommodation was originally designed/laid out for 1000 people. At the moment, almost twice as many people are living there.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Der Sattel ist speziell für längere Touren ausgelegt.
- The saddle is designed/laid out especially for long tours.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
Looks like auslegen and lay out are fine translations. However, the German auslegen is MUCH more narrow than the English version in that it’s only used in contexts that talk about “what/how much something can handle”.
You will never see it in statements that talk about quality of design or about aesthetics.
- The content of the magazine is good but it is poorly laid out.
If you used auslegen here, it would sound like the magazine has been put on display poorly. Like… the newsstand owner put it up all messy and upside down and covered with other magazines.
And then there’s the noun layout which in German is just das Layout. Or das Design. But NOTHING even close to auslegen.
So I’d say DON’T think of auslegen in sense of layout, design because that’ll likely trip you up and make you use it the wrong way. It can mean that, yes, but unlike in English, it is NOT its main idea.
So what is the main idea? It is one of the two other options we had in the little quiz. To interpret and to comb down a horse.
And the winner is…. to interpret. This is based on the idea we already had, the putting something on display. Think of the old wise shaman reading the flight telling his warriors were to go hunting. He presents the information. Only that he also creates the information based inspiration. So there’s actually also an element of layout, design in there.
- Das kann man so und so auslegen.
- You can interpret it this way and that way.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Die Bibel ist immer so konservativ, wie die, die sie auslegen.
- The bible is always as conservative as the people interpreting it.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Das ist Auslegungssache.
- That is a question of how you interpret it.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
Now, there’s one meaning for auslegen left.
Yep, another one :). The English to lay out can be used in combination with money in some sense of to invest. Auslegen is similar. It means to put down money in advance, for which you’ll get reimbursed later. Especially the noun die Auslage(n) (the expenditures, expenses) is fairly common in the business world but sometimes people also use auslegen in daily life as a synonym for to borrow or to lend.
- Thomas wartet immer noch darauf, dass ihm die Fluglinie die Auslagen für das Hotel erstattet.
- Thomas is still waiting for the airline to reimburse him for the expenditures he made for the hotel.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- “Wollen wir noch ein Bier trinken?”
“Auf jeden Fall… oh, warte.. ich hab’ gar nicht mehr genug Geld.”
“Kein Problem, ich kann dir erstmal was auslegen? - “Should we drink another beer?”
“Definitely .. oh wait, I don’t even have enough money anymore.”
“Don’t worry, I can lend you some/I can pay for you and you pay me back later.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
All right.
So these were the meanings for auslegen. All that we have left to do is a look at the r-version.
rauslegen
We’ve learned that one of the meanings of auslegen is quite literally the idea of laying something out.
Just like most other r-version, rauslegen is very literal, too. But while auslegen is about the generic idea of out there, rauslegen makes it clear that something it taken out from somewhere. It’s inside before the rauslegen takes place and it’s outside after. In fact, let’s look at the two back to back.
- Ich habe meinen Flyer ausgelegt.
- Ich habe meinen Flyer rausgelegt.
The first one means that I put it on display somewhere. The second one means that I took it out of my pocket and put it down. Yeah, I know… German can be really annoying :).
Anyway, technically you can rauslegen all kinds of things but there’s one prime context for that verb… putting out clothes from the wardrobe.
- Maria legt sich abends schon die Sachen raus, die sie am nächsten Tag anziehen will.
- Maria lays out the clothes she wants to wear the next day.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Das hat Victoria ihm schön rausgelegt.
- Nicely chosen for him by Victoria.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
The second example is actually user comment on a video of David Beckham wearing a fashionable outfit. The user is implying that Beckham’s wife Victoria tells him what to wear. Or to bring the whole thing full circle… she does his layout for him :).
So, I think that’s it for today. This was our look at the prefix verb auslegen and as usual we’ve seen a range of meanings that seem random but that all turn out to be interconnected once you take enough hallucinogenic drugs…. I mean, once you take a closer look. Speaking of closer look, I think there’s a goblin in my wardrobe. I gotta check on that. If you have any questions or suggestions, just leave me a comment. I hope you liked it and see you next time.
Hey… hey there imp.. what are you doing there. No, put that back. I’m not gonna wear that. How’d you get in there anyway? I’m gonna call my unicorn. She’ll handle you, all right.
** auslegen -fact sheet **
meanings:
to put on display (for information material and possibly poisonous bait)
to design (only used in context of specs… not quality of design)
to interpret
to put down money that you’ll be reimbursed for later
past:
legte(n) aus
form of haben + ausgelegt
related words:
die Auslage – the window display
die Auslagen – the expenditures
die Auslegeware – general term for stuff you can cover your floor with (carpet, rug, linoleum)
die Auslegung – the intepretation
Auslegungssache – question of interpretation
Hilfe! Tauben kacken mir den Balkon voll. Ich will kein Gift auslegen, aber die Viecher müssen weg.
It’s good you left out the definite article at the start, or else the sentence becomes ambiguous :)
Hahaha, that took my a few seconds to figure out :)!
halo, viel danke, where are the pdf files?
I took down the option again, because it’s a search engine issue. I just had them up as a trial. Out of curiosity… what makes them useful for you?
I put them on my ipad and they are well structured, I don’t have to go to the net
Can I please have them all? And do you give classes via skype?
I might bring the feature back in the future but it probably won’t be for free.
There are browser plugins you can use though. Just look for the terms ‘pdf creator browser’ and you’ll find something.
As for Skype… no, I don’t do that at the moment. I don’t like being in front of the screen too much :).
Oh, and congratulations on your 300th article.
Vielen Dank!
Hi,
I always thought about the “interpret” sense of “auslegen” as reading the bones. You know when the caveman or the fortuneteller throws some small animal bones on a piece of cloth and tries to read them. First he is “laying” the bones (die Knochen legen) and afterwords he interprets what was layed: “Er legt die Knochen aus.” So he gets something out of the laying so to say. Or maybe that is just too far of a stretch?
And isn’t “die Auslage” in the sense of “showcase” more connected to “ausliegen”, which is used for something that is lying clearly on display (like the documents for the demolition of Arthur Dent’s house/planet in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.)? I mean of course “legen” and “liegen” are brothers in law so maybe both is true.
Great image with the fortuneteller. Maybe that is indeed how the Germans got their inspiration. And you’re totally right about “Auslage”. I didn’t realize it but technically it doesn’t belong in here. I’m gonna leave it in though because I probably won’t do a post on “ausliegen”.
Thanks a lot for these additions!!
Probably a dumb question, but why did you use “ist” instead of “habe” below?
Die Sattel ist speziell für längere Touren ausgelegt.
The saddle is designed/laid out especially for long tours.
Well, let’s turn it around and ask why you’d use “habe”? The saddle isn’t doing anything. We’re just saying how the saddle is. Does that help?
Does that mean it’s a passive construction?
That’s up to you in a way. At the core it is a simple descriptive statement with the following structure:
– [thing/person] is [characteristic].
That characteristic can be an adjective like “pretty” but in our case it is based on a verb (auslegen – to design, plan). That implies, that someone did it at some point, so yes, there is a notion of passive involved but it doesn’t really matter in my opinion and it’s kind of overanalyzing. I mean
– Das Haus ist nass.
– The house is wet.
Houses don’t get wet by themselves, so also here someone or something else made the house wet. Still you wouldn’t think of that as a passive. The difference between this example and the one from the post is really only the verb.
So… you can think of it as a passive but it’s much simpler than that.
Does that help?
Yes, that’s very helpful thank you :)
Es gibt auch noch “auslegen” im Sinne von “eine begrenzte Fläche vollständig bedecken”, z.B mit Auslegeware (Teppichboden), ein Backblech mit Backpapier auslegen, ein Badezimmer mit Mosaikfliesen auslegen.
Stimmt, die gibt’s auch noch. Klingen aber ein bisschen technisch für meine Ohren. Auf jeden Fall danke für die Ergänzung
I really appreciate the quality of these articles. They are exceptional.
Thanks :).
Off Topic, aber ich muss wissen, kannst du Japanisch gut sprechen? Ich lerne es jetzt & ich brauch ganz viel Hilfe dafür & es wird gesagt dass sogar das bei dir möglich ist…
Leider nicht :). Ich spreche gar kein Japanisch. Ich habe mal angefangen, aber da habe ich nur die Schrift gelernt und das war’s. Aber da gibt’s bestimmt auch coole Blogs.
Superb post as ever, Emmanuel.
For the “interpretation” sense, can you use it to “interpret” someone’s behavior or attuide? As in
He interpreted this as a hostile act
Or is it restricted to language (bible, etc)?
I mean how do I use “das kann man so und so auslegen” correctly?
Technically, it’s not limited to text but I think in reality it is often used in that context. You could use it for behavior but “auslegen” sounds like somewhat of a process to me. And a very thought driven one. You sit down and interpret. That doesn’t really go together well with just reading some gestures. As for “das kann so und so auslegen”… a good context for that would indeed be when you and someone else are trying to interpret an ambiguous statement.
More comatose. Stretched out and dead to the world.
It was meant to be a joke!
Yeah but which one… the word really made no sense to me in that sentence? Were you going for laying down? Or puking?
I don’t suppose this will work?
Mein Freund hat zu viel Schorschbock getruncken und jetzt ist er auslegen!
No, it really doesn’t. What were you trying to say?
“Das Bibel ist immer so konservativ, wie die, die sie auslegen.”
What does the “sie” refer to?
To “die Bibel”.
Right, but at the beginning of your sentence, it says “Das Bibel”? Apologies if I am missing something obvious here!
Damn it! That’s a bad mistake. It should be “die Bibel”. I had a different example first and I forgot to change the article. My apologies for all the confusion. I really need to take better care of these things.
“The English to lay out can be used in combination with money in some sense of to invest.”
I would say it’s more like “spend”, at least in British English. Example: “I had to lay out fifty quid on getting that fixed!”
I agree although of course it’s not as simple as just “to spend”. Something about “lay out” directs ones (or at least my) thoughts to what was supposed to be received in return. Like emphasising what an item cost (and that it was probably expensive) rather than just the fact you parted with money.
Then of course there is “outlay”, which I don’t think the above article mentions. This is more commonly to do with investing I would say. E.g. “From an initial outlay of £5 I have amassed a fortune”.
Thank you for your amazing work! Please, keep it up.
I have realised you are posting also a PDF version now? Do you have any plans to do that with all content you have already done? It would help me so much.
That’s a trial I’m doing at the moment. It should be on all posts at the moment :).
I’m kind of curious… you’re not the first one to say that a PDF would be really helpful but I don’t really know why. What is it about a pdf that you really appreciate?
I can print it out and read wherever i am, without the need of internet connection.
Thank you so much for your work on this site, it is AMAZING!
Thanks for the great feedback!!