Hey there everyone,
and welcome to our German Word of the Day.
This time we will have a look at the meaning and use of
außer
Außer is one of the what I call The Three But-lings.
That’s the three words that are possible translations for but: aber, außer and sondern.
And they all mean different things, so they’re not interchangeable.
Of course. It’s German after all.
Außer is not really a problem and its idea is really clear and easy to grasp.
What’s more tricky about it is what case to use after it. And there’s actually a bit misinformation floating around online.
Today, we’ll find out all about it with plenty of examples, so if you’re ready lets jump right in.
Außer comes from the word aus which is about the idea of out, outside.
And that’s also the core of außer.
In fact, it started out with the sense of outside of, but then shifted toward a figurative sense of excluding an item from a group and became the German word for except; or but in the sense of except.
- Maria isst alles außer Spinat.
- Maria eats everything but/except spinach.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Dieser Film war alles außer lustig.
- This movie was all but/except funny.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Ich lese nie Bücher, außer wenn ich muss.
- I never read books, except when I have to.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
And just to make sure… two of the examples have but in it, because it can express the same idea. But neither aber nor sondern can do that. They would sound completely wrong in the examples above. So wrong that people wouldn’t even be able to understand what you’re trying to say.
So maybe don’t think of außer as but. Außer is except, and except just happens to be an idea that can be expressed with but.
Cool.
Now, there’s actually a second option for except in German, and that one might be quite confusing if you see it for the first time and try to guess it: bis auf.
- Ich kaufe alles bis auf den Tisch.
- I buy everything except for the table.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
If you take bis auf literally, it means something like “up onto”. And with a bit of mind yoga, it kind of makes sense why it can also mean except. Like… in the example, you buy and buy and buy, up to the table, which is when you stop.
Are außer and bis auf completely interchangeable? Well, bis auf is a bit more colloquial sounding than außer. And also it only works well with nouns and names, but it doesn’t work for verbs and actions.
- Alle bis auf/außer Thomas.
- Ich lese nie, außer wenn ich muss.
Bis auf would not work in the second one. Still, I’d recommend learning both options because bis auf is one of those little nuggets that can make you sound super authentic with very little effort.
All right.
So now that we know what außer means, let’s talk about its grammar. Or more precisely, its case.
Which case to use after “außer”?
The answer you often find online is:
außer goes with Dative
But the real answer is:
It’s complicated.
If you ask which case goes with außer as a preposition, the answer definitely Dative.
- Außer mir haben hier alle Bier.
- Except me, everyone here has beer.
However, you will see and hear plenty of examples where it’s NOT Dative.
- Alle außer ich haben Bier.
- Everyone except me has beer.
(Dative would be mir)
- Ich kenne alle Leute hier außer die Frau im schwarzen Kleid.
- I know all people here except for the woman in the black dress.
(instead of “außer der Frau”)
- Maria hat alle außer mich zu ihrer Party eingeladen.
- Maria has invited everyone but me to her party.
Depending on who you ask, some German native speakers might call one or the other example “wrong”.
But the fact of the matter is that außer is NOT always followed by a Dative, even in print.
Heck, there’s even a book called “Alle verrückt außer ich” that came out of a big publishing house and was definitely edited properly.
So what’s going on here?
Well, the grammarian view is that außer can also be a conjunction. Like und. Und has no influence on case, so an element after it will just take the same case as the element it is connected to.
- Ich sehe den Mann und dich. (Accusative)
- Ich gebe dem Mann und dir ein Bier. (Dative)
- Der Mann und ich stehen nebeneinander. (Nominative)
And außer basically has the same quality.
- Ich sehe keinen Mann außer dich. (Accusative)
- Ich rede mit keinem Mann außer dir. (Dative)
Now, at this point, you might like “Oh my days, how am I supposed to know when to use preposition and when conjunction?”
And the answer to that is… you don’t really need to know. Most native speakers don’t know which function of the word they’re using either. They’re just vibe-grammaring, as we could call it. Some use Dative more often, other more often go for the case that matches the role of the element.
And there’s no real consensus I could give you when to use which.
Actually, I was at a lake recently and there was a stand selling some food. And here’s the dialogue between a customer and the cashier that I overheard.
Customer: Was gibt’s hier noch schönes für mich?
Seller: Außer mich?
Customer: Außer mir heisst das.
Basically, the customer used a colloquial question like “Hmm, what nice things are left here for me” and the seller tried to make a joke and said “Except me?” and the customer corrected his grammar. They were BOTH native speakers.
It was so ungodly cringe.
The customer probably learned that außer is a Dative preposition, which it is. But is the correction merited? Well… no. Because the seller just used the conjunction version, where the case depends on the role. And they did it because the felt like it.
Same meaning, same structure. Just the way you’d analyse the grammar is different.
So how should you approach this?
I’d say start by thinking of außer as a Dative preposition and use it that way, but be ready for PLENTY of examples from native speakers where it isn’t followed by Dative. It’s not wrong then, and not some weird exception. It’s just a different “angle”, if you will, and you can totally start doing that too.
- Alle außer mir sind bei Marias Party.
- Alle außer ich sind bei Marias Party. (this is better imo)
And if a native speaker ever corrects you, tell them you used außer as a conjunction, not a preposition, and watch them as they realize they just got schooled.
Bottom line: the case after außer is either Dative or whatever the case before it is.
Cool.
Now, before we can wrap this up, there is one more thing, that I absolutely need to clarify.
You see, the thing is:
I’m not at Maria’s party because I wasn’t invited, BUT I’m glad I am not invited, and I wouldn’t have gone anyway. I’m not desperate like that. Have fun with your beta male orbiters, Maria!
Well, okay, maybe that didn’t really need to be clarified.
There are a couple of things I do want to mention about außer, though.
Phrasings and Words with “außer”
The first thing, we need to mention is that außer has another meaning… the idea of actually being outside.
It’s only used in a couple of fixed expression, but those are fairly standard. The first one is außer Haus. It literally means out of the house, but it is mostly used as take-away or simply not there.
- Es tut mir leid aber der Manager ist gerade außer Haus.
- Sorry but the manager is not here/is on site at the moment.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
And the other expression is the figurative phrasing: außer sich sein, which does exist in English, too.
Only there it would be beside oneself with… thanks to Trevor who mentioned that in a comment.
- Ich bin außer mir vor Freude.
- I am beside myself with /delirious of joy
I am out of myself in/from joy. (lit.) - Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Thomas ist ganz außer sich, weil sein Auto dreckig ist.
- Thomas is beside himself / just short of a frenzy, because his car is dirty.
Thomas is totally out of himself, because his car is dirty. (lit.) - Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
And then, last but definitely not least, we have to mention the word außerdem.
Literally, it means something like “except that”, but the idea is actually inclusion this time, so it’s more like “besides that” or “in addition to that”.
For example, when you are at a bakery and you order something they might ask you
- Und außerdem?
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
Dictionaries list a whole bunch of translations like furthermore, besides and also but the common core of all of these is something like “and else” or the most literal version “other than that”.
- “Willst du mit ins Kino kommen?”
“Nein, ich muss noch Hausaufgaben machen, außerdem habe ich kein Geld.” - “Wanna come to the movies?”
“No, I still have homework to do and also, I don’t have any money.” - Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
And that’s it for today. Hooray :).
This was our look at außer, which is the German word for except. As always, if you have any questions or suggestions, leave me a comment.
I hope you liked it and see you next time.
The audio for “Maria isst alles außer Spinat.” is wrong. It plays something about a Thomas.
Fixed, thank you!
„Außer schnee“ does this phrase make sense? My skiing instructor said it many times and I think he meant “push the snow outwards”.
To me, “außer Schnee” makes no sense in the meaning you described. Maybe it’s skiing vocabulary, or he said something different with “aus” in it.
to my ear, “ausser” sounds similar to “also” in English, so my poor brain keeps perceiving it in the meaning of “besides”.
And one question, wasn’t “mit” supposed to come right before “kommen” in this example of yours: “Willst du mit ins Kino kommen?”
No, “mit” is often placed rather “freely”. It’s a bit like Schrödinger’s prefix. Is it a prefix? Is it an adverb, is it a preposition? No one really knows (or cares) until a linguist has to analyze it and then “determines” what it is.
But yeah … “mit [destination] kommen” is really idiomatic and even more so than “ins Kino mitkommen.”
I think it’s because the focus is on “being at the movies together” and not so much on the going there together.
oh I see, thank you for a quick reply! Hopefully I will also develop a feeling for little nuances like this.
Don’t worry about it too much. These things will come with exposure. And it’s great that you were wondering because that means you understood prefix verbs and how they work. Usually :)
Deine Erklärung für Bis auf macht total Sinn. Aber das ist für Bis. Was macht auf eigentlich da? Mein Gedankenbild ist on the table
Ich verstehe die Frage nicht wirklich :). Hilfe bitte!
Sorry , so you help us make mental connections and I find that very helpful. My mind refuses to accept when people say a word is because it it.
So your table example helped me understand why bis auf phrase means except. But the until part is covered by bis right? What is auf doing here? I know it’s not possible for you to find reasons for every word but just in case you do. Otherwise my mind keeps saying I buy everything till on the table
Maybe you can think of it as “up to”, which also has an “up”-component.
– This takes up to three days.
You count up, basically until you reach a threshold. Anything beyond that threshold is not included.
And now it’s just a matter of focus.
Maybe “bis auf” originally meant “anything is included up to X”, and then just shifted the focus toward what’s EXcluded.
This is not etymology, just to be sure. It’s just me theorizing and rationalizing a meaning and how it can make sense.
Hope that helps.
It does! Thank you. Maybe it’ll take me up to three days to sink it in :)
Emmanuel, I saw this sentence in Duolingo: Außer russischen Filmen besprechen wir auch Romane.
And the translation was: Besides Russian movies, we’re also going over novels.
In this case, how can I differentiate außer as “beside” (in addition) from “exception”?
Thanks a lot for your help
The context does that here and the word “auch” (also).
Since there’s “also” in there, it’s basically an A and B situation, and not an A without B.
And Russian movies and novels are not part of the same group. So you wouldn’t say
– novels except Russian movies
Because Russian movies is not a subgroup of novels.
Hope that helps :)
Hallo –
Sind die folgenden Wörter mehr oder weniger Synonyme?
außer wenn, außer, es sei denn
Ich habe diesen Satz gelesen und es scheint, dass mit einer gewissen Umstellung alle drei Wörter verwendet werden könnten:
Er kann sich dieses Auto auf keinen Fall leisten. Außer, er gewinnt im Lotto.
Liege ich mit meinen Überlegungen falsch?
“außer” und “es sei denn” passen beide perfekt, aber für “außer wenn” musst du den Satzbau ändern. Die Bedeutung ist aber gleich in dem Fall.
Hi! I am wondering what if I want to say “Besides x,y,z (which has been mentioned before), I want to talk about [one more thing].” In this case, should I use “außer” or “außerdem” or “neben”? Because in this case is not “exclusion” but add [one more thing] on top.
For example, A teacher wants to tell me in the “Elterngespräch” how my son is doing at school. But other than that I want to discuss if the school can encourage the students to read more.
Should I say: “Neben den schulischen Leistungen meines Sohnes möchte ich auch darüber sprechen, ob die Schule die Schüler zum Lesen anregen kann.”
or “Außer” is better? (but it’s not exclusion)
Thank you!
No, your hunch is correct. “ausser” doesn’t work well here. “ausserdem” would work, but then you’d have to rephrase your sentence.
“neben” is fine, but your sentence sounds a bit scripted.
Another option is “abgesehen davon”, but that is not as “additional” as the other options.
In spoken, I think people would most likely go for a phrasing with “ausserdem”.
Ups… I mean “außerdem”! Sorry. I keep mixing up the spelling because they changed it back and forth when I was in school and I stopped caring.
What could you speak about außerhalb? is it interchangeable with außerdem?
is sonst interchangeable with außerdem?
Sometimes yes, sometimes no. Depends on what sonst you’re talking about.
Absolutely not :).
“außerhalb” is only for locations.
You can also find it in my dictionary :
https://yourdailygerman.com/meaning/aus/ausser-3/auserhalb/
According to the Duden, ‘ausser’ requires Dativ, except for verbs about movement. First example would be thus wrong and should be ‘ich kenne alle ausser der Frau’
“ausser” can also be used as a “conjuction”. Then, it has no influence on the case following it.
– Niemand weiß es ausser ich.
That is correct German.
LEarners and also most native speakers do NOT know how to distinguish between the preposition “ausser” and the “conjunction” and so saying it is followed by Dative is not very helpful in context of learning how to speak idiomatic German.
I don’t like Duden. And stuff like this is why :).
und zudem? ist zudem das gleiche wie ausserdem?
Ich hat hier komme aus das Artikel gehe um “sondern” schickt. (really having trouble translating what I want to say here “I was sent here from the article on “sondern”) Da drüben, war die Wort “außer” geschreibt. Ist es “außer” oder “ausser” oder beiden?
“außer” is officially correct, but I decided to go with “ausser” here since many people around the world have no “ß” on their keyboard and so double-s is likely how they’ll type it.
Dein Satz muss sein:
“Ich wurde von dem Artikel über “sondern” hierher geschickt.”
It’s a passive construction, so no “haben”. And you don’t need to use “gehen um” when you can just use a preposition “on – über”.
Passive sentences like this one look simple but they’re kind of advanced stuff. Just too much confusion with all the verbs :). Kudos for trying, keep it up!!
“Die Firma bietet außer einer Ausbildung auch die Möglichkeit für ein Praktikum. ”
Does ausser mean the same here? – except.
Well, according to Google translate, ausser = not only. Can you help me?
Great question!
The Google translation is based on the sense of the phrase, so it’s not entirely wrong.
Think of “ausser” as “besides”. So it’s kind of an “except” except that it’s not exclusive. Like…
“What does the company offer?”
“An apprenticeship.”
“Well, except that?”
“Oh, an internship.”
So the meaning is essentially that the company offers both things, that’s why Google’s translation is “not only”. But it’s a bit misleading.
Hope I could help.
Good
What is the best option for something like this:
“I am a bit tired and have a lot of work to do, but otherwise I’m good.”
I always thought it would be “ausserdem”, like “outside of that”, but now it seems that would mean “in addition to that” here. Is that right? Would “ausser” or “bis auf” be correct here, or something else?
Vielen Dank :)
Good question. “Ausserdem” does indeed mean “in addition to that”. “Ausser” alone is a preposition though and “bis auf” works as one, too. So you’d need an object to come after it. But they wouldn’t really work here anyway because they sound too excluding. Kind of like “except that”. We don’t need to exclude, we just need to look elsewhere.
The two common ways are
– Ansonsten geht es mir gut.
– Davon abgesehen…
“Ansonsten” is probably the best match because it also works as “otherwise” if you want to hint at consequences. Check out the post on sonst for more about that.
Alles klar. Vielen Dank!
Thanks a lot, really good lesson :D
New Loyal Follower :D
Willkommen an Bord :D
Sollte es nicht statt “Alle ausser ich/mir sind zu Marias Party eingeladen”, “Alle ausser ich/MICH sind zu Marias Party eingeladen”?
Genauso wie hier, in deinem anderen Beispiel “Maria hat alle ausser mich zu ihrer Party eingeladen”. Also, Akkusativ statt Dativ.
As GratefullReader has pointed out in another comment somewhere here, “ausser” can be a conjunction (like und) and a preposition (like mit).
If it is a conjunction, then it takes the case that the verb assigns.
– Alle Schüler ausser ich essen.
You can replace “ausser” by “und”. The meaning will be different but the grammar is the same.
Now, I can also use “ausser” as a preposition without changing the meaning. And then “ausser” always wants Dative, no matter what the verb demands
– Alle Schüler ausser mir essen.
Here’s another example.
– Thomas sieht alle ausser mich.
I used it as conjunction. The accusative comes from the verb “sehen”
– Thomas sieht mich.
And here it is as a preposition
– Thomas sieht alle ausser mir.
Both are correct and mean the same.
Now,
– Alle ausser mich sind zur Party eingeladen.
This does not work because “alle” is subject. So “ich” can either become “mir” (for the preposition) are “ich” for the conjunction. But there is no way it becomes “mich” because neither verb nor “ausser” calls for it.
Hope that helps a bit :)
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Ich glaube, es gilt Folgendes für außer im Standarddeutschen:
1. sei es eine Präposition, so muss der Dativ verwendet werden, außer wenn es um “Bewegungsverben” geht, wie stellen oder setzen; in dieser Hinsicht ist das Wort mit Präpositionen wie “vor” oder “neben” vergleichbar;
2. sei es eine Konjunktion, so hängt der Kasus nur vom Kontext bzw. von der relevanten Struktur ab;
3. man darf immer die Konjunktion mit der Präposition ersetzen, was das Leben einfacher macht ;)
Gib mir mal ein Beispiel für 3)… ich steh’ auf dem Schlauch :)
Aus deinem Post:
“Alle ausser ich/mir sind zu Marias Party eingeladen.”
In “außer ich” ist es ne Konjunktion.
In “außer mir” ist es ne Präposition.
Beides geht.
Ah stimmt…. alles klar :D… das Beispiel werd’ ich mir merken. Damit kann man gut den Unterschied zwischen Präp und Konj zeigen.
So, what is the difference between Präp and Konj in this case? Is the meaning different?
Actually, there’s no real difference apart from grammar.
– Alle sind müde ausser ich.
– Alle sind müde ausser mir.
Both sentences mean exactly the same, and people use it based on personal preference.
IN the first sentence, the case of “ich” depends on the noun it is “contrasting” (alle = subject = Nominative). The proper term for that kind of “ausser” is “Adjunktor”… like “als”.
In the second version, the “ausser” defines the case Dative. It’s really really rare that a word can go both ways without there being a change in meaning.
Hope that helps!
[Great|Awesome|Good|Fantastic|Excellent] post. Thanks!
Fantastisch, wie immer. :-)
Regarding ‘ausser sich sein’: that pattern exists in English, but we use ‘beside’ rather than ‘outside’ – i.e. ‘I was beside myself with anger/frustration/joy/glee, etc.’
Does the phrase ‘bis auf’ always take the accusative case?
Cool, I wasn’t aware that existed. I will totally add that to the article…
As for “bis auf”, it has the same mechanics as “ausser” so it is kind of case-ignorant and gets whatever is around it :)