Hello everyone,
And welcome to our German Word of the Day.
Nice, first sentence is done.
I wonder if they know that I mean “our” in the sense of “me and you readers as a a community”. Or should I write your Word of the Day?
I’m not sure actually, what I’ve been using.
Man, one sentence in, and I’m overthinking already.
Time for the topic.
Today, we’ll…. no, let’s do that again.
This time, we’ll take a look at the meaning of
borgen
borgen,
borgen… borgen.
Getting today, and giving back morgen.
Tomorrow,
to borrow.
borgen is to borrow. That’s simple enough.
But that’s not where it ends.
In English, one side borrows, the other one loans or lends.
The German borgen works both ways.
- Ich habe dir Geld geborgt.
- I loaned you money.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Ich habe mir Geld geborgt.
- I borrowed some money.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
Wow, the German examples are almost the same.
Just one letter to blame, in fact.
mir and dir.
The dir makes sense. I’m lending YOU money.
But the mir?
I’m puzzled for a second.
Then I remember – German has this weird thing for self references.
Like when English is saying “Getting myself a beer.”
German does that a lot. And I don’t mean the beer.
Though it does that too.
Ich borge mir Geld.
I’m borrowing money “for myself”.
Do we have to use it? Technically no.
It’s very idiomatic though, so you definitely should.
Two more examples might be good.
- Thomas borgt Maria Geld.
- Thomas lends money to Maria.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Thomas borgt sich von Maria Geld.
- Thomas borrows money from Maria.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
Great. Now, for another thing.
leihen.
Historically, it’s a cousin of loan.
Grammatically and “meaningly”,
it’s borgen’s brother from another mother.
For it too works both ways.
- Ich muss mir Geld leihen.
- I have to borrow money.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Kannst du mir Geld leihen?
- Can you lend me money?
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
“I’m a bit more colloquial.”, borgen said, “and maybe a bit more on the borrowing side.”
“True!”, leihen agreed, “I do sound a bit more formal. Though that might be a regional thing too.”
“Do I need to worry about it?”, I asked.
“No.”, they said in unison.
“Oh and do you work only for money?”
“No, we work things too.”
- Ich habe mir Marias Fusionsreaktor geborgt/geliehen.
- I borrowed Maria’s fusion reactor.
This was simple enough, so I decided to venture deeper…
Relatives!
And it took but one line till I found them:
ausleihen and ausborgen.
Prefix verbs. I was nervous but happy,
ready for turns and twists
and lists of meanings I never knew I missed.
But no.
Both are about borrowing and lending.
Both work both ways.
The only important difference:
they’re not about money!
They work best for useful items.
- “Guck mal, mein neuer Quanten-Kochtopf.”
“Cool, kann ich mir den mal ausborgen?”
“Mal sehen.” - “Look, my new quantum cooking pot.”
“Cool, can I borrow it some time?”
“Hmm, we’ll have to see.” - Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
This example would work with ausleihen, too.
And with a normal pot.
And if it were about lending out the pot.
Let me guess, I thought: ausleihen is a bit more formal sounding?
“Yes.”, ausleihen said.
I started getting bored, so I looked around for nouns.
Nothing with borgen to be found,
but then finally, a sign.
Leihgebühr für Handtücher, it read.
Pshhh, I don’t want to pay a fee for a towel.
“Then, you can’t go to sauna, Sir.”
Whatever! I don’t even want to go to the sauna, I’m looking for nouns.
“Oh, well how about der Verleih?”
And just like that, I had found another verb. verleihen.
And finally, something interesting. Not just another clone.
“I only work one way.”, said verleihen.
- Wir verleihen keine Saunahüte.
- We don’t rent out sauna hats.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
“Oh, because the ver- has this idea of away, right?”
“Exactly,” verleihen said. “And I have a weird meaning too. Do you want to know?”
“Oh, uh… sure.” I said, half curious, half anxious about the twist.
- Der Köchin wurde für ihre Arbeit in der Quanten-Küche der Geschmacks-Nobelpreis verliehen.
- The (female) chef was awarded the Nobel Taste price for her work in the quantum cuisine.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Maria ist zur Preisverleihung eingeladen.
- Maria is invited to the award ceremony.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
That wasn’t so bad, I thought.
“So, it’s like basically like giving out, only that the notion of giving back is missing, right?”, I asked.
But no reply. verleihen was gone.
“Where is it?”, I asked the person at the counter.
“She left half an hour ago. The sauna is closing now, so yeah, maybe you want to get dressed.”
I looked down and there I was. Naked. The whole lecture hall staring at me in what I think was awe and envy.
And then I woke up. In front of my computer, an empty plate next to me. Wow… I had been writing about borgen and leihen and I must have fallen asleep. God damn pasta. Why does it always knock me out like that.
But anyway, so the bottom line is that borgen and leihen as well as ausborgen and ausleihen are pretty similar, in that they all work both ways – So for borrowing and lending. Leihen and ausleihen sound a tiny bit more formal, and the versions with aus do not work for money.
Oh, and they can sound a little bit more “remote”… if that’s the right word.
What I mean is that if you take a book home from the library, then ausborgen or ausleihen are better, while if you just borrow a pen at a bar, you’d probably use borgen.
And what’s really important is to use the Dative self reference if you talk about borrowing something.
- Kann ich mir kurz deinen Stift borgen?
- Can I borrow your pen for a second?
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
It’s not mandatory, but it sounds much much better.
Oh and I almost forgot… there’s the noun der Verleih, which can mean rental in the sense of a place where you can rent stuff.
- Gibt es hier im Dorf einen Fahrradverleih?
- Is there a bike rental store here in the village?
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
But this is typically only used for somewhat small scale items. So tools from the hardware store, like a drill for example, or bikes or rowing boats. But for cars for example die Vermietung is the more idiomatic term.
Cool.
So now we have a pretty good overview over borgen and leihen, but before we wrap this up, I actually want to explore the broader family a little bit because there are some nice words to be found.
I’ll just fix myself an espresso real quick, so I don’t fall asleep again. Brb.
…
…
All right, let’s go.
The family of “borgen”
The origin of borgen is the oafishly ancient Indo-European root *bhergh- and the core idea of it was something like hiding, protecting.
This sense is still fairly visible in offspring like harbour and bury, but the connection is less obvious for borgen and to borrow. The intermediate step there was a sense of pledging, guaranteeing . Like… if you borrow me your pen, I pledge to keep it safe. Something like that.
And this sense of pledging and “safety” is actually kind of still visible in German verb bürgen (für). Which is about being a guarantor, standing in with your name (and money).
- Würdest du für mich bürgen, wenn ich den Kredit aufnehme?
- Would you be my guarantor/co-sign if I take the loan?
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Thomas steht nicht im Mietvertrag, aber er ist Bürge.
- Thomas is not in the lease, but he is guarantor.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Vermieter fordern oft eine Bürgschaft der Eltern, wenn sie an junge Leute vermieten.
- Landlords often demand a “guarantee of payment” of the parents if they rent out to young people.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
Not really words that you’ll need to use actively in daily life (unless you work in a field like real estate) but you’ll probably see them sooner or later and I think it’s nice to know the direct connection to borgen.
But the more useful relative is definitely the verb bergen.
If you see it for the first time, you might now be like “Oh, mountains??”
And bergen is indeed something that is done in the mountains.
But there’s no direct relation. The core is a notion of rescuing or bringing home, so the original sense of protecting that we had found for the root is pretty visible here actually.
- Die Taucher bergen das Boot.
- The divers recover the boat.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Der Snowboarder konnte unverletzt geborgen werden.
- The snowboarder could be rescued uninjured.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
Especially for people, the translation will often be to rescue, but the default translation here is retten. The focus on bergen is more on find and recover.
- Die starken Winde erschweren die Bergung des abgestürzten UFOs.
- The strong winds are complicating the recovery/salvaging of the crashed UFO.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
The adjective geborgen and the noun die Geborgenheit are also commonly used in the contetx of relationships, where it’s a mix of feeling cozy, safe, cared for and seen.
- Geborgenheit ist Maria in einer Beziehung sehr wichtig.
- Feeling safe, secure and seen is very important for Maria in a relationship.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
And there’s the prefix version verbergen which basically means to conceal, to hide.
- Nichts verbirgt Falten so gut wie Kartoffelbrei im Gesicht.
- Nothing conceals wrinkles better than mashed potatoes in the face.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Tief verborgen im Wald steht eine alte Sauna.
- Deeply hidden in the woods, there’s an old sauna.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
“Do you rent out sauna hats?”, I asked the fairy behind the counter.
Nahhh… I… I’m not falling asleep again, don’t worry. I just had an espresso.
And actually, we’re done for today anyway :).
This was our look at the meaning and of borgen and leihen and a few relatives.
As usual, if you want to check how much you remember, you can take the little quiz I have prepared for you.
And of course, if you have any questions and suggestions, just leave me a comment.
I hope you liked it and I’ll see you next time.
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Wow, thank you so much ChatGPT. This is amazing feedback. I’m very happy some bot made you read this, just so you can spam a link to a cryptopage at the end, which I amazingly removed.
Just recalled in slang for either of the above expressions “borgen” or “leihen”, we sometimes use “auspumpen”.However, this is extremely regional, perhaps from Northern Germany or Berlin, no doubt influenced by English.
I know this as “pumpen” and “anpumpen”. Never heard “auspumpen” that way.
In all likelihood it’s flat wrong, probably misspoken slang, e.g. “Alter, pump’ mir mal ‘wat Knete aus, bin total pleite!”
Danke, Emnuel! Das war eine guten Unterricht. Ich hatte keine Ahnung von der großen Familie dieser Verben. Das war großartig!!
Thank you so much to everyone who generously supported me! Because of your kindness, I can now learn German and finally speak properly with my sister in Germany. This means everything to me—being able to rebuild our connection after so many years apart. I promise to study hard and make the most of this opportunity. From the bottom of my heart, thank you!
another great illustration / meme!
Hey y’all! Thank you so much for your donations! They allow me to be a member and learn along side y’all dispite being dirt poor. Happy learning!
Thanks to everyone who donated helping sponsor my membership and others’, because of your generosity i now can learn german easily and effectively, also special thanks to Emmanuel for creating this amazing website and for giving me the opportunity to use it!
If you check a book out of the library, is “ausborgen” the go-to word you would use?
And would you use it for things you can’t really give back, like food? I found this example in a news article about things neighbors can do for each other:
I’ve never “borrowed” an egg from a neighbor, so it’s hard to say, but in books, it seems like you don’t necessarily give an egg back. It seems more like neighbor gives me an egg today, I give neighbor a screwdriver tomorrow. Unless the neighbor is a kangaroo, then all bets are off.
If you check a book out of the library, is “ausborgen” the go-to word you would use?
I think I would use both, “ausborgen” and “ausleihen”. Maybe for the library more “ausborgen”, but I was thinking back to DVD rental days and there, I think I used “ausleihen”.
But I think all the “official” text in the library is based on “leihen”.
And I would also say the “geliehene Buch”, not the “ausgeborgte Buch”.
Oh, and anything online like “renting” a movie on Amazon “””prime””” , I’d definitely use “leihen”.
Maybe “borgen” has a hands-on down to earth feel and the “aus” is just more fitting for things that you take home from the library for a few weeks, while “borgen” by itself is more for getting a drill from your neighbor.
I think a HUGE part of this might be idiosyncrasies though. That’s why I didn’t talk too much about nuances in the post because I am not sure how far what I “feel” about the use can be generalized. And it’s very granular stuff, so I didn’t want people walking away with a sense of that they have to remember and apply that. It’s not worth the energy, frankly.
– Blumen gießen, ein Ei ausborgen, gemeinsam Kaffee trinken
This is a great example. We do use “ausborgen” like that for food. In a flat share for instance you could say that you “borrowed” a bit of someone’s butter. I personally don’t talk that way, but it does feel natural when I hear it.
It’s left open as to whether the person plans to give it back or not.
Of course not the same egg, in the example. But the person might well give back a six pack of eggs a week later.
Let’s put it this way: if you know at the moment of asking that you DO NOT plan on giving it back, like… if that thought is not in your head, you would not use “(aus)borgen”.
Have you read the Känguruh-Chroniken, by the way?
Yeah. The audiobooks have a pretty steep learning curve, for me anyway, but I dig the humor, the writing style, and how he reads it.
Just a small correction, this should be
Unless maybe they normally do rent them, but something happened so they can’t right now. Like the unicorns stole them all or something. And the same thing for “verleihen.” It only works one way, cause it’s always true.
Interesting topic. I’d been hoping for more info on “borgen”, and I got a kick out of “oafishly ancient” :)
Oh, what info were you hoping for? I’m happy to gather everything in the comments here.
Thanks for the feedback on my progressive. I feel like mistakes with that have been more frequent recently, so the universe is basically telling me it’s time to pay attention :).
I was mostly wondering how casual it sounds. Normal casual, super casual, something you could get away with using at work.
And then how common it is. And if it’s a word that’s just nice to have, or are there times when it really is the best fit.
It just has this interesting sound, and I was hoping to see some more examples so I could maybe move it off the passive pile at some point.
I’d say it’s just “normal”. Maybe with a slight lean toward casual. At work, it depends on the context. If you’re talking formal business finances, then maybe “borgen” is a bit too humane sounding, but if you ask your coworker if they can give you their desk fan for a day, then yeah… borgen is fine.
And I would definitely say it’s for the active pile. I use it much more than “leihen” and “ausleihen”, but it basically comes down which of the two base verbs you like better – “borgen” or “leihen”.
In your example..
.. shouldn’t the last “der” be “den”?
Sorry I see my misunderstanding now. “Der Geschmacks-Nobelpreis” is actually the subject in the passive construction.
“Borgen” scheint mir Sueddeutsch, “leihen”, Standard-Hochdeutsch!
I’m from Berlin region and to me it feels like the opposite. So maybe it’s not so regional after all :)
I always wondered how bergen got its meaning and the only thing I can imagine is rescuing a lost hiker on a mountain :D
“Bergen” = to conceal, hide
Hello,
Only one typo:
“go to sauna” (two instances) (go to the sauna)
Really useful article, as it has so much useful vocab. I do have a question – I failed the quiz question about the apartment – how would you express the notion of lending an apartment, as in, I’m out of town and lend my apartment to a friend for a few days?
Bis bald!
Other typos:
“uninsured” should be “uninjured”
2 instances of “save” should be “safe”
Oh wow, the uninsured vs uninjured one could be really confusing. Thanks for catching that!
Wow, great question!!
Me personally, I would NEVER ever get the idea to use “leihen” or even less so “borgen” for that.
I would say “jemandem die WOhnung überlassen”, or even more likely “ich lasse jemanden bei mir Wohnen” or something like that.
If you take money, you can use “untervermieten” as well.
Super-confusing that you have translated Koechin as ‘his’ in the example. Took me a while to work out what was wrong, but glad that I was able to spot the mistake!
+1
Damng, this was a really confusing mistake. It’s fixed now. Sorry for the confusion!!!
“Lebensfreude verbürgt” is the slogan of my adopted Heimat in NRW. Clang! The penny drops.
Wow, this is the weirdest, least cool state slogan I have ever heard :D. I’m not even sure what it means. I mean I know what they mean, but it’s just weird to me.
Possibly related to “Buergschaft” as in the expression “gegen Buergschaft” = on bail?
Yeah, but what exactly are they trying to say? That they vouch for “joy of life”? Can I sue them if I don’t get it? Who is the guarantor? The ad team that came up with this should be fired, imo.
I agree! The etymology is unclear.
“…in what I think was awe and envy.” So viel Glück haben die gut Bestückten.
In my experience it’s the native German speakers who have more of a problem speaking English distinguishing the use of borrow and lend. They often say something like “Can you borrow me the book.” For native English speakers of German, we could get away in almost all situations with just using borgen – as long as we remember to add the dative reflexive (which should be pretty obvious). Adding von… makes the intent even clearer.
Ich borge ihm das Buch. I’m lending him the book.
Ich borge mir das Buch (von ihm). I’m borrowing the book (from him).
You suggest too that the “mir” in the second case is very idiomatic but I suppose it’s not a great sin to overlook it. However without the “von ihm” could it be ambiguous if not for context?
Not a great sin, but a small one for sure. If you have the mental capacity to put it there, then I highly recommend doing so.
“von ihm” is indeed ambiguous and Captain Context will have to clear up wither we’re talking about the owner of the book or the creator.
And as a native German speaker, I’ve found in my experience that English speakers frequently can’t distinguish “leihen” from “ausleihen” from “borgen”!
Ich bin normalerweise zu spät Kommentare anzugeben, aber ich habe einen Fehler gemerkt. Ihre Snowboarder war “uninjured” start “uninsured”. Vielen Dank für den Artikel. Übrigens, gibt es eine Beziehung zwischen PIE *bherg und Burgen und Bürger? Die Bürger borgen sich Hamburgers aus dem Burg auf dem Berg?
Es gibt zwei Indo-Europäische Wurzeln “*bherg”, die sich nur um ein paar Akztente unterscheiden.
Eine davon hat die Idee “hoher Punkt, Turm” und die andere hat die Idee “keeping save”.
Es ist nicht ganz klar, wo “Burg” da dazugehört, es passt irgendwie zu beiden und die Quellen, die ich nutze sind nicht klar, insofern erwähne ich diese Verbindung normalerweise nicht, denn ich will nichts falsches erzählen.
“Bürger” ist eine Zusammensetzung aus “Burg” und “wehren” (to defend). Aber auch hier würde die Idee von “safe-keeping” natürlich Sinn machen.
Geilometer! :D