“Prefix to Go“
Hallo Leute,
day three of our epic Advent Calendar, today it’s time for you to get active. Because we’ll do a little exercise. Hmmm… or is it a test? I don’t know.
Anyway, we’ll be dealing with a very specific, clear cut, rather small aspect of the German language called: irony...uh… I mean
Prefix Verbs
Yeay!!
Specifically, we will check how well you know the different prefix versions of one particular verb.
Here’s what we’ll do:
I’ll give you ten little sentences in English that you have to translate to German.
And the main point is that you’ll always need a prefix version of the verb gehen.
So ausgehen, aufgehen, rausgehen, eingehen and so on.
If a sentence is too difficult to translate, don’t worry. What really matters is that you find the proper prefix verb :)
The solutions are as always in the audio, or you can just mark the yellow text to see them.
I know… it’s not the most comfortable way to do it, but my more advanced exercise template is kind of a pain in the butt to set up :).
Anyway… viel Spaß.
Oh, I’ll put a list of the prefix versions under the workout, but please try by yourself first.
- The fridge won’t open.
Der Kühlschrank geht nicht auf.
- The sun went up.
Die Sonne ist aufgegangen.
- I assume, you want a beer as well.
Ich gehe davon aus, dass du auch ein Bier willst.
- That doesn’t concern you (is none of your business).
Das geht dich nichts an.
- I won’t want to go out in this weather.
Ich will bei diesem Wetter nicht rausgehen.
*** - The sun sets in the west.
Die Sonne geht im Westen unter.
- My phone won’t come on.
Mein Telefon geht nicht an.
- Do these pants shrink due to Christmas?
Geht diese Hose von Weihnachten ein?
- Hey yo, what’s going on? (slang, greeting)
Hey, was geht ab?
- Let’s go inside.
Lass uns reingehen.
Verbs used (some are used twice with different meanings):
reingehen, abgehen, eingehen, angehen, untergehen,
rausgehen, ausgehen von, aufgehen
And, how was it?
Let me know in the comments how many you got right and if you liked this exercise :).
And of course, if you have any questions, let me know as well.
Have a great day and bis morgen.
Audio Speed
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The pants shrinking at xmas thingy: after following the development through these comments, I realize someone has to say it, it might as well be me. The translation doesn’t work. We’re all studying Deutsch so we understand (and I’m guessing appreciate) learning the “vom Weihnachten eingehen” but seriously, “Pants can’t shrink due to xmas” auf English. Even if it’s starting to make sense “von repetition”.
In English we would (and very often do) ask, “Have these pants shrunk since xmas?”
Everybody who hears it, KNOWS the speaker is trying to blame the pants for gaining weight, but the way to BLAME xmas for the change of size, and insinuate that it’s the PANTS THAT SHRANK and not OUR WAISTS THAT HAVE GROWN, is to ask if the pants shrank SINCE xmas.
When I can “beherrschen” Deutsch like Ema “bemeistert” English, I will be quite satisfied. But pants shrink SINCE, not DUE TO xmas, Hannukkah and Kwanzaa.
Grrr… fine. I’ll accept “since” :).
Eine tolle Übung! Dank deinen früheren Blogs und Erklärungen habe ich die Präfixe richtig verwendet. Eine Frage nach #3 ‘… another beer … ‘ habe ich als ‘noch ein Beer’ übersetzt. Geht das auch?
Sorry, ‘noch ein Bier’ natürlich.
Oh, Gott sei Dank wenigstens eine Person, für die es nicht die totale Katastrophe war :):):). Wie ist dein Deutschlevel? B2?
Ja, es hätte “noch ein Bier” sein müssen. Das war ein Schreibfehler.
Deutschlevel B2. Aber deine Blogs haben mir viel geholfen, um die Präfixverben zu begreifen. Und ich bedanke mich bei dir dafür.
Tricky, l learnt all the prefixes with gehen before starting, but still really struggled. Back to learning. I will get there eventually!!
Wow, that must be such a downer!
I’ve said it in other comments already… I am surprised about how difficult this turned out to be.
Maybe it is actually NOT a good idea to ask all those similar words back to back. I mean… if you’re really comfy with the language, then maybe, but otherwise maybe it’s too confusing having the all at once. I don’t know…
This stuff is PERFECT! You are pulling us all up a level! We need this. We love this. Don’t stop this.
Ich gehe davon aus, dass du auch ein Bier willst. I thought this should be “..du auch noch ein Bier willst” to correspond to the English version you gave?
Ops, yeah, sorry for that. I changed the English now to “a beer” instead of “another”
Wow, I didn’t have even one right! How should we learn these ones?
Damn it, I really didn’t think this would be such a downer for you guys. If you got none of them correct, maybe it’s too early for this. What’s your level?
I don’t think learning them back to back is a good idea because that’ll just get you confused.
Either a drawing or you just give it some time.
Also, did you read my article on how to best learn vocabulary, by any chance?
Well it certainly weren’t funny doing that exercise …..
Trousers btw in England English not pants (hence unsavouriness)
Ohhh, I see :).
Well it certainly wasn’t funny doing that exercise….Trousers, by the way, in England, rather than pants
Hopeless!! :(( (does hoffnungslos have the same humourous overtones?)
Nothing in German has humourous overtones.
HAHAHA
Och·sen·tour und OXYMORON
/Óchsentour/
Substantiv, feminin [die]umgangssprachlich
1.
mühevolle, anstrengende Arbeit
2.
langsamer beruflicher Aufstieg, mühevolle Laufbahn (besonders eines Politikers)
| December 4, 2018 at 11:05 am | Reply
“Nothing in German has humourous overtones.”
“German-is-EASY” has humourous overtones.!
Und persönlich für mich –
ein Widerspruch in sich!
Ein Satz kann oft eine moronische Ox(y) – entour zielstrebig endlos immer deutsch-direkt, weiter und so in weiter immer fort, Richtung Westens noch fortgehend, sich dahinschleppppen, bis endlich der Endpunkt erreicht wird oder die Sonne erst untergeht.
Oxy + Moron + Abgaßß = “Hoffnungslos” vertrottelt !
Aber-
Ehrlich gesagt, was Deutschland seit 1945 geschafft hat, ist nur als wirklich bewundernswert zu beurteilen.
Wenn oft ein bißchen Humor dabei fehlt, ist es nur zu verstehen und zu vergeben!!
Es ist kein FEHLer – Na, Sprachler – Alles klar?..
Bitte, warum heißt es eigentlich Ochsymoron nicht?? ohh
Just an English thing here in addition to the Christmas pants thing…it should be: The sun sets IN the west, not at the west. This test was BRUTALLY hard for me. I’m upper A2/low B1 and I got every single one wrong except #10. In most cases, wrong by just one small word. It was incredibly frustrating, but rewarding. I think it is good to get knocked down – this should not be easy because you don’t learn without being chanllenged. This exercise has lit a fire under my ass to push harder and get better. Thank you for doing this!
Wait, but did you get the exact translation wrong or the prefix verb? Because the translation is not that important.
I immediately wanted to say Was geht los… never used was geht ab. Difference? And why do you write Das geht dich nichts an .. and not use nicht? Das geht dich nicht an
“losgehen” is used in the sense of starting, either to go somewhere or a film beginning.
Es geht los.
As for “angehen”… The positive version is “das geht dich etwas an.”
The etwas is important. When we add the “nicht”, we get “nicht etwas” which then becomes “nichts”
8 of 10, but I said “in diesem Wetter” instead of “bei diesem Wetter” and I had forgotten #8, but remembered immediately when I read the English sentence knowing it had to be prefixed gehen verb. I got numbers #3 and 4 wrong.
Well done!! #3 is not that important but #4 is definitely one to start using.
Dieser Test ist super. Vielen Dank! Leider habe ich durchgefallen. Naja, ich muss einfach weiter lernen.
“bin ich durchgefallen” ;).
Dude, this was the BEST German exercise I’ve ever done, including all the excellent ones on your site!!
Oh wow, thanks for the feedback :)
So viele Fehler! Und ich war sogar Deutschlehrerin. IIch gehe davon aus, du meinst “Have these pants shrunk since Christmas,” oder?
Nah, I was trying to make a joke :). Like… does Christmas make these pants shrink.
Why is it „von Weinachten“ and not „seit Weinachten“? Have these pants shrunk since xmas – can‘t seem to understand why it‘s von and not seit. I hate prepositions. Prepositions are evil.
I was trying to make a joke.
A common phrasing for “eingehen” in the sense of “to shrink” is “vom Waschen eingehen”.
The “von” indicated the “cause”.
“seit” indicates duration/time and as such it’s much more likely to be combined with “Weihnachten”.
The example is quite confusing for a non native because it’s based on usage of preposition, but I wasn’t aware of that :).
Ich habe nur einen richtigen Satz gemacht. Ich bin nicht sicher, was bedeutet der frage “Geht diese Hose von Weihnachten ein?” Ist es ein Witz? When man zu Weihnachten zu viel gegessen hat, kann man seine hose nicht anziehen.
Ja, das soll ein Witz sein. Eigentlich fragt man
Und der Witz ist, dass die Person wahrscheinlich über Weihnachten zunimmt, aber so fragt, als ob das was mit der Hose zu tun hat.
Aber vielleicht sollte ich lieber keine solchen Wortspiele in Übungen machen. Ist ein bisschen verwirrend :)
Sehr hilfreich!
Ich habe heute etwas gelernt! I do not know these prefixes well at all. Nur vier richtig!! :(
Whomp whomp. Ich bin echt überrascht, wie schwierig diese Übung für viele ist :)
I still can’t get the audio for this with Firefox, but it does work with Chrome on my laptop. I love these exercises, even though I made mistakes in almost all of them. One thing though – I can read the correct answers directly below the audio box in a pale blue font, and I had to try specially hard not to read them before I had tried the exercise myself. Perhaps it would be better to have the written answers right at the end of the exercise.
Wow, it’s REALLY pale on my computer. Originally, I had them in yellow which was impossible to read but kind of annoying for the eyes. I actually have a nice work out setup with button and so on, but it’s a real pain to do a work out with it because I have to change HTML and CSS names manually for each entry. I’ll see if I can find the time to do it for the other work outs we’ll do here (yes, there will be more).
I also thought about putting them under the work out, but I have always hated this jumping around.
Thanks for the comment — I had no idea why the audio for this series doesn’t work.
Only got rausgehen wrong; I thought it would be ausgehen
Yeah, that’s a common one. “ausgehen” can mean “to go out” but only in the sense of going out to party or to see a play. For leaving a building it’s always “rausgehen”