Hello everyone,
and welcome to our German Word of the Day.
Today we are going to take a look at the meaning of:
aufhören
And aufhören is one of those verbs that give German learners the impression that German prefix verbs are a random mess, that you can’t ever guess.
I mean, hören by it self means to hear and to listen. Most of you probably know that.
But in an example like the following this can mislead you big time if your friend says something like this:
- Morgen höre ich mit dem Rauchen auf.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
Especially if you’re new to German, it’s easy to miss the little words at the end of the sentence. Always mind the 6th commandment of the Learning German:
12. Thou shalt not ignore little words
at the end of a phrase.
lest you be confuseth.
And even if you caught it, your brain might still very well try to create a sense around hearing.
But of course that’s totally off, Unfortunately this time, you are totally wrong
The verb of the sentence is NOT hören, it is aufhören.
And aufhören means to stop.
And it actually makes sense…
Why does “aufhören” mean “to stop”
Imagine some cavemen and cave-women and cave-non-binary-people sitting around their fireplace doing cave-people things, like grilling meat, sharpening sticks, delousing each other or watching Netflix.
And then, all of a sudden, there is a noise in the dark woods.
Naturally, they would all stop what their doing, take their heads up and try to listen closely. And there we already have it :).
Just think of the English phrase “Listen up!”. That also usually implies that you stop what you’re doing for a second.
Over time the verb has focused completely on the aspect of stopping and lost all connection to hearing.
The old meaning did survive in a cousin of aufhören, though – aufhorchen. Horchen itself is about attentively and secretly listening, and aufhorchen is about this initial burst of attention.
Like…you’re on a date, it’s boring and your date is babbling away and you’re looking around the bar, not paying attention. Until they say “blah blah blah threesome blah blah blah” and you’re like “Wait, what?!”
Anyway, so aufhören means to stop, because it was originally about stopping what you’re doing in order to … well.. listen up.
And knowing that connection doesn’t only help with our Prefix Verb anxiety, it actually also helps us understand when to use aufhören. Because NOT every to stop can be translated with aufhören.
When to use ‘aufhören’ as ‘to stop’
Aufhören is to stop in the sense of stopping an activity that you (or whoever is the subject) is doing. Maybe it helps to think of it as to cease.
- Ich höre auf, zu rauchen.
- I stop smoking.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Ich habe Deutsch geübt aber als meine Freundin angerufen hat, habe ich aufgehört.
- I had been practicing German but then my girlfriend called and I stopped.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Es hat aufgehört, zu regnen.
- It has stopped raining.
In the last example, it’s this weird illusive “it” that is “doing” the raining, but still the core idea is the same. Someone does something, then stops or ceases. That is what aufhören is. Just think back to the whole idea of stopping what you’re doing in order to listen.
Aufhören absolutely DOESN’T work in the context of stopping a car would NOT be aufhören. That would be anhalten. And stopping the evil villain from destroying the planet would be aufhalten.
- Ich halte das Auto an.
- I stop the car.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Der Bus hat angehalten.
- The bus has stopped.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Wir müssen Pony-Man aufhalten.
- We have to stop Pony-Man.
None of them would be understandable with aufhören and you can easily try that by using to cease instead of to stop. It doesn’t make sense, either.
Now, a quick word about grammar before we wrap this up.
The most common phrasing is probably aufhören in combination with a zu-construction, which describes the activity that you’re stopping.
- Ich höre auf, während ich schreibe Bier zu trinken.
- I stop drinking beer while I am writing.
But we can also phrase activities as a noun. And in that case, we need the word mit to connect it to aufhören.
- Ich höre mit dem Biertrinken auf.
- I stop “the drinking of beer”.
You can NOT skip that mit. It would be understandable, but it would sound REALLY bad.
And the same goes of course if we want to just use a reference. We can’t just use “es” like we could say “I stopped it.” in English.
We need “mit es“, which is of course the da-word damit.
- “Trinkst du Bier, während du schreibst?”
“Nicht mehr. Ich habe damit aufgehört.” - “Do you drink beer while you write?”
“Not anymore. I stopped (with that).
If you’re not sure about the da-words, then don’t worry… I have a post for it. I’ll leave you the link below. And I’ll also give you the link to my articles on anhalten and aufhalten, if you want to dig a little deeper into the wonderful world of stopping. And those two actually have more than just one meaning.
Aufhören has only the one we already know, so that means that we’re done for today. Hooray :)
This was our little look at the meaning of aufhören, and if you ever get confused again about the connection between stopping and hearing… just think of a deer eating grass, and then hears a noise. It stops eating, and raises the head up to listen.
As usual, if you want to check how much you remember, just take the little quiz we have prepared for you.
And of course, if you have any questions or suggestions, just leave me a comment.
I hope you liked it and see you next time.
further reading:
Is the use of aufhören with no object also common? Examples:
Yes, very common.
– Der Regen hört auf.
– Hör auf!!
– Ich kann nicht aufhören.
-…
I didn’t quite understand something.. How can you distinguish between “I stopped singing” and “I stopped to sing” in German if both are translated as “Ich habe aufgehört zu singen”?
The best and most humorous explanation ever! Me as a native german has even learnt something. And yes, german language can be weird!
“subscribe “
Danke :)!!
Wie bist du als Muttersprachlerin denn hier überhaupt gelandet? Unterrichtest du, oder einfach Interesse?
Ich habe aufgehört, Deutsch zu lernen, um mich auf Golf zu konzentrieren.
I understand this sentence’s structure up to “lernen”, what’s going on in the second (or third I’m not really sure) part?
It’s the same structure as in English in this case:
– [I stopped] (action 1)
– [learning German](action 2, direct object for what I stopped)
– [in order to focus on golf] (action 3, reason for why I stopped learning)
Does that help?
It does yes, thank you. I guess the “um mich” confused me a bit.
I was confused by the quiz question: “I stop singing.”. The answer is: “Ich habe aufgehört zu singen.” Wouldn’t that translate to “I stopped singing.” (past tense)?
Oh, good catch!! Yes, I mixed up tenses there, you’re completely right!
surely – “lest thou confuseth thyself” at the top here.
Fantastic! I only have a tiny question: how come we hear sometimes people say “hör auf mit dem Rauchen”? Prefix should go at the end, shouldnt it?
This explanation of aufhören was perfect for me. I was reading Lockdown in Liechtenstein (a graded reader), came across the phrase „Hör bloß auf!” realized this was an example of aufhören, but became puzzled, wondering what hören had to do with stopping? I looked in dictionaries and several places but got no help. So I googled aufhören and hören and — als ich diesen Post sah, hörte ich auf, mich zu wundern!
Perfect :). Glad I could help !
Finally aufhören mystery is solved
Yeah, now you have to live with the world being a little more boring :)
Hi, i’m just a little confused about one thing on this post. You say that aufhören can only be used for things that you yourself are stopping.
However, you use it for the rain stopping also. So you can also use it for things that are “es” as well as yourself?
Thanks!
Sorry, I almost forgot to answer :).
The way I phrased it was a bit confusing. “aufhören” works for any person or thing of course. What I meant is that whoever or whatever does something, stops doing it.
The rain is the one “raining” so it can “aufhören“.
But I can’t “aufhören” the rain. Like… even if I had the physical power to make rain stop.
Does that help?
You may want to re-phrase the ‘correct’ answer (to stop an action you yourself are doing) to question 1 in the quiz (What does aufhören mean?). Your explanation in the lesson is good!
Wait, I’m not seeing how I should change it? Help please!
Sorry, Emanuel, that I wasn’t more specific. Perhaps I’m wrong but consider the answer to question 1 to be ‘stopping an action you yourself were doing, or something stopping an action itself was doing’ or something along those lines. “Es hat aufgehört, zu regnen.” is a great example in the lesson.
Great as always
Danke :)
What about aufhoren mit? I believe that means to conclude?
It’s the same idea, only in a different phrasing. “mit” connects an activity that is represented by a noun.
– Ich höre mit dem Rauchen auf.
– Ich höre auf zu rauchen.
Both are about stopping. Sometimes, the context might make “to conclude” a viable translation but it’s better not to think of “aufhören” that way :).
Hope that helps.
this was helpful. I just found your site.
I’m attempting to learn German at home using Pimsleur
Oh, Pimsleur… that’s a very specific approach. Works great for some people and not at all for others.
Curious to hear how it is going for you.
And thanks for the nice feedback!!
Great Stuff! Love the cavemen example.
My brain likes remembering it this way: “STOP. Collaborate and LISTEN…”
Oh, like “off (with what you do) – listen”? That’s great!!1
Hi Emmanuel, this is another great post! I just have one question – between these two sentences: “Es hört auf, zu regnen” &
“Es hörte auf zu regnen”, which is more likely to sound “natural” to a German in day-today- speech? Both essentially mean the same thing – it’s stopped raining, no more rain, wet is done :) I am having trouble with which to use, this “spoken” past or the “real” past. So for example, if I’m sitting with a German friend in a coffee shop and we are waiting for the rain to stop, and it does, which would I say? Danke! You have the BEST way of explaining things. You’ve made so much clear to me. What a fantastic blog!
Thank you for this description, now I understand the text written on the side of Innocent juice box:D love your explanations btw,laughing a lot besides learning! One question..why mich is needed after the um structure: Ich habe Italienisch gelernt aber ich habe aufgehört, um mich auf Deutsch zu konzentrieren.
It seems like an unnecessary extra word since um zu structure already implies that it is about me…:/
That’s an easy one to clear up. The verb is “sich konzentrieren” so it always comes with a self reference. So in German you basically have to spell out whom or what you are concentrating… and that is yourself.
As for the “um”-sturcture… that only tells us who the subject is. But “mich” is the direct object of “konzentrieren” so it has nothing to do with the um-stuff.
Hope that helps :)
The best explanation. Nailed it !!
Danke :)
Very good.
very good
Danke :)