Hello everyone,
and welcome to Summer, Sun, Vocab Fun.
And today, I have something really cool for you, because we actually have the first episode of season 17 of
German Prefix Verbs Explained
Yes, the series has actually been renewed for an entire new season.
100 more episodes of repetitive soap opera trash.
Will Mr. Ausmachen tell Ms. Anmachen what he did? Is Zunehmen pregnant? And what happened to the mysterious Mr. r-version?
All these are questions that we’ll not get an answer to today.
But what we will get answers for is how and when to use the verb
einziehen
Some of you may know my article about ziehen. In it, I actually go over all the important prefix versions including einziehen.
But there are quite many of them and I didn’t go too much into details for every prefix verb in that article. And also, back when I first wrote it, I hadn’t really started giving the r-version much attention, so I’ve decided to give some of the verbs their own article.
And “einziehen” is definitely interesting enough for a closer look so even if you’ve read the article about ziehen, you’ll find something new here…. especially reinziehen.
For those who haven’t read the article on ziehen, I’ll put a link to it below this one.
Oh and quick note:
If you want just a super quick overview over the translations along with examples, check out my prefix verb dictionary:
“einziehen” – The Prefix Verb Dictionary
It’s a dictionary I am building that is 100% tailored to looking up and learning German Prefix Verbs and I believe it’s already a great resource even though it’s far from complete.
But now let’s get started.
***
Usually, when learners meet ziehen for the first time, they learn that it means to pull. But that is really only half of it, because ziehen has two core meanings.
To pull is one of them. And the other one is to move. In the sense of someone moving from location to location. Like, think of a group of settlers trekking westward or a flock of birds moving south – that kind of moving.
Now, at first glance, these two ideas don’t seem to have all that much to do with each other. But the connection between moving and pulling becomes obvious once you think of a sled or an ox carriage, for example. Dragging your belongings with you.
That’s how the ideas relate and we can also see this connection in English, with words like train or trek, which also come from a core sense of pulling.
Just to make sure, though – if these associations don’t make sense to you, you can totally ignore them and think of pulling and moving as two independent ideas. These word histories are only useful, if they actually help you remember the meanings more easily.
Cool.
So we have these two themes, pulling and moving, and we can also find those in pretty much all the prefix versions of ziehen, including einziehen.
The Two Meanings of “einziehen”
The main use for the moving-version of einziehen is of course the context of “moving into” to a new apartment
- Ich ziehe in die neue Wohnung ein.
- I’ll move into the new apartment.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Mein Mitbewohner ist gestern eingezogen.
- My flatmate moved in yesterday.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
But you also find the moving-einziehen in other contexts, like a parade “moving into” a stadium for instance or some more figurative uses like a lotion “moving into” the skin.
- Das Team zieht in das Finale ein.
- The team moves into the finals. (sports)
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Die Creme zieht schnell in die Haut ein.
- The creme is absorbed into/by the skin quickly.
(Lit: “move into the skin”) - Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
There are a few more idiomatic uses probably, but as long as you keep in mind that ziehen can be about moving, you should be able to guess the meaning from context.
Now, the other meaning branch, the einziehen that’s about pulling, is a little more, let’s say eclectic.
Some uses are somewhat literal, like what we do when we want to take a nice picture of ourselves for Tinder.
- Ich ziehe den Bauch ein.
- I pull/suck in my stomach.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
But there are other uses where the idea of pulling is somewhat obscured.
- John, das Einhorn, wird vom Militär eingezogen.
- John, the unicorn is drafted to the military.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Die Bank zieht das Geld ein.
- The bank collects/charges the money.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
And then there’s random sh** like this:
- Thomas hat im Flur einen Zwischenboden eingezogen.
- Thomas put in an intermediate floor in the corridor.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
Seriously… I don’t know why they use einziehen here in carpentry. It just happened to be the proper term.
Anyway, all in all, the pulling-einziehen is not all that useful in daily life because the one thing we’d all intuitively want to use it for – the sense of actually pulling something inside somewhere – is usually NOT covered by it.
That’s what the r-version is for.
The Meaning of “(sich) reinziehen”
Prefix verbs typically have some sort of little twist in the meaning and it is their r-versions that actually carry the most literal, factual, “spatial” meaning.
So if you want to pull in an object or person somewhere, reinziehen is what you need.
- Maria ist im Pool und versucht Thomas reinzuziehen.
- Maria is in the pool and tries to pull Thomas in.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- “Warum warst du in einer Einhornhöhle?”
“Das Einhorn hat mich reingezogen.” - “Why were you in a unicorn cave?”
“The unicorn pulled me inside.” - Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
But reinziehen actually has a couple of more figurative uses as well. The first one is about “dragging someone in” into a discussion or fight.
- Maria versucht mich in ihren Streit mit ihrem Chef reinzuziehen.
- Maria tries to involve me /drag me into her argument with her boss.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
And then there is sich etwas reinziehen, with the self reference being in Dative.
And this is a pretty colloquial, slightly slangy term for “taking something in”.
The two most common contexts are for actually looking at something, or, a bit more abstract, the notion of “trying to fathom” something but some people also use it for food or for some substances.
- Heute Abend bleibe ich zuhause auf der Couch und ziehe mir eine ganze Staffel von The Expanse rein.
- Tonight, I’ll stay at home on the couch and watch an entire season of The Expanse.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Zieh dir mal rein, wie wenig Zeit wir eigentlich für das Projekt haben.
- Try to fathom/look at/let it sink in how little time we actually have for the project.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- “Was hast du gestern noch gemacht?”
“Nichts. Ich hab mir Pasta reingezogen und bin schlafen gegangen.” - “Did you do anything yesterday (after we met)?”
“Nothing. I ate pasta and went to sleep.” - Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
This reinziehen is pretty colloquial though. You’ll definitely hear it sooner or later, and it’s good to know it, but you do need some sprachgefühl to actually use it idiomatically.
So I’d recommend against it.
Using colloquial language is nice, but it’s a fine line between sounding idiomatic and sounding like a peaocky try-hard :).
Better to keep it simple, but elegant.
And with that little bit of advice we’ll wrap it up for today :)
This was our little look at einziehen and reinziehen and how and when to use it.
As always,if you have any questions or suggestions, just leave me a comment.
I hope you liked it, have a great week and I’ll see you in the next one.
Bye :)
Further Reading:
Audio Speed
Dark Mode
Would it be correct that sein is used with the ‘moving’ form of einziehen, while haben is used with both the more eclectic ‘pulling’ and the r-versions? (now I see that it’s a transitive/intransitive thing)
Yes, you’re right on the money.
– Ich bin in die Wohnung eingezogen. (I moved into the apartment)
– Das Militär hat ihn eingezogen. (The military drafted him)
– Das Einhorn hat ihn in die Höhle reingezogen. (The unicorn has pulled him into the cave.)
It’s not always about transitive vs intransitive though. It being transitive is a VERY strong indicator that you need haben, but not every intransitive verb or use is automatically sein.
– Ich habe geschlafen.
This is intransitive but still haben.
Just finally got to this post, and I’m surprised by:
it’s a fine line between sounding idiomatic and sounding like a peakocky try-hard :).
I would have been sure that you would have used this as an opportunity to say ” it’s a fine line between sounding idiomatic and idiotic.” In any case peacocky is probably best spelled this way.
Thanks for explaining reinziehen! And everything else that you do for us, Emanuel. Love your blog, and as you can check, I’ve been on it for years and it just keeps getting better all the time. Your passion shows through in every new post and every innovation!
Nice article! I’ve been missing the little quizzes over summer though :’)
This section, “But what we will get answers for how and for what to use the verb”, needs some help.
You need the word “is” in there somewhere. Also, i know there is this supposed “rule” about not ending sentences with prepositions in English but it’s nonsense. It sounds way more natural to end with the proposition.
So I would say, “but what we will get answers for is how to use the verb and what for”
Or without the proposition, “… is how and when to use the verb”
Oh, thanks :).
I never really bought into the whole “no dangling preposition” thing, but in this case I can’t do it because I am having the verb in bold and visually separate. The second option you gave is perfect.
Ahhh yes I see. I hadn’t counted “einziehen” as part of the sentence originally but now I get why you had a problem there.
A bit unrelated but do you know how you’d say “The fisherman is reeling in the fish” (with a fishing rod)?
The standard word for reeling in a fishing rod is einholen
It’s also used for fishing nets, as far as I know, but I am not sure if you can use the fish as direct object.
I mean, you can and will be understood, I’m just not sure if that’s the standard fishing jargon.
interesting, then it’s the opposite from english. Reeling in a fishing rod would mean you’ve literally hooked onto someone else’s rod and are pulling it in. We can only reel in the line or whatever unfortunate creature happens to be at the end of the line. Accidentally caught a seagull once lol. anyways, thanks for your input :)
Is there a better place to ask general questions than hijacking whatever post? My question would be about the placement of “bitte”. z.B. Bitte Kommen sie rein vs Kommen Sie bitte rein // Fahr bitte langsamer vs Bitte fahren Sie langsamer. u.s.w. As in English, it seems that many options work; and not that I am looking for another strict rule (with gotcha exceptions) but I didn’t find topic on the site. If it is here, I would love to read your thoughts on it.
So generally, it would be best to post these things under the entries in the dictionary but clearly, I forgot to add “bitte” there :)
Word order posts would be the second best choice.
Either way, I don’t know if I have much to say about that. There’s no difference in meaning to me in the examples you gave.
In position one, it can be either emphasized or a “welcome”- signal, for instance if someone goes to see a lawyer.
But I feel like with “bitte” there are so many different instances and nuances that I’d get anxiety try to think of them all and also, I’m not sure if there is really any gain in it for a learner.
There definitely isn’t a simple, easy to convey system that I could tell you that you could apply :).
Thanks so much to you who paid extra so someone like me can be here. Endless thanks! I resolve to sponsor someone myself someday.
Is an intermediate floor some kind of temporary floor that will be replaced later by some new or better flooring?
I don’t understand. what “Thomas put in an intermediate floor in the corridor.” means. What is an ‘intermediate floor’?
In Germany, many of the last century apartment buildings have pretty high ceilings and in a lot of apartments, in the corridor, people put in a “second” ceiling to gain storage room.
“intermediate ceiling” is the translation I found on dict.cc, but Google Image search might be more useful.
Here’s one example of a Zwischenboden:
I think i’d go for “mezanine” instead of intermediate floor …
Oh, weird that the dict.cc doesn’t mention that at all.
I checked on Google image search… does a Mezzanine have to be “walkable”? Because a “Zwischenboden” is usually not. That would be “Zwischengeschoss”.
Wow! As an architect this information is very useful to me by the way, Mezzanine is walkable. This “Zwischenboden” is more like a loft but we need to understand that not everything can be translated in language because some context can be completely absent in other languages. That’s why I live how you explain thing with various realistic examples. Thanks ones again
ah ok, I’m not certain to be honest but I think a Mezanine is normally “walkable”. That said “floor” 100% implies that it is walkable to me, so perhaps translating “boden” into “floor” in this instance doesn’t work. Off the top of my head i’d probably call what is in the foto “overhead storage”. Maybe there is a more precise word for it that i don’t know. I’m also wondered if the word “platform” might be somehow relevant but I am a bit hesitant about using it (maybe also because platform tends to imply walkability (?))
Using the word “Boden” here is indeed a bit weird. “Zwichendecke” would make more intuitive sense.
I think it might be inspired by “der Dachboden”, which is the attic. The “Boden” of the “Dach”, which is typically used for storage.
This notion is so strong that even the word “Boden” itself has a slight vibe of “storage”.
In the right context, people would understand that to be the attic, not the floor.
A Zwischenboden doesn’t necessarily exclude “walkable-ness”, but many of them are not walkable at all.
Here’s another, less fancy image of a Zwischenboden… this is fairly similar to what I have in my corridor.
Oh and just because I mentioned “Zwischendecke”… that actually does exist and it’s a lowered second ceiling that you’d put in for instance for sound insulation. It’s not for storage, though.
Not sure if this was mentioned – in the USA many business buildings have “Drop Ceilings” which hide the AC ducting. I think this is the equivalent of Zwischendecke. Sound proofing (Sound transmission) is sadly not thought of enough in the US.
How about “Stauraum”?
“Stauraum” is definitely what you get from putting in a “Zwischenboden”, but there are plenty of ways to get it, so I wouldn’t associate this with a Zwischenboden directly.
I don’t think there’s a good translation because that kind of overhead storage isn’t really a thing in the U.S. (or other English-speaking countries, based on the lack of Google results). Looks pretty handy though.
Sometimes people have a rack like this in their garage, but for inside, I would probably call it a shelf. “I put in a shelf in the hallway for overhead storage.”
Yeah I think i would intuitively call that overhead shelving or something. Definitely not a mezzanine floor as that is walkable and also implies there’s room to stand up straight in there.
I think i would translate the example to “Thomas installed overhead shelving in the hallway”.
Corridor also sounds funky to me if you mean it’s in a house or apartment. For me, corridors are in schools or office buildings. In someone’s home, it’s a hall or hallway, unless it’s at the top of the stairs in which case it’s a landing.
I thought “hall” and “hallway” refer to the general hallway of an apartment building.
In German we have “der Flur” which is the “landing area” of the apartment, and “der Hausflur” which is the “landing area” of the building. The “Hausflur” leads to the “Treppenhaus”, which is the stairs.
Would you use “hall” or “hallway” for a 2 by 3 meter small little room behind the apartment door, where you can put shoes and jackets and not much more?
I don’t think I’d have a better word for it. “Corridor” sounds way too long to me, similar to what Starbuck says above.
I’m late to this, but my grandma and a few other folks I’ve heard call that the “foyer.” The dictionary says a “foyer” is usually in a public building but apparently sometimes it’s in a house or apartment. :shrug:
Otherwise I’d just call it the “entryway.”
Hallo,
Ich hab’ mit mal reigezogen, warum du so viele Typos diesmal gemacht hast. Bist du zerstreut oder behunruhigt? ;)
I have a something really cool for you (surplus “a” – I have something really cool for you)
I actually go over all the important prefix version (I actually go over all the important prefix versions)
a treck of settlers moving westward (trek – this phrase “sounds” weird, I know you wanna use the word trek, how about a group of settlers trekking westward?)
once you think a sled (once you think of a sled)
if these association don’t make sense to you (if these associations don’t make sense to you) (I actually find them very useful!)
Ich ziehe in die neue Wohnung ein (you have a “tomorrow” in the translation)
like a parades “moving into” a stadium (surplus “s” – like a parade “moving into” a stadium)
It is the r-versions that usually carries (surplus “s” – It is the r-version that usually carries)
Question: If someone sich Pasta reinzieht, does that mean they just ate pasta or that they stuffed their face with pasta?
Bis bald!
Wow, so many ending typos this time :/. No idea what happened. Some of them are the typical editing mistakes where I reformulate a sentence three times and then I have artifacts of older versions sitting in it. It’s usually a sign that I didn’t organize my thoughts well before starting to write, so then I get “stuck” every second sentence, trying to find the progression that feels natural.
If I have the structure clear in my mind, I spend much less time rephrasing, and in these articles I usually have way less mistakes.
Anyway, thanks a lot for helping me fix these!!
About your question:
It can be either. The verb “sich [Essen] reinziehen” is a quite colloquial version for eating but it doesn’t necessarily imply gorging.
Oh and one little correction:
You said
This is perfect grammatically, but it only makes sense if you KNOW why I made so many typos. You can only “reinziehen” yourself something that you actually have access to.
So you could “reinziehen” yourself HOW MANY typos I made or all the typos I made, but since you don’t know why I made them, that’s not something you can “reinziehen” yourself.
Hope that helps :)
Thank you so so much to Emmanuel and everyone who sponsored to let me learn german. this is such an amazing community and im so grateful for this resource.
Hallo an alle! Ich bin euch sehr dankbar für meiner Mitgliedschaft. Ich bin sehr froh, weil ohne eure… Patenschaft? kann ich nicht diese wunderbare seite benutzen. Ich hoffe wir lernen viel Deutsch zusammen.
Tschüss!
This site is amazing! And it’s fun to study here.
Emanuel, the first three audios are mixed up. The first one is missing, the second is out of place, and the third one is in there twice. I think – it was a bit confusing to put this into coherent words. :-D
One off topic question I’ve had for a long time: how did Drachen come to mean both dragon and kite? All I can find is kites that are ‘dragons’ – is that it? Kites can be so many other things. A fun puzzlement. :-D
Ich hoffe, Sie haben Ihren schönen “geheimen” Ort am Spree genossen.
RuthE
Ah, great, thanks for this, I fixed it :). No idea how that happened but yeah, it’s confusing.
As for “Drachen”… interesting question actually, I never thought about it even for a second, even though the normal kite doesn’t really look like a dragon. I just accepted it as a kid, I guess because it has a tail.
I would suspect that it’s based on the Far East Asian type of kite that indeed looks like a dragon.
By the way, “Kite” is used in German for the thing that you fly with… like “Kite-Surfing”… we don’t call those a “Drachen”.
Oh, und nein, ich war nicht baden, es war mir zu “kalt” :D.
Hey guys, a really huge thanks to this awesome community for helping me prepare for my Aufnahmetest for Studienkolleg. Someone’s sponsored subscription means I have the chance to use this amazing resource for free. Thank you so much and I’ll be sure to repay the favour for someone in my situation when I can.
Viel Erfolg für den Test! Wann ist der?
Hallo alle
I just want to say a quick thank you to the German Learning Community for making it possible for me to access this wonderful site for free. I will absolutely try my best to leave up to the favour (by learning the German into my soul), and I hope maybe one day to be able to help someone else likewise.
Tschüss!