Hello everyone,
and welcome to our German Word of the Day. This time we will have a look at the meaning of:
schaffen
Schaffen is a really important part of everyday German and yet for some reason is hasn’t really been on my radar until recently when a bar flirt asked me what it meant. It was then that I was thinking… hmmm that could be worth a Word of the Day.
So I said “Sorry bar flirt, but I must go. My readers need me.” and I went home to start my research.
As usual, I started with the origin and I found the absolutely ancient Indo-European root *skā̌b(h) which was about the idea of cleaving with a sharp thing – or more specifically to carve wood.
So I looked for English relatives when I suddenly got a text message from an unknown number “Hey Mr. Teacher man, you didn’t pay for your drinks. I guess you owe me now ;).”
Being used to girls chasing me, I kept my reply short: “Send nudes.”
Nah, kidding. My actual reply was more along the lines of
“Heeeey, nice to hear from you :):). I’m just looking for relatives to German schaffen and you won’t believe what I found.”
Because the English branch of that root is actually pretty impressive…
Ship, shove, scoop, shift and shed – they all come from this basic root that was about cleaving, carving. But the one that’s REALLY helpful is shape.
Because one of the two main meanings of schaffen is to create. Which is kind of “giving shape“.
- Mozart hat großartige Musik geschaffen.
- Mozart created great works of music.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Der kleine Japanische Garten schafft eine Atmosphäre der Ruhe im Raum.
- The little Japanese garden creates an atmosphere of calm in the room.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Der Wirtschaftsboom hat 100.000 neue Arbeitsplätze geschaffen.
- The boom of the economy created 100.000 new jobs.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
This meaning of schaffen is pretty old already and it is still around today.
It does sound a bit epic though, so it doesn’t fit for small quick everday day creations. You don’t really schaffen a recipe for pasta sauce, for example.
Still, schaffen is SUPER common in daily life and you absolutely need it. And that’s because of the second meaning it has taken on.
the most common meaning of “schaffen”
I just mentioned that the creation-schaffen isn’t that common anymore.
Well, back a few centuries Germans actually LOVED the word and so they used it all kinds of things they “made happen”… “I created my homework” or “I created cleaning my room” or “I created calling you”.
They did that so much, that the word eventually took this notion of successfully doing as a second meaning. And that’s why schaffen today is a translation for to succeed, to pull off and to manage.
And it is REALLY common in daily life…
- Ich habe sooooo viel zu tun, ich schaffe es nicht mal, meine Wohnung aufzuräumen.
- I am soooo busy, I don’t even get around to cleaning my place.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Wenn wir es schaffen, pünktlich loszufahren, können wir da sein, bevor es dunkel wird.
- If we manage to leave on time, we can be there before it is dark.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Kinder…schafft ihr es, mal 10 Minuten still zu sitzen?
- Kids, can you possibly manage to sit still for 10 minutes.
(oops, sorry, I forgot the audio for that one :)
Now, if we look really closely at these examples we can see that they actually all have the same structure. We have a zu-construction AND we have an es in there..
- “Ich schaffe es (nicht), zu….”.
- I (don’t) manage to ….
This is kind of the “standard” construction with schaffen and you need to start using that (and yes, the es needs to be there).
But it’s not the ONLY possible phrasing.
You can also use the verb with a pronoun or noun directly. Just keep in mind that it has to be an ACTIVITY you’re talking about.
- Ich habe all meine Arbeit geschafft.
- I did all my work. / I managed to do all my work.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- “Kannst du mir vielleicht bevor du zur Arbeit fährst noch mein Buch vorbeibringen?”
“Ne, sorry, das schaff’ ich nicht mehr.” - “Could you maybe bring by my book before you go to work.”
“No sorry, I don’t have time for that anymore.” - Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Oh Gott, die Party beginnt um 10 und ich muss mich noch schön machen, backen, kochen und die ganze Wohnung aufräumen. Wie soll ich das alles schaffen?
- Oh god, the party is going to start at 10 and I still have to dress up, bake, cook, and clean the whole place. How can I possibly do all that?
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- I tried to stop smoking and I succeeded.
- Ich habe versucht mit dem Rauchen aufzuhören und ich habe es geschafft.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
And then, there’s a couple of uses that might seem a little weird at first.
One is in context of time where schaffen can translate to to make.
- “Wann kannst du denn hier sein?”
“Naja, ich muss bis um 3 arbeiten, das heißt ich schaffe frühestens um 4.” - “When can you be here?”
”Well, I have to work until 3, so the earliest I can make is 4. - Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
But the more important one is the context of food, where schaffen actually implies “eating completely”.
- Ich schaffe meine Pizza nicht ganz.
- I don’t manage my my entire pizza / I won’t be able to finish my pizza.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- “Oh, hat es nicht geschmeckt??”
“Doch doch, es war sehr gut, aber ich schaffe es nicht alles. Ich bin echt satt.” - “Oh, you didn’t like it?”
“No, no, it was very good. I just can’t manage it all. I am really full.” - Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Ich schaffe mein Bier nicht.
- I can’t finish my beer.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
So… as you can see, schaffen is really used in a wide variety of situations and I used many different ways to translate it.
If we had to pick just one, I think to manage will work okay in most contexts. But the two kind of have a different vibe.
Schaffen has a notion of work to it… like.. real effort has been made. I mean, it originally meant to create, right?
And to manage just lacks this notion… at least in my mind it does. It just sounds a little bit too cool, too controlled. It still might be the best translation in a situation, I just wanted point out that the vibe is different.
Cool.
Now, before we get to the less important meanings of schaffen (yes, there are more) let’s go over a few really common phrases that are kind of fixed.
- Schaffst du’s?
- Do you need help? / You got it?
(for rather momentary things, like someone is carrying something) - Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Ich schaff’ das schon.
- Don’t worry, I‘ll make it / Don’t worry, I can handle that.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Ich habe mein Bestes gegeben, aber es war nicht zu schaffen.
- I did my best but it was impossible to do.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- 1 Hausaufgabe in einer Woche sollte zu schaffen sein.
- 1 homework in one week should be possible/doable.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
And last but not least, there is this exclamation:
- Geschafft!
- Alright, I’m done! Finished!
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
People say this whenever they are done with a task that required… some effort It is a short version of
- Ich habe es geschafft!
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
And that’s… actually… wait a minute. I just remembered something really important. Do you recall that example with that composer from the beginning… let me pull it up again, here it is:
- Mozart hat großartige Musik geschaffen.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
Geschafft, geschaffen?
Hmm… looks like there are actually two different ge-forms here – one for each of the two main meanings. I really can’t decide whether that’s cool or lame.
When you say geschaffen, it means created, when you say geschafft it means successfully done.
- Ich habe meine Hausaufgaben geschaffen.
- I created my homework ( invented it myself, and it is here to stay).
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Ich habe meine Hausaufgaben geschafft.
- I successfully did my homework.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
Since you’re mostly going to use the successfully-do-schaffen, you won’t to worry about that too much. Geschafft is what you’ll need most of the time. But if you ever come across geschaffen, you’ll know that it means to create.
All right.
Now, I promised a few other meanings of schaffen so here we go. Hooray. More meanings!! Just what we need … *cries silently
The Side Hustles of “schaffen”
Schaffen has some side meanings. None of them is used THAT often but you can find them in daily talk.
I’ll leave it up to you to decide whether or not they do connect to the meanings of schaffen you already know but I will give you a literal translation to trigger your imagination :).
The first side meaning of schaffen one is to bring or to put things with a weight, size or number somewhere…
- Ich schaffe meine Couch in den Keller.
- I take my couch into the basement.
“I manage my couch into the basement.”(lit.) - Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Ich schaffe meine Schallplattensammlung auf den Dachboden.
- I bring my record collection to the attic.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
What’s up with this size, weight or number bit? Well, remember this notion of work, effort that the succeed-schaffen has? It’s the same here. You wouldn’t use schaffen as to bring if what you do is bringing your plate over to the sink. At least I wouldn’t.
But then agian, I usually just leave my plates on the kitchen table and wait for my girlfriend to do it. I don’t have one though, so there’s a lot of plates there. Man… maybe the bar flirt… I wonder what she replied. But no, I must stay focused and finish the article first…
So yeah, the next side meaning of schaffen is to work.
- Mein Vater schafft bei BMW. (my poor attempt at Bavarian dialect :)
- My dad works at BMW.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
This meaning is somewhat limited to the south of Germany but there is one expression that can be heard anywhere, although I don’t like it that much…
- Frohes Schaffen!
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
which means something like
- Have fun working!
You can say it to your colleagues at work as you, the part-time walk out the door :).
And then, schaffen can also be used in the sense of exhaust or tire. Which is kind of to finish, just with a twist.
- Ich bin geschafft.
- I am exhausted.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Diese Arbeit schafft mich.
- This work is really getting the best of me / This work takes all my energy.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
Cool.
Now, we’ve almost geschafft it but there’s still one more thing left to talk about… schaffen and prefixes. Yeah, German really schafft us :)
Prefix Versions of “schaffen”
Fortunately, there are not that many prefixes that work.
First up, we have erschaffen, which is an even more epic sounding version of the create-schaffen.
- Dr. Frankenstein wollte Leben erschaffen.
- Dr Frankenstein wanted to create life.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
The next word is the word abschaffen, which means to dispose of something or to repeal… depending on the context. It doesn’t mean that you throw something away… it just means that you got rid of it.
- Ich habe meinen Fernseher abgeschafft.
- I got rid of my television (meaning that I have no TV at home at all anymore on purpose).
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Die Todesstrafe ist abgeschafft.
- Capital punishment (which is death penalty) is abolished.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
By the way, this is the exact wording of the respective text in the German constitution.
And then, there’s kind of opposite of abschaffen: anschaffen.
But anschaffen actually has two meanings.
Now, here are three options – which one do you think is NOT a meaning of anschaffen:
- to buy, to obtain
- to prostitute oneself
- to bring on
Of course, the answer is to bring on :).
What?… oh no no no, that wasn’t a joke … anschaffen really DOES mean to prostitute oneself. I have no idea why.
Anschaffen in sense of to buy is usually used for somewhat bigger purchases that will be with you for a while… like a car or a dish-washer. Don’t use it for food.
- Ich denke darüber nach mir einen Hund anzuschaffen.
- I thinking about getting a dog.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Marie hat sich ein neues Auto angeschafft.
- Marie’s got herself a new car.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
As for the other anschaffen… mostly people would combine that with gehen or sein…. that way it is less likely to be confused with the normal meaning.
- Als Studentin war Melanie anschaffen.
- When she was a student, Melanie worked as a prostitute.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
Now, that’s still not all there is. But I am a bit geschafft and I think we’ve done enough for today so I’ll just link the words to the dictionary… yeah, soooo lazy :)
Wait… the last one doesn’t probably belong in that list, but I can’t put my finger on why not.
So… I am really sorry it got soooo long again but this word was impossible to cover with less.
Alright… this was our German Word of the Day schaffen. It comes from to create but it has evolved into to successfully do and a bunch of other things which all share kind of the idea of work being done. And if you think of this as the abstract core of schaffen, you will certainly have no problem to see the connection of any of the following words to schaffen :)
- Geschäft (deal, store, business)
- Beschäftigung (occupation, job, something to do)
- beschäftigt (busy, employed),
- (sich) beschäftigen (to occupy, to keep busy, to look into something, to employ).
- Wirtschaft (economy, tavern)
and last but not least
- Freundschaft (friendship)
If you see anything else with schaf or schäf in it, there is a good chance to guess it with all you’ve learned today in mind.
If you have any questions or suggestions just leave me a comment.
I hope you liked it and see you next time.
Hi Emanuel : )
I’m interested in the phrases “sich an etwas zu schaffen machen” and “Jemanden zu schaffen machen”
I’ve heard “sich an etwas zu schaffen machen” at least once before and at that time I kind of understood from the context it meant something like “to tamper” ( I heard it from a neighbour from my old flat who saw a guy fiddling around with the postboxes in a potentially suspicious way). But from looking into it more its not necessarily suspicious (or if it can have an element of suspicion to what extent) and can kind of be generally doing something to something with the hands right?
Do you think “to work on something” and “to do something to something” would cover the different possible senses? E.g. “Ich mache mich an meiner Wohnungstür zu schaffen” “I am working on my flat door” Er hat sich an den Briefkästen zu schaffen machen” “he was doing something to the mailboxes”
I was also wondering about the verbs “to tinker” “to fiddle around with” but perhaps these lacks some of the directed-ness of “zu schaffen machen? Tinkering and fiddling around kind of have a sense that the activity isn’t especially directed to a particular ends (the activity can be for its own sake).
The other phrase I came across twice this week is “jemandem zu schaffen machen” which I’d never have figured out without having look. “Sie macht ihm zu schaffen” I understand this as “she is causing him problems” but was wondering about the contexts this could be used ? Are these massive existential woes or could they be something as small as work college who keeps borrowing your pen without asking?
Ha ha- Sie wollten sich wahrscheinlich nicht mit einem der Schaffen Präfixe befassen, aber ich hatte gehofft, zwei von ihnen an Sie weitergeben zu können:
Besorgen vs. Beschaffen – sind sie in bestimmten Fällen ähnlich? Aus dem Kontext heraus verstehe ich verschaffen, aber wenn ich im Wörterbuch nachschaue, scheint es nicht diese Bedeutung von “Erleichterung” zu haben – ist das eine gute Übersetzung?
Dieses Mittel wird Ihnen Linderung verschaffen.
“besorgen” und “beschaffen” sind ähnlich, aber “beschaffen” klingt technischer und ein bisschen “größer”. Wie “procure”.
Guck mal hier:
https://yourdailygerman.com/meaning/skep-skop/schaffen-3/beschaffen/
“verschaffen” hat nichts mit “Erleichterung” zu tun. Es ist auch ein bisschen wie die anderen, aber nur mit wenigen Kontexten verwendet.
Hoffe, das hilft.
Hi Emanuel –
Am I stretching it by asking if erledigen and schaffen have some overlap? It feels that way : ich schaffe das
ich erledige das
Hopefully this is not a bad question- thx 4 the patience
Any question is a valid question :).
“schaffen” is about “pulling something off”, “erledigen” is about “completing”.
Think of “schaffen” as “Hell yeah, I did it man.” and of “erledigen” as “I took care of it.”
Does that make sense?
But… but… I tried the quiz, and on the question about the German cases getting abolished I said I’m going to miss them, and the answer was wrong :(
I love the cases, it’s one of the things that make German beautiful to me.
Hahaha, that’s nice :).
I couldn’t select two answers as correct so I had to decide. Sorry for ruining your score ;).
Hi – I am so easily distracted
Working through the Seedlang vocabulary I reached ‘Schaffen’ – spent and hour on your article before going back to complete the vocabulary.
Towards the end was “Wohnraum – Housing” which sounded a bit odd and lead me to
Die WohnungsBESCHAFFUNG – Housing
Round and round we go – thanks for helping to make it fun
Haha, glad you enjoyed your little stay here :). And glad you’re using Seedlang. Jemery put all his heart into this project, as did Cari.( And they still do)
Hi – Vielen Dank fuer den schoenen Artikel
Haben “erreichen” und “schaffen” in bestimmten Kontexten die gleichen Konnotation? Ich habe versucht, diesen Satz zu uebersetzen:
Van Rompuy moechte auch erreichen, dass einzelne Regierungschefs zu Besuch in Peking oder Washington nicht mehr nur die nationale Agenda vorbringen, sondern auch als Europaer auftreten.
Und es schien, “erreichen” koenne durch “schaffen” ersetzt werden.
Gute Frage!!
Wenn du “schaffen” da verwenden willst, musst du auch ein “es” in den Satz machen.
– … möchte es auch schaffen, …
Das ist dann grammatisch richtig, aber es klingt nicht gut. “schaffen” ist persönlicher und ein bisschen weniger “groß”.
“erreichen” ist mehr über “get to a point” während “schaffen” mehr über “pull something off” ist.
Es gibt viel gemeinsam, aber hier passt “erreichen” besser.
very helpfull, ty
Gerne!
That was fun!
It makes it so much easier to remember things when it’s fun.
Same for writing, trust me :)
what is the difference between “gelingen” and “schaffen”?. I looked up in LEO dictionary and it seems “gelingen” has the proper meaning of “to succeed”
I actually have an article on “gelingen”, too:
https://yourdailygerman.com/gelingen-gelungen-meaning/
And I also talk about the difference to “schaffen” there. The main difference is grammar, but they also differ in tone a little bit.
It’s important to note that NEITHER one is a perfect match for “succeed”. There are contexts where neither would be a translation.
Love how you did this!
Thanks a lot :)!
Wissenschaft, Wissenschaftler, Wissenschaftlerin
create knowledge = science
Make sense now!
Wow, I never thought about that one, but yeah, it does make sense :)
This was so helpful. My German friends tried to explain this word to me, but it was even hard for them to really express the full meaning! Thanks!
Glad I could help :).
Is the older Schaffen .. schaffen schufen etc and the newer version .. schaffen schafften? Thanks.
Yes. To be sure… “schufen” only works for the creation-schaffen. It does not work for “passing” a test. Likewise, you cant use “schafften” for contexts of creation.
People there is a famous son Kentaky gets schaffen.
Wait, “schaffen” is part of a song?
Gibt es großer Unterschied bei diesen Sätzen? “Wenn wir es schaffen, pünktlich loszufahren,…” und “Wenn wir können pünktlich losfahren,…”? Insgesamt, was unterscheidet “schaffen” (manage-schaffen) von “können”?
“können” ist über “possibility”, “schaffen” über “actually doing it”.
“Wenn wir früh losfahren können…”
This talks about having the possibility of leaving early. It might mean that you actually do it, but that’s not a core part of the phrase.
“Wenn wir es schaffen, früh loszufahren…”
This talks about us actually managing to leave early.
Sag mir Bescheid, ob das hilft.
Great post! I liked it
so if schaffen is for creating more significant things, is there one word for more casually creating something? How would you translate “I created a document” as in I set up a new blank document? How would you translate “I created a link (ie weblink)”? How would you translate “I created an excuse”? How would you translate “I created a space to put the new desk in my room.” What would be the most common way to say “he is creative”? We do throw that word around a lot in English.
Thanks for this super detailed post, which came up immediately when I googled for the two different gerunds.
Good question and you’re not gonna like the answer :) because… it depends
– create a document : ein Dokument erstellen (in a computer context)
– create a link : Link setzen/erstellen/eine Sache verlinken… depends on the context
– create and excuse: if you mean making one up, then that’s “sich eine Ausrede ausdenken”
– create space on the desk: Platz machen
It really comes down to what you’re creating. For mind thing it’s often “sich ausdenken”, for tangible objects it’s “machen” or “produzieren” but there are loads of special cases. It’s almost never “kreieren” though. That sounds a bit artsy.
“creative” however is straight forward “kreativ”. These two translate really well.
What actually is the difference between schaffen, machen and tun? It looks to me as if there is some crossover when they mean to do, so is there a difference?
Well, “schaffen” can either be “to create”, so you’d use it in contexts where “machen” would sound too normal or too hands-on. And “schaffen” can mean “to pul off” which does have to do with “machen” and “tun” but it’s focused on the successful completion.
As for “tun” and “machen”. I guess I’m going to do a post about that at some point but I’ll try to give a brief overview:
“machen” is about some form of productivity, however abstract it may be.
“tun” is more about the process.
But these “rules” are by no means exclusive. “Machen” is much more common. “tun” is mostly used in a number of super common fixed expressions like “leid tun” or “so tun als ob”. To an extend it’s also a regional thing. Hope that helps a bit, even though it’s probably not as clear as you expected.
Yes it’s he meaning that I’ve search ,thank you so much!!
Was does it means in this sentence “schafft es gerade noch,ins Bad zu flüchten” ? ?
It means “barely/just manages to flee into the bathroom”.
Let me know if it’s still unclear.
Hey. I hope I’m not the first to ask this, if so I am sorry. How come there are 2 past tense conjugations of this verb: geschaffen und geschaft? You use both versions above in examples and the conjugator website also states both…
I can’t tell you why, but there are a bunch of verbs that have two ge-forms. It’s something about that whole weak-strong stuff but I don’t know too much about these concepts (I think the names are stupid and random and so I ignore them).
In case of “schaffen” the two are used for different meanings of the verb so you can’t interchange them
“geschaffen” means “created”
“geschafft” means “done/pulled off” and also “tired”
But for “winken” for example, the two forms can be used at will
– Ich habe gewinkt/gewunken.