Dictionary verb nach verb *gwa- kommen nachkommen
(nach verb)

Meanings

1.
to follow later
(someone going first, you catching up. Sometimes also used in the sense of not being able to process a stream of something)
How useful:
Opposite (closest): vorgehen
2.
to fulfill, to follow
("einer Sache+Dat nachkommen" - for requests, pleas, orders and similar things.)
How useful:

Examples

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German Prepositions Explained - "nach"

"nach" can mean "to" and "after". Today, we'll explore the common core of this, and explore the various uses of "nach", both alone and as a prefix.

Vocab:

nach, nachmachen, nachlaufen, nachlassen, nachgehen, nach


Word Family

Root: *gwa-

The core idea of this root was:

coming, coming into this world, going

In  to come and kommen, the beginning has “hardened” but in the Latin branch of  “venire”, the soft “v”-portion prevailed.  “venire” was the Latin word for to come and which we can see in words like invent, prevent or venture.

The root is also the origin of the word base, which got its meaning from an old word Greek word for going, making steps.
That’s also where diabetes is from, which originally was about passing through, specifically urine “passing through”

The most surprising German member is the adjective bequem, which actually ties in quite well with the side idea of “become” as in “to fit, to suit”. Just think of “unbecoming”.

here’s an (incomplete) list of the relatives in English:

  • to come
  • to become 
  • base, basis (“going there, making steps”)
  • invent, invention, inventory (“coming in, going in”)
  • prevent, prevention (“coming before”)
  • convene, convent, convention (“coming together”)
  • intervene, intervention (“coming in between”)
  • circumvent (“coming around”)
  • event, eventually (“coming here”)
  • advent, adventure, avenue (“coming ahead”)
  • provenience (“coming from”)
  • revenue (“coming back”)
  • souvenir (“coming along”)
  • diabetes (“passing through”)

 

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