Dictionary › verb › *mag- › machen

machen

Word type: verb
Based on: *mag-
Perfect (spoken past): hat gemacht
Preterite (written past): machte

Meanings

1.
to make, to do
(Germans use "machen" slightly differently than English uses "make". In German, there is always an element of "being productive" to it. On the other hand, it does NOT work well in the sense of "reaching" like for instance "make rent".)
Opposite (closest): lassen

Examples

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Word Family

Root: *mag-

The core idea of this root was:

kneading, fitting

And its main field of use originally was “kneading” clay to build a house.
The sense has broadened a lot in the verb to make, but the original sense is still visible in most of the other relatives.

  • mass (originally: “unshaped lump of matter”)
  • match (originally: “masses fitting well”)
  • magma (originally: “thick dough like matter”)
  • among (originally: “kneaded together”)
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Questions and Comments

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Maria
Maria
1 year ago

A conversation: “Wie geht’s Andrej? Was macht sein Job?” Why is the answer “Der gefällt ihm sehr gut.” ?? What would be the proper translation of this conversation? Does machen here mean how is the job going for him? Does the macht refer to Andrej or to the job? thanks! Maria

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Emanuel
Author
Emanuel
1 year ago
Reply to  Maria

Nice example!
“machen” refers to the job here.
This question is a fairly common phrasing and it works for a lot of “projects” that we have going on.

  • Was macht der Job/dein Deutsch/das Projekt/die Familienplanung/das Haus.

I think “How’s X going” is the most fitting translation.

Hope that helps :)!

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Maria
Maria
1 year ago
Reply to  Emanuel

Yes! thank you!

Reply
Emanuel
Author
Emanuel
1 year ago
Reply to  Maria

You’re welcome! I’m happy to see that you readers start using the comments in this dictionary.

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