Meanings
Examples
Read more
A fun look at the difference between "hinter" and "hinten" and a broader look at some basic principles of talking about location in German.
We'll go over the important time prepositions in German (bis, seit, vor,...), see what they express and what common mistakes to avoid. With plenty of audio examples :)
Vocab:
vor, in, bis, seit, ab
A fun look at the meaning of "vorbei" and an end has to do with visits.
Vocab:
vorbei sein, vorbeikommen, vorbeifahren, vorbeibringen
We'll take a detailed look at the core meaning of "vor" and see if it helps us make sense of the prefix verbs and fixed combinations.
Vocab:
vorgehen, vorhaben, vormachen, Angst haben vor, warnen vor, vor Lachen
Word Family
The core idea of this root was:
going beyond, going forth
And a lot of its children revolve in some way around the idea of travelling or exploring – like for instance the German fahren and führen or the English further.
It’s the origin of Latin prefixes like per-, pro-, pro- and also of the Germanic branch around for(e) and German vor, which are all about either “going forth” or a more abstract notion of going beyond a boundary.
The root is also the origin of German fahren and führen and the English fare, which all come from a sense of travelling, going into the unknown.
You can get a really good understanding of how the core idea can lead to various meanings by looking at German ver-.
The family is very big, but here’s an incomplete list of English members:
- pre- (mixed)
- pro- (mixed)
- per- (mixed)
- para- (beyond)
- to fare, far (venturing)
- for (from person A to person B)
- forward, forth, further (going ahead)
