r-version is not an official grammar term.
I came up with it to refer to the … well… r-versions of prefix verbs, like for example raufmachen, runterfallen, reingehen and so on.
Many prefix verbs have this r-version and its meaning is usually the most literal, “locational” take on the prefix verb.
“rausgehen” for example means to go outside, reinfallen means to fall inside and so on.
Many sources and teachers will say that it’s just a short, colloquial version of “her-“, and they make the students believe that rausgehen for example is really just an improper herausgehen.
But that kind of misses the reality of the language.
Many times, the r-version can be seen as short version of “dar-“, not “her-“.
And there are plenty of examples where there is an r-version and a her-version and they both have distinct meaning.
Not every r-version can be changed to a her-version and in my opinion they deserve to be seen as a distinct group, especially since they are unbelievably common.
In my series Prefix Verbs Explained you’ll see many r-versions and you’ll quickly get a feel for their meaning.
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Hallo, Emanuel! We just got home from a fantastic trip to Germany (on the day of the tech glitch- ugh), and I encountered so many words ‘in the wild’ that I had never used before. I was excited to look them up on your site to make sure I’m using them correctly! (I say this whenever I comment, but your site is incredible for German learners!)
The one pair I wanted to ask you about was ‘rausnehmen’ and ‘rausziehen’- I heard both being used when I was asked to take my credit card out of the machine. Are they both synonyms in that case, with the only difference being that ‘rausziehen’ literally means to ‘pull out’ and ‘rausnehmen’ is a little more general ‘take out?’ Vielen Dank!
You’re spot on :)!
Yes, they’re pretty much synonyms in that context and yes, “rausziehen” sounds more specific than “rausnehmen”.
It’s great that you’re noticing the r-versions in the wild. They’re such an important part of everyday German.