Quiz:
“lassen” and its prefix versions – The Quiz

“lassen” can have a lot of translations in different contexts, but there are two main ones.
Which of the following three is !! NOT !! a translation for lassen.

lassen has a wild range of uses – to let, to leave, this weird passive thing that textbooks are talking about, and more.
But actually, with a bit of mind yoga, we can see that they’re all based on one core theme; a pretty damn Zen core theme.

Which could that be?

We just leaned that the core theme of lassen is non-doing.
The various meanings of “lassen” are basically different takes or perspectives of that theme.

Which of the following ideas is NOT a variation of that theme?

Now, English has this very very very very very common invitational phrase: “Let’s [do it/go/eat….].”. Which also exists in German with lassen. Not as common, but still common enough.

• Lasst uns anfangen.
• Let’s start.

The thing some of you might be wondering is:

This phrasing sounds inviting, enticing and active and it’s about DOING something. Right? So how does it fit the core notion of non-doing that we identified. What’s going on here?

Now, let’s get to the prefix versions and the first one we’ll look at is one that stays very close to the core themes of lassen: auflassen.

Which of the following contexts would be expressed with auflassen.

(MULTIPLE ANSWERS POSSIBLE)

Let’s do another one like just now, this time with anlassen.

Again, below are a bunch of contexts, and you have to pick the ones that would have anlassen in a translation?

(MULTIPLE ANSWERS POSSIBLE)

All right.
Now, suppose I’m working at home, and my cat REALLY wants to enter the room I am working in and is meowing in front of the door. But I know that all she is going to do is hop on the keyboard and sit there, so I don’t let her enter.

Based on what you’ve seen so far, which of the following words is the most likely to be idiomatic in this context in German?

Now that we’ve seen a few normal prefix versions and r-versions in action, let’s do a round of match up :).

Match the verbs with the context they’d be used in!

(Drag and drop into the empty fields. You can adjust multiple times.)

And now, let’s do a round of opposites :). Well, not the real opposites. Counterparts is probably the better word.
So… match the verbs with their counterparts.

The ones we dealt with so far are probably the most useful and most common prefix versions.
But there are more. Of course.
Here are a few less common ones for you to match up with a fitting context.

And now let’s do some of the more abstract ones.
Hooray!
I’ll give you a context, and you’ll pick the verb for it.

• Maria left me (broke up with me).

The next context is “letting someone go” at work. In the sense of “firing”.
Which of the following words would fit?

• Maria was fired on Tuesday.

And one last one!
This time, the context is rain letting up (getting less).

• The rain is slowly letting up.

And now, let’s wrap this up with a short, random recap matching round :).

(Drag and drop into the empty fields. You can readjust)