The meaning of “rechnen” – And its Prefix Versions

Hello everyone,

and welcome to our German Word of the Day. And you had better be ready, for the day of reckoning has come.
Dut dut dunnnnn.
Well, okay… actually it’s more the day of “mathening”. Because today, we’ll look at

rechnen

 

Rechnen is the German brother of to reckon but unlike to reckon, which is mostly used figuratively, rechnen is still about making actual calculations with actual numbers.
Yeah… yawn.
But what’s even more yawn are the countless prefix versions of rechnen like (anrechnen, abrechnen, ausrechnen, vorrechnen,… ) which all give us information about how or why or where or at what temperature Fahrenheit a calculation is being made.

But at least if you’re planning on living in Germany for some time, it’s paramount really good to have a rough idea about the rechnen-family because these words are all over the place and can get confusing. So let’s get bored together…

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German Grammar • Vocabulary • Etymology