Hello everyone,
and welcome to our German Word of the Day. This time we’ll have a look at another random, boring verb that you’ll never use and its super lame cousins.
On the edge of your seat yet? Perfect :) . Then let’s dive right in and talk about
schieben
Schieben is related to the English word to shove. They both come from the same root as words like shoot, shut, shun, scoot or shuttle: the mega turbo uber kind of ancient root *skeub- which meant as much as making something move quickly by applying a force from behind. So … it’s kind of what I do with the interns, when I kick their lazy ass for being on Facebook all day. Hmmm… I wonder if the Indo-Europeans had lazy interns too. Like… some Intern-Europeans… meh, anyways.
Seriously though… the core of the root was probably just broad idea of to (make) move quickly. But this whole notion of a pushing force (as opposed to pulling) was definitely in there very early on and it’s totally part of words like shove or shoot.
So… making move by pushing force. And that it is pretty much the core meaning of schieben. However, shoving is rather quick and abrupt, schieben on the other hand… not so much.
Schieben is slooooow. A slow and steady moving of an object across a surface. The sound of the words actually kind of mirrors it. Shove is short and snappy. You wouldn’t really say “shoooooove”. Schieben on the other hand is perfect for that. Schieeeeeeeben. That could totally be the sound you’re making when you’re “schieben”-ing something heavy. Like… pushing a car that won’t start. That is what schieben is, that’s the vibe it has, even though it doesn’t always have to be a heavy object. I can also schieben a book across the table, or a glass of whisky, or a coin. What matters is that it’s slow and steady and the object touches the ground. I think the closest translation is to push but pushing is much broader and whenever it gets a little more dynamic or sudden, schieben is not gonna be the right word anymore. Like…. for actual pushing as in pushing someone you’d say schubsen, and in many other situations it would be drücken.
But anyway… I think it’s time for some schieben-examples.
- Ich habe meinen Kühlschrank unter das Fenster geschoben.
- I pushed/moved my fridge under the window.
- Lustlos schiebt der kleine Timmy seinen Spinat auf dem Teller hin und her.
- Mopishly, little Timmy moves his spinach back and forth on his plate.
- Der Chef schiebt Maria den Vertrag mit einem anzüglichen Lächeln über den Tisch.
- With a salacious wink, the boss slides the contract across the table to Maria.
(the German versions sounds slower… like slow, controlled, determined sliding)
These were about actually moving something but there’s also a very common abstract use of schieben, which is especially useful if you have to pass blame a lot.
- Mein Chef wollte mich zusammenscheißen aber ich habe alles auf den Praktikanten geschoben.
- My boss was gonna scold me but I passed all the blame onto the intern.
- Maria schiebt ihre schlechte Laune auf PMS.
- Maria blames her bad mood on PMS.
- Ich habe Thomas die Schuld in die Schuhe geschoben.
- I slid/shoved the guilt into Thomas’ shoes. (lit.)
- I blamed Thomas for it (even though it wasn’t him).
The last example is a common idiom which was probably coined because tavern thieves would put their pickings in someone else’s shoes when the city ward made a sweep.
Now, there are also a bunch of compound nouns like Schiebedach (moon roof, sliding roof) or Schiebetür (sliding door) but the real power of schieben lies…big shock.. in its prefix versions. So let’s take a look at some of them.
First, there is anschieben, which is basically schieben with a focus on the start, of setting something in motion. You could anschieben a car but also projects or political reforms. Of course, there are other options to say this like beginnen or initiieren but schieben makes it sounds little weightier and slooooow.
- Die neue, coole Managerin hat wichtige Reformen angeschoben.
- The new, cool manager has initiated/set into motion important reforms.
And it’s about time someone did. Because the stupid, old manager kept procrastinating about these reforms… which brings us right to the next word: aufschieben. The idea is simple… just think of a snow plow shoving snow up to a huge pile. Only that aufschieben is not about snow… it’s about work.
- Here’s how to stop the constant procratinating.
- So gewöhnen sie sich das ständige Aufschieben ab.
- Ich wollte letztes Jahr anfangen, Deutsch zu lernen, habe es dann aber immer wieder aufgeschoben.
- I wanted to start learning German last year but then I kept procrastinating (it).
- Thomas schiebt immer alles auf.
- Thomas is a huge procrastinator.
(German doesn’t have a good translation for procrastinator)
- Etwa 90% aller Studenten leiden an Aufschieberitis.
- About 90% of all students suffer from procrastinitis.
Of course Aufschieberitis is not a real clinical term, but the word just perfectly describes the condition and so even if it’s completely made up it’s used a lot even by newspapers (for some examples look here) .
Now we should mention that the German aufschieben is not always negative. In official texts it can also have the neutral meaning of to delay. An aufschiebende Bedingung is the official term for condition precedent (whatever that is) and there’s also the very common expression.
- Aufgeschoben ist nicht aufgehoben.
- Delayed is not canceled. (lit).
- Forbearance is not acquittance.
The German version gets used whenever you have to postpone something that you were actually looking forward to…. like having a girls’ night or watching “Shades of Grey” with your partner. Ahem.
Anyway, postponing stuff brings us right to the next schieben-word which is probably the most useful… verschieben. The ver- basically brings in its idea of change of location and the schieben itself is used in a very broad sense of moving. You can verschieben a fridge but also files on a computer and most important of all verschieben is the number one word for moving all kinds of appointments or dates.
- Ich verschiebe den Fernseher ein bisschen um darunter zu wischen.
- I’m moving the TV a bit in order to clean under it.
- “Zahnarztpraxis Dr. Superpony. Hallo?”
“Hallo, ich hatte nächsten Montag um 3 einen Termin bei Ihnen. Den muss ich leider verschieben.” - “Dentist’s office Dr. Superpony, hello?”
“Hi, I have an appointment next Monday at 3. I’m gonna have to reschedule/postpone/find a new date for that.”
- Der Start des Films wurde immer wieder verschoben.
- The release of the movie has been moved again and again.
- Ich habe alle Dateien vom Desktop in den Ordner ‘Sortieren’ verschoben.
- I moved all the files from desktop into the folder ‘needs sorting’.
Now, of course I didn’t put the files into this folder because I want to sort them. I’ll aufschieben that until the computer breaks down. I put them in there because I want them gone. I want a clean, nice looking desktop. And that kind of brings us to the last schieben-verb and get ready for what is probably one of the most callous, cold words of the German language: abschieben. Schieben with some idea of ab to it… how bad could it possibly be? Well, the main meaning of abschieben is to deport. Deporting someone isn’t a nice thing to begin with but calling it abschieben… I don’t know. Like… brushing the snow from the windshield or a bunch of bred crumbs from the table going like “Ewww”. It just sounds super cold.
- Der illegale Einwanderer wird abgeschoben.
- The illegal immigrant is being deported.
- Dem Mann droht jetzt die Abschiebung obwohl er einen Job hat und Steuern zahlt.
- The man is facing deportation (“shoving off”) now, even though he has a job and pays taxes.
And even if it’s not to deport, abschieben is about getting rid of persons.
- Wer nicht genug Überstunden macht und sich nicht genug bei den Chefs einschleimt wird auf unattraktive Posten abgeschoben.
- People who won’t do enough extra hours and who don’t suck up enough to their bosses are often pushed put into unattractive posts.
(is that idiomatic?… danke).
So that’s abschieben and especially in context of deportation, I really don’t like it.
Now, there are a few other verbs like einschieben, wegschieben or zuschieben but I think you’ll always get them from context.
Before we wrap this up though, there’s one more word to talk about… the noun. The verb itself is schieben, the ge-form is geschoben and the noun is… der Schub.
Germanic Words™ – because vowels, shmowels.
The word Schub has a whole bunch of meanings. For one thing it the physical term for the energy or force that causes a movement. Schub(kraft), thrust in English, is what makes planes fly and rockets lift off.
But Schub is also used in daily life a lot in sense of boost, rush or surge, so unlike schieben, it has actually preserved the original notion of a quick and sudden movement.
- Hypnose hat meinem Deutsch einen riesigen Schub gegeben.
- Hypnosis has given my German a huge boost.
- Wenn ich eine Spende kriege ist das immer ein Motivationsschub für mich. (hint, hint)
- Getting a donation is always a motivational rush for me.
- Seit ein paar Wochen hat Maria schubweise heftige Kopfschmerzen.
- For a few weeks Maria has been having surges of intense headache. (lit.: surge-wise, in batches)
There are plenty of compounds with this Schub like Adrenalinschub (rush of adrenaline) , Müdigkeitsschub (surge of fatigue), Fieberschub (fever attack or a hot stage). And of course Schub is also the base for the nouns made from many prefix versions.
- Maria bittet ihren Internetanbieter um Zahlungsaufschub.
- Maria asks her internet service provider for a respite/payment deferral.
- Der Investor gibt der Firma eine Anschubfinanzierung.
- The investor gives the company start-up financing.
- Einen Einschub kann man – in der Sprache – mit einem Gedankenstrich markieren.
- An insertion – in language – can be marked by a dash.
- 4er WG in der Innenstadt braucht Nachschub.
- 4-people-shared apartment needs replenishment, supplies.
(in this context a new flatmate… but it works for actual supplies as well)
The only prefix-version that does not use this is verschieben. There, the noun is die Verschiebung.
Anyway, there are a few other Schub-words out there. If you pass a construction site you might see a Schubkarre and if you’re buying a blue ray box set of your favorite show it’ll probably come in a Schuber. And last but not least there’s the very important word die Schublade, literally slow-push-load, which is… a drawer. So … in English, it’s named after the way it is opened, in German it’s based on how it is closed, a fact that is very telling for the different mentalities of English speakers and German because the German speakers tend to put things in their drawers and then close them while .. uhm… English speakers have a penchant for opening their drawers and whipping out thi.. gee, who wrote this nonsense. I… uhm… the interns … yeah… these stupid interns and their crappy scripts… stop making stuff up, you hear me!!
Anyway, I think that’s it. We’re done. This was our German Word of the Day schieben. It’s related to shoot and shove but while those have preserved the original notion of a sudden, quick movement, schieben has grown more relaxed over the years and now it is a slow and steady pushing of something. Especially the prefix-versions and the noun Schub are super common in daily conversation and I’m sure you’ll come across many examples.
As always, if you have any questions or suggestions or if you want to try out some sentences just leave me a comment.
I hope you liked it and see you next time.
Vocab (including some new):
schieben – slowly, steadily push/shove
aufschieben – to procrastinate/official: to delay
abschieben – to deport
verschieben- move to a different location/ reschedule something
der Schub – the thust, surge, rush
die Schublade – the drawer (lit. the shove-load)
etwas auf jemanden schieben – passing the blame for something onto someone
die Schiebetür – the sliding door
der Zahlungsaufschub – the respite
ein Projekt anschieben – get a project going (figurative)
der Schieberegler – the slider (on a mixer)
die Verschiebung – the postponement
Reading these is the next best thing to living in Germany and being fully immersed in the language. That’s how much linguistic value I am getting out of these…and all right on my phone. I love it. Thank you!!!
Wow, thanks for that encouraging feedback :). Freut mich wirklich, dass es dir so hilft!!
A brilliant post. Thanks very much !
Glad you like it. Oh and nice to see you’re still reading :)
Are you aware of what “drawers” can mean in (American?) English? It makes the “Schublade” paragraph a bit funnier…
For “(auf unattraktive Posten) abgeschoben”, I think “stuck in/with” would be the first thing to come to my mind. I feel like there’s another good expression for this, but it’s too late at night for my brain to find it.
Also, “Forbearance is not acquittance” sounds to me much more like it’s about something negative: “Not punishing you (at least not immediately) does not mean you’re actually off the hook for what you did.”
Hah… no I totally wasn’t. Thanks for the heads-up. I totally had to change “take out things” to “whip out things” now :). As for “stuck in/with”… what would you say for present tense, like… to focus on the process?
My translation for “Aufgeschoben…” was from Dict.cc… the German version is definitely positive sounding. At least people use it in positive contexts, like “Don’t fret, we’ll go to Disneyland eventually. Just this decade.”… is there any saying in English that is more encouraging? Thanks and good night :)
The closest thing I can think of is “better late than never!”, but that’s not quite the same. I’ll keep thinking :)
There’s “sidelined” below, but “stick somebody with” a task/chore would refer to the process. “Landed” or “saddled” also works, generally the same way (“saddled with the crappy jobs”). Leo suggests “shunt” for “abschieben,” which also works, though it doesn’t sound so everyday. It has the same “redirect” meaning as “sideline.”
I really don’t know of anything truly idiomatic with the same meaning as “Aufgeschoben…” Dict.cc’s other option, “It’s only a pleasure deferred,” is better with regard to the meaning, but I’ve never heard anybody actually say that.
Thanks again, some very useful words and concepts here.
You asked about idiom, in this one the best idiom in English would be ‘to sideline’, think of a train being shunted into a lonely siding to slowly rust and decay:
Wer nicht genug Überstunden macht und sich nicht genug bei den Chefs einschleimt wird auf unattraktive Posten abgeschoben.
People who won’t do enough overtime and who don’t suck up to their bosses enough are often sidelined into unattractive posts.
For aufgeschoben in English you would have ‘put off’, delayed, postponed or deferred in order of increasing formality (for me anyway).
Aufgeschoben ist nicht aufgehoben = ‘delayed but not cancelled’, ‘the postponement doesn’t imply it’s cancelled’ or something like that.
“to sideline” is perfect! :)
How about people which no department really wants to hang on to “get shunted from pillar to post”
Hmmm… I think in the context you gave I would use something like “weiterreichen” (to pass on). I entered the phrase in lingo though and it actually often gets translated as “von Pontius zu Pilatus”
Here’s the link:
http://www.linguee.de/englisch-deutsch/uebersetzung/from+pillar+to+post.html
Deutsche Sprache 1 – English language 0.
For all the vast vocabulary that English is said to have I can’t find any single word that means ‘to push slowly’.
Perhaps someone can [get a grant to] research whether German speakers are less inclined to leave drawers open than English speakers are. If so the next question is whether the behaviour follows the meanings of ‘Schublade’ and ‘drawer’, or whether the words follow the behaviour. More likely the former, I think…..That would be DS 2 – EL 0…..There has been some interesting work done on perceptions of inanimate objects that have names with different genders in different languages. (A summary is here https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/culture-conscious/201209/masculine-or-feminine-and-why-it-matters )
‘Aufgeschoben ist nicht aufgehoben’ sounds like a normal sort of expression, whereas ‘forbearance is not acquittance’ sounds very stiff, formal and probably used only by lawyers…if at all. ..Final score Deutsche Sprache 3 – English language 0.
P.S. The thing that I think distinguishes ‘shove’ from ‘push’ is more roughness or carelessness than speed.
I’ve read about that research before. You have to wonder what it says about the German psyche that “Wurst” is feminine…
Hahaha… indeed :D
It’s also feminine in Russian.
I can see the head line in nature already :D
“How language shapes what we do – research finds drawer closure rate is connected to vocabulary.”
Thank you so much for the vocab list at the end! I really need & like the recap. Also, I often hear people use the expression “to put something off” (procrastinate) which is seems identical to the literal meaning of aufschieben
Yeah, “put off” is a normal/informal synonym. As Mark Twain said: “Never put off till tomorrow what can be done day after tomorrow just as well.”
Nice… the German version is a bit “Germaner” (meaning clunkier and longer):
– “Verschiebe nicht auf morgen, was genauso gut auf übermorgen verschoben werden kann.”
The original proverb is pretty nice though:
– Was du heute kannst besorgen, das verschiebe nicht auf morgen.
This is a great site, it takes me back to my days of slaughtering the german language as a high school exchange student.
Time to get from slaughtering to making delicate Sushi from it :D
Wonderful. Thanks so much for sharing.
Gerne :)
I had a question about one of your example sentences:
Mein Chef hat wollte mich zusammenscheißen aber ich habe alles auf den Praktikanten geschoben.
Is ‘wollte’ here not a verb? I thought all but the first verbs had to go at the end. Would it be incorrect to say ‘Mein Chef hat mich zusammenscheissen wollen’?
There is simply a mistake there, strike “hat”.
Your sentence is also correct.
Oh, that’s an editing mistake right there… it’s supposed to be just “wollte”. And you alternative is perfect too. Danke
Thanks
* gibt dem Firma
* Mein Chef hat wollte mich zusammenscheißen
Danke :)
Please don’t say “gonna.” “Going to” is the correct phrase.
You’re wrong. Gonna isn’t correct, but if that’s the sound he wanted us to hear from him, then that would be more correct than going to, which wouldn’t have the same sound he wanted. I’m sure he knows that going to is technically the correct one.
Gonna,
Is there something mis :)
thass hilarious
I think actually get it… I sometimes get annoyed by people using colloquialisms to sound cool and informal too. I’m trying to avoid it but in some sentences it just kinda feels ri… oh ops.
Hey Emmanuel, erstmal Super nützliches Post.
Geht das, wenn “Verschieben” bezügliches Küchen zeug wie Geschirr und ähnliches verwendet wird. Zur Seite stellen oder zur Seite schieben klingt mir irgendwie besser, aber ich weiß es nicht, ob sowas sich idiomatisch anhört.
Ja, du hast Recht. Für so kleine Sachen klingt “verschieben” etwas technisch. “zur Seite, nach links/recht, rüberschieben…”… die sind alle besser.
Kleine Korrektur:
– klingt mir irgendwie besser
Hier wäre der Standard
– klingt für ich irgendwie besser
Kann sein, dass “klingt mir” regional verwendet wird, aber für mich klingt es sehr komisch.
Danke!
Love this article. Very refreshing in its style. I am German and sometimes we forget all the little nuances of the word “schieben” and its translation. I loved the “Aufschieberitis”. Haven’t heard that for a long time. I could imagine to have this post also as a video!
Danke :). Always really great to hear that native speakers enjoy this, too. As for video… I think for you it would be no problem to process but I imagine for a learner it’s a lot of information in here and I always felt video is too fast. Kind of like a bus tour through a city… you see everything in little time but you don’t really know it.
Hallo Emmanuel,
Also, Es hat wohl nicht direkt mit dem Thema zu tun. Wie wird dieser Satz richtig geschrieben?
Woanders Verschieben oder woanders hin verschieben?
Der mit “woanders hin”, kommt mir häufiger benutzt vor. Worin liegt das unterschied?
“Woanders” kann nur die Frage “wo?” beantworten, nicht die Frage “wohin?”. Ohne “hin” fehlt hier also die Markierung, dass “verschieben” hier den Fokus auf der Bewegung von A nach B hat.
Der Satz heißt soviel wie:
– I am changing the position of something [somewhere else].
So within the confines of “somewhere else” you’re “schiebening” an object.
Mit “hin” bedeutet es
– I’m moving an object from somewhere to somewhere else.
Hoffe das hilft.
Jo, Es ist mir jetzt klar. Ich hätte es mir so denken sollen. Aber Danke Emmanuel.
Hast du Zufälligerweise eine Facebook-Page oder sowas, die man die man liken können?
Ja, hab’ ich irgendwo, warte mal… hier:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/German-is-easy-The-blog-for-all-students-of-German/156956949489
aber ich mach’ da nicht wirklich was, ausser die Posts zu posten. Mal sehen, vielleicht in der Zukunft :)
To inch – to move by small degrees
Nice idea… it completely misses the pushing aspect though and that is important. Also, “to inch” is incremental while “schieben” is more of a continuous movement. But there’s a post coming up with a word that is indeed close to “to inch”.
“ABSCHIEBUNGSVERBOT”,IS A WORD YOU MIGHT LIKE. THANK YOU FOR EVERYTHING !!!
Ich habe eine Frage über Grammatik. Sollte es “Ich habe alles auf die Praktikanten (Akk.) geschoben” sein? (nicht auf den Praktikanten)?
Gute Frage. Beides ist richtig. “auf den Praktikanten” ist Akkusativ von “der Praktikant”, das “-en” ist die sogenannte “n-Deklination”, einer der unwichtigsten Aspekte der Grammatik.
“auf die Praktikanten” ist Plural.
Ah so. Ein “schwaches Nomen”. Alles klar. Ich habe immer noch ständig Probleme wenn es um Artikeln geht.