Hello everyone,
and welcome to the second part of our look at the various uses of
auf
Wow, that was weird.
In the first part, we learned that the core meaning is the idea of on top, upward and that for the prefix it also means open. And we learned that auf, offen, up, open and über are all related because the old Indo-Europeans were quite into plant medicines. Well, okay that’s not the real reason, but it sure seems that way something.
Anyways, if you haven’t read the article yet you can find it here. You don’t really need it to understand what we’ll do today, but it’s fun. Kind of.
The article ended with a list of some of the most common fixed PVCs. Which is short for Fixed Prefix Verb Combos and man… those fPVCs can really pull the fPVC out from under us.
Ugh… chemistry jokes. They just never get a reaction.
Anyway, today we’ll take a look at all these verbs that just come with auf for no apparent reason and see if there’s a common theme to them. We’ll also check which case to use and learn something about fixed PVCs and cases in general and to wrap it all up, we’ll also look at some really cool everyday phrasings with auf’s brother drauf.
So are you ready to jump in? Perfect…
The most well known verbs that just have to come with auf are probably warten auf and freuen auf. But it’s another one that’s most iconic for the group… zielen auf.
Yup, to target.
In fact, that’s pretty much the embodiment of the core idea of these verbs – the idea
“targeting, having an eye on”
Or in one image…
But this isn’t really all that helpful until you see it in action. So let’s go over a bunch.
First up, there’s the group of course verbs that directly involve taking aim. Werfen auf and schießen auf are the most common examples but basically any verb that is about delivering a projectile do connect the target using auf.
- Ich ziele auf den Apfel.
- I target/aim for the apple.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Der Junge wirft einen Schneeball auf das Einhorn.
- The boy throws a snow ball at the unicorn.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
Also zeigen (to point at) and similar verbs like deuten auf and hinweisen auf can pretty much be added to this group. Sure, they’re not about delivering a projectile but pointing is really close to aiming at, I think.
- “Alles dreckig, Thomas.” ruft Maria und zeigt auf die Spüle.
- “Everything is dirty, Thomas. “, Maria yells and points at the sink.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Liebe Kunden, wir möchten Sie gern auf unser Kapernspecial hinweisen.
- We’d like to direct your attention to the capers special.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
Capers special?! What the hell is wrong with supermarkets these days? Anyway, that would be the perfect moment for the very common colloquial phrase scheißen auf. I mean, come on. Literally, it means “taking a dump onto” but it ‘s basically the German way to not give a shit.
So… yeah, basically not giving a shit in German is giving shit. Languages are so confusing.
- Ich scheiß auf die Weihnachtspostkarte. Ich will Weihnachtsgeld.
- (Lit.) “I defecate onto the X-Mas postcard”….
- Screw the x-mass postcard. I want a Christmas bonus.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
Cool.
So far, there wasn’t really any mind bending involved, I think. But it can stay that simple, can it?!
Let’s see if the next group is a bit harder.
- Ich habe eine Stunde auf mein Essen gewartet.
- I waited one hour for my food.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Ich freue mich auf dieses Jahr.
- I’m looking forward to this year.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Ich muss mich auf die Prüfung vorbereiten.
- I have to prepare for the exam.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
Waiting, preparing for something, looking forward… what do they have in common? Well, they’re about events in the future, right? So we can say they’re about anticipating. And from anticipating it’s really not that far to the idea of having an eye on.
Which brings us right to the next couple of verbs: achten auf and aufpassen auf. Those two are both about paying attention to so they’re also about having your eyes set on something. What’s the difference between the two?
Well, achten auf sounds a bit “grander” than aufpassen. Like… it sounds a bit more official, it’s more long term and it works better for abstract stuff. Aufpassen auf is more like actively watching something at a given time.
- Thomas achtet auf seine Gesundheit.
- Thomas takes care of his health.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Kannst du kurz auf meinen Computer aufpassen?
- Can you watch my computer for a second?
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
Still, no insane mind yoga needed.
The third tranche of verbs is a little different. Behold…
- Ich komm nicht auf das Wort.
- I can’t think of the word.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- “Trinkst du lieber Bier oder Wein?”
“Kommt auf die Jahreszeit an.” - “What do you like better, drinking beer or drinking wine?”
“Depends on the season.” - Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Thomas besteht auf einen Gute-Nacht-Kuss.
- Thomas insists on a good night kiss.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Ich stehe total auf diesen Wein.
- I really dig this wine.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Maria steht auf Männer mit rasierten Achseln.
- Maria likes/is into men with shaved arm pits.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
Wow, now that’s a REALLY wild mix of meaning. What all these have in common is that they’re based on words that talk about location, namely kommen and stehen. And so it’s very likely that the auf they are using is a locational auf. Like…
- kommen auf (thinking of after brain searching) – you arrive at an idea
- ankommen auf (depend on) – some event “arrives”(happens) on a condition
- bestehen auf (to insist) – you stand (“on”) your ground
- stehen auf (to like, dig) – that’s where you like to stand
That is probably how they evolved, so we’re technically having a second core for auf-verbs. But me, personally, I like my preposition-verb-combinations to be like my body.
“Uhm… average?!?!”
NO!!! I mean with one strong, well defined core. Rrrrrrrrr… dem’ abs. Ripple ripple. They’re there, I swear. Just like the connection of those verbs to our core of targeting. You look hard enough :)
- finding information in your brain – your mental eyes is on the target they were looking for.
- depending – all eyes are on what it depends on.
- insisting – your eyes and mind are fixed on the target
- liking/digging something – your eyes are on that thing
Don’t get me wrong though. I’m not saying you have to remember these connections. If they don’t work for you that’s fine. All I’m trying to do is give you a bit of a “feel” for auf. You won’t be able to just guess correctly which verbs will go with auf. That takes way longer than conversational fluency. What I’m trying to do is make you feel a little less confused, give you a feeling that things are not just super random but that there’s some sense behind it and you are able to find it.
In fact, let’s give it a little try.
Your Turn for Mind Yoga
Here are three more super common verbs that go with auf. And I challenge you – is your mind bending strong enough to find a connection to our core idea of targeting, eyes on :).
- antworten auf (to answer to)
- verzichten auf (abstain from, desist from)
- sich verlassen auf (to rely on)
Take a minute to think and then we’ll go over them together. I’m gonna make me a coffee in the meantime
…
(*makes coffee)
…
All right. So the first one, antworten auf it’s pretty clear, I think. Your answering is targeting the question.
- Ich antworte auf deine Frage.
- I respond to your question.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
The second one, verzichten auf, we need to make a little twist. It is basically the “super-opposite” of having your eyes on something. Like… you make an effort to take and keep your eyes off of something, even though you might actually want it.
- Maria will, dass Thomas für ein paar Monate auf Kuchen verzichtet.
- Maria wants Thomas to say no to/abstain from cake for a few months.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
Last but not least we have sich verlassen auf and this one is probably the hardest one of them all. My thinking was that you have your eyes on someone in a way of expecting them to do something. But yeah… this is kind of forced. We could also think of it in a local sense. Like… you leave something of you on/with someone else. But also that is very abstract. Good thing is… it’s rely ON in English, so auf is the direct translation.
- Auf Maria kann man sich verlassen.
- You can rely on Maria.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
Cool.
Now, I think we already have a pretty good handle on these auf-verbs but there’s one question that we haven’t addressed at all. Or have we ;). The question which case to use. And why.
Which case to use with “verb + auf”
And the answer lies in the colors I used in all the example.
“But wait, you only used one color. Blue.”
Precisely.
Because all the verbs we’ve looked go with the same case – accusative.
Like… I can’t think of one abstract combo that would go with the Dative. And if we were to use Dative with any of the verbs above, it would sound like we’re trying to indicate a location.
- Maria freut sich auf der Ponyfarm.
- Maria is happy at the pony farm.
- Ich warte auf dem Bus.
- I’m sitting on the bus, waiting for something.
- Ich bereite mich auf dem Marathon vor.
- I’m at the marathon, and I’m preparing for something.
Now, this is actually a general trend we can find for all abstract preposition-verb-combos but for auf it’s also a trend that makes a lot of sense because this notion of targeting that we’ve found as common theme of these verb combos with auf ties in perfectly with the idea of destination, that the accusative expresses in “normal” prepositional uses.
Cool.
So this was our look at the infamous abstract verb preposition combinations for auf. Of course, we didn’t mention all of them (I’ll add a more comprehensive list at the end of the article). But we did look at the most important ones and I really hope you got a bit of an idea of the “feel” of auf.
Now, before we wrap this up, let’s take a quick look at auf’s brother drauf.
“But Emanuel, we’re tired.”
I know. But there are two REALLY useful everyday expressions. And it’s gonna be a good recap too.
Useful phrasings with “drauf”
Of course, drauf can do the normal da-word job for all the verbs we’ve learned today. So it can serve as a replacement for the part that is “auf X” if you don’t want to repeat things. Or if stupid German sentence construction calls for it.
- Morgen gehe ich zum Konzert. Ich freu mich schon total drauf.
- Tomorrow, I’ll go to the concert. I’m really looking forward to it.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- “Noch ein Bier?”
“Hmm… ist schon fast Mitternacht. Aber hey, scheiß drauf/drauf geschissen. Ich nehm’ noch eins.” - “Another beer?”
“Hmm… it’s almost midnight. But hey… screw it. I’ll have another one. “ - Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- In der Sonne sitzen und nix tun? Da steh ich drauf.
- Sitting in the sun doing nothing? I dig that.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- “Wie heißt denn der Song.”
“Äh… oh, maaaan, ich komm nicht drauf.” - “What’s the song called?”
“Erm… oh maaaan, I can’t put my finger on it/I can’t think of it right now.” - Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Achtet bitte drauf, leserlich zu schreiben.
- Everybody please pay attention to writing legibly.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- “Klar kannst du bei mir feiern, solange du alles wieder aufräumst.”
“Na klar, verlass dich drauf.” - “Sure you can party at my place. As long as you clean everything up.”
“Of course, you can rely/count on it.” - Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
A couple of phrasings, however, use drauf as a fixed component.
The first one is drauf sein.
Taken literally, drauf sein means “to be on it”. And it is used that way.
- “Wie ist die Pizza?”
“Ist okay aber da is‘ voll wenig Käse drauf.“ - “How’s the pizza?”
“It’s okay, but there’s only very little cheese on there.” - Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Das Foto ist ganz cool, aber Maria ist leider nur halb drauf.
- The picture is cool, but Maria is only half in it.
(is that idiomatic English??)
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
But drauf sein is also a fixed expression used to talk about people’s mood or character traits.
- Heute bin ich irgendwie total gut drauf.
- Today, I’m in a really good mood, I don’t know why.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- “Maria war heute total unfreundlich zu mir.”
“Ja, die is’ heute einfach schlecht drauf.“ - “Maria was really unfriendly to me today.”
“Yeah, she‘s just in a bad mood.” - Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Marias Schwester ist echt locker drauf.
- Thomas is really relaxed/cool/easy going.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Wie ist der denn drauf?
- What’s up with him?/What was he smoking?
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
The other phrasing is drauf haben. The literal meaning would be “to have it on something” but that isn’t all that common. Like… the only example I can think of right now is food.
- “Wie war dein Schokoccino?”
“Gut, aber du hattest viel mehr Schokosoße drauf als ich.” - “How was your Chococcino?”
“Good but you had way more chocolate drizzle on it than me.” - Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
What makes drauf haben so useful is the fact that it’s used to express the idea of knowing really well, having great skill. Basically… toppings you have on your skilloccino. Oh boy, I’m getting silly… let’s look at some examples real quick and then wrap this up….
- Thomas hat’s echt drauf, Maria sauer zu machen.
- Thomas is really skilled at making Maria angry.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Thomas hat ein paar coole Zaubertricks drauf.
- Thomas knows/can do a few cool magic tricks.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Der neue Praktikant hat nichts drauf.
- The new intern has no skill/ sucks (at doing things)/ can’t do shit.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- “Boah, der neue Star Wars Film… hammergut.”
“Ja, Disney hat’s einfach drauf.“ - “Boah, the new Star Wars movie… so great.”
“Yeah, dude. Disney is the shit/Disney really knows his trade.”***
(***careful, example may contain irony)
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
And that’s it for today. We made it. Hoooray!
This was the second part of our look at the word auf and if you feel like your head is about to burst… don’t worry. You don’t have to remember everything. Just let the dust settle and you’ll see that the important parts are still there.
As always, if you have any questions about what we did today, or if you want to add something, or if you’d like to try out some examples, just leave me a comment. Ich freu mich drauf :).
I hope you liked it and see you next time.
** vocab **
- werfen/schießen/zielen auf (acc) – throw at/shoot at/aim for
- zeigen /deuten/hinweisen auf (acc) – point at /hint at/ give hint
- warten auf (acc) – wait for
- sich freuen auf ( acc) – look forward to
- vorbereiten auf (acc) – prepare for
- sparen auf (acc) – save money for
- achten auf, aufpassen auf (acc) – watch out for, pay attention to
- sich verlassen auf, vertrauen auf (acc) – rely on
- ankommen auf (acc) – depend on
- kommen auf (acc) – think of/remember
- scheißen auf (acc) – not give a shit about (colloquial)
- Scheiß drauf! – Screw that.
- stehen auf (acc) – like, dig, be into (colloquial)
- sich einigen auf (acc) – agree on
- sein auf (dat) – be on (context of hard drugs)
- drauf sein (gut/schlecht/komisch…) – be in a good/bad/weird mood
- drauf haben – be good at something, be the shit
further reading:
I love what you do! It’s much appreciated. I knew I should have gone for the lifetime membership!
I think you’ll appreciate this. Sometimes you drive me crazy! Lol I have another source for grammar rules because I need to know the rules. I’m a bloody English teacher! However, your linguistics, vocab, and humor are priceless.
PS: als ich is not translated as than me. Than I! The Germans are using the correct case. Most English speakers don’t. :-)
Blessings.
Hi!
I get the commonality with and as a prep and separable verb. Also I understand that some verbs go with some preps. I appreciate your thoroughness!
1. Scheissen auf… Is this really swearing, like using shit in English?
2. Even though these are fixed combos, the preposition still creates a prepositional phrase, correct?
3. Can these verbs be used alone?
4. Can I really just use auf at the end of a sentence all by itself?
5. The colloquial stehen auf …is that widely understood? Like I am on the East Coast. We refer to soda as soda. The Mid West uses the word pop. Weird but every American still understands it.
6. The vocab at the end, are all examples below sein auf also dative?
7.What does hat’s A contraction of?
8. As an example, sich verlassen auf …is this a reflexive verb?
9. Why do you put and end on cool? I don’t usually see cool with endings?
Thank you so much! Now I am gonna find out WTF a da word is! :-)
Pardon my writing…I’m on a kindle.
If we translate it literally, it means “Thomas takes care above his health”
We do have the same in Egyptian Arabic.
z.b When we want to say take care of your brother we say “Take care above your brother” خد بالك “على” اخوك
Also as you said auf means open or turn on.
we also use the equivalent of the English verb “Open” “افتح” like auf in German so we say
open the lights “افتح النور” sometimes instead of turn on the light “شغل النور”
I don’t know how these similarities developed, but it’s interesting considering that the two languages have different roots.
Interesting that Egyptian Arabic uses the same phrasing.
One thought though: To me, the “auf” in “achten auf” doesn’t feel like “above”. It’s more like “upon”. It’s a direction, your attention goes onto a target (the health).
In your examples you include:
Thomas besteht auf einen Gute-Nacht-Kuss.
But surely bestehen auf takes the dative rather than the accusative?
Good question.
Duden recommends using Dative, and it’s more common in print, but in this example, it feels stilted to me. I would never ever used Dative here in spoken. The directionality of his wanting is too strong. With Dative it feels more like there’s a contract somewhere saying that he has a right to one good night kiss.
In the case (haha) of abstract usages of “auf” that take the dative: my deutschkurs includes fußen auf, basieren auf, beharren auf, and bestehen auf. This seems to also fit in with the distinction between accusative and dative prepositions, with the latter being focused on a consistent “location” as a basis.
Yeah, totally true!!
This is a great addition and a great example for how helpful it can be to think of words and phrases in a somewhat blurry sense.
Like… it’s fairly easy to see the “steadiness” of “basieren auf” and when you can see the other ones as a variation of the same theme, then the case you need becomes intuitive to an extent :)
To answer your question about, “The picture is cool, but Maria is only half in it.”
It doesn’t sound weird, but the idiomatic phrasing in English would be, “That picture’s cool, but Maria got cut off.”
Thanks for the (tough) job! You have really helped me. I have a question: how do you explain this logically?
Auf etwas spezialisieren
Ich spreche uber die Spezialisierung
Does it all have smth to do with knowledge?
or
Ich spreche auf Kioferorthopedie vs uber
or
Auf etwas eingehen (to dive into it more)
I mean: if I am speaking with someone I know “sprechen” uses mit, uber and von. But how can I say “I am specialising in **”
Thanks!
“to specialize in”… it depends a little bit on context whether “sich spezialisieren” is the idiomatic choice, but if it is, then the preposition is definitely “auf”.
To me, this fits with the broader theme of targeting something. You target your attention, your focus, if you will.
“auf” does not work in contexts of conversation topics, though, so there is no “sprechen auf”.
“sprechen auf” only works in the sense of speaking onto a recording device.
Let me know if that helps and answers your question :)
Thanks. I came across “In letzter Zeit… ist er schlecht drauf.” in a manga I was reading (gute nacht, punpun), and I understood it meant “bad mood” but didn’t know why. You had the answer.
It’s a REALLY common phrasing. Definitely worth learning :)
Thank you for the fun article. I really learned a lot :)
Das freut mich, danke :)
Thank you. This is helpful to me. I follow many of your lessons :)
That’s great, have fun :)!!
Out of the many many teachers and sites on internet – there is nobody who comes even close to you in the way you explain words,grammar and their usage. Ultimately, usage of words is key to mastery of the language and this site has helped me learn Deutsch in ways that I would never have been able to – anywhere else or with anybody else.
Hi me again, another confusing sentence in my A2 book – Ich gehe auf das Gymnasium. Shouldn’t that be Ich gehe zum Gymnasium????? pls. help, thanks ; )
Same thing as before… in the general sense “auf das Gymnasium” is the equivalent of the English “to school”.
“zum Gymnasium” is correct if you’re talking about a single instance of actually physically going there.
Does that help?
Awesomeness
Danke, freut mich zu hören :)
Wow – it all seems so simple after reading this Word-of-the-Day entry! Like, why didn’t I see it before? To make sure I understood the last part (drauf), all the blue text in the first part of the entry (den Apfel, das Einhorn, die Spüle, unser Kapernsepcial, usw) can be replaced with “drauf”; also, “Ich ziele drauf, Der Junge wirft einen Schneeball drauf, usw” – under the condition that the Apple and Das Einhorn were mentioned previously. If so, WooHOO! I’m on the way, Dude!
I’ll go ahead and say yes. Chances are, there are a few examples where it doesn’t work (It wont work if “auf” is followed by a person for instance) but the ones you mentioned are perfectly fine.
Interesting, I guess the next series will be on how vor is used for things in the past (vorhin, vorher, vor 3 Jahre) or future past (vorbereiten).
There is a really great video from German With Jenny that you can use until you feel Emanual has fulfilled your “vor needs” here. Google “German With Jenny lesson 120” and you’ll get that one and the next one in her series. I’m loath to put a link in the comments – with my luck, I’ll get it wrong and send you to “Hot Russian Chicks Galore” or something equally insane. But google the above and I think you’ll find vor, seit and lang explained well.
About that link, I’d be intere.. uhm… it’s for a friend, you know
Actually, we’ve already talked about that. There’s a look at “vor” itself and then there’s a series on how to talk about time where we tackle all these words :)
Oh, and I also made a little cheat sheet for my Facebook recently. You can find it here:
https://www.facebook.com/yourdailygerman/photos/a.10150765947689490.429375.156956949489/10156102625224490/?type=1&theater
A couple other phrases with “auf” that I hear a lot are:
Was hat das auf sich? Was hat es damit auf sich?
Worauf willst du hinaus? Genau darauf will ich hinaus.
True, those are fairly common, too. The first one sounds a bit bookish to my ears though.
Was hat es damit auf sich?=What’s up with that?
It’s a weird phrasing and I can’t really break it down in a compelling way. But at least German and English are both using “auf/up”
– auf etwas hinauswollen = go for something/have as a point
(in context of discussions)
This fits pretty well with targeting.
Oh and there’s also the variation
– auf X hinauslaufen
– “to probably have X at the end”
I can’t find a good translation for that one. It’s a bit hard to use for a non-native speaker.
I like how your underlying root of “auf” fits even with its use in cheers. “Auf die Gesundheit!” = “(Cheers) to our/your well being!” (lit.:”to the health!”) I always wondered how that fits to the preposition, and dismissed it as a long established idiomatic language thing. But with your explanation, it’s like saying: “Let’s look at/focus on the fact that we are all in good health and celebrate that.” Or focus on any other aspect that might be good enough to cheer. “Auf dich!” = “To you!”, “Auf gute Freunde!” = “To good friends!”, “Ein Prosit auf die Gemütlichkeit!” = “Cheers to feeling comfy!”
And this rather old “auf” in the beginning of subclauses with “dass” also works with picturing something in the future: “Kommt, begraben wir das Kriegsbeil, auf dass wir uns nie mehr im Kampfe gegenüberstehen.” = “Come, let us burry the hatchet, lest we ever fight again.” or “Dieses Denkmal wurde erschaffen, auf dass wir nie vergessen mögen.” = “This memorial was erected, lest we forget.” (I hope, I used “lest” correctly. It’s not in my active vocabulary.)
It even explains the phrasing: “Auf bald.” = “Bye.” Which is rather old or high tone for “Bis bald.” but it really transfers a bit more of “I am looking forward to it.” with it.
Great post.
Your use of “lest” is exactly right. It’s not everyday/contemporary English, but still good to know.
I love “lest”. Such a fancy, elegant word(ing)
Oh yeah, toasts.. I totally forgot about those!! But yeah, the idea still works… you “target” your toast to someone or something.
Also, your mentioning “auf bald” reminded me of “auf Wiedersehen” :) (Anticipation-idea)
Can i just say, I love the fact that German has an established toast “to being comfortable!” ?
Oh you mean “Zum Wohl”?
Oh, my head is still there unexploded, der steht noch auf meinen Hals.
warte auf deine nächste Post!
There will be a part 3, right?
Nee, eigentlich nix geplant. Hab ich was vergessen :)?
Vielen Dank, dass Sie mir die Gelegenheit gegeben haben. I will make the most out of it. Again, Thank you so much. You are really good person.
Maria steht auf Männer mit rasierten Achseln.
Thomas likes/is into men with shaved arm pits.
What’s going on here?!
I wish I knew :)
German Maria turned into English Thomas in the example about being into men with shaved armpits! ;)
Oh, ups. I guess they’re gender fluid :).