Word of the Day – Prefix Special – “haben”

Hi everyone and welcome to our German Word of the Day. Prefixes and verbs can be an awful combination and there’s a lot of work to do for us. One option is to look at one prefix at a time and see what it does to different verbs. But today we’ll do something different. We’ll look at one base verb and chek out all its prefix-version. Sounds crazy? Well it is, but we’ll try anyway. So buckle as we head into the land of

haben

Haben appears to be one of the most important verbs imaginable. And some language do fine without it … 

For example Finnish. Finnish does not have the verb haben. Instead of saying„I have 10 Euro“ they say „With me are 10 Euro.“. This pretty cool I think and I was really surprised about that when I started learning Finnish … and speaking of cool … in Finnish human and miracle / wonder are the same word.
But let’s get back to German before you head over to a Finnish learning site :).

So… the haben-prefixes.…
I don’t want to talk about haben itself. The only thing I want to mention is this: you can’t haben food or drinks in German.

• I had a beer.
• Ich hatte ein Bier.

In German, that means that you had got hold of A beer at some point…. but did you drink it? Sell it? Name it? Put it in your fridge? Also, was it yours? Did you watch after it for someone else? I don’t know. It is just soooo vague …. no I am kidding. Of course people will understand you but this English way of saying “I had food/drink” simply doesn’t translate at all. You will need to use eat or drink in addition. It might sound redundant but hey… it’s German. You have to be specific.

• I had a pizza.
• Ich habe eine Pizza gegessen.
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• Let’s go have a beer.
• Lass uns ein Bier trinken gehen.
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Alright… now the haben-prefixes

anhaben

An alone can mean one of 2 things… either at/on as a local preposition or on as adverb in context of (electric) machinery and devices.

• Der Flachbildfernseher ist an.
• The flat screen TV is on.
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• Der Flachbildfernseher ist an der Wand.
• The flat screen TV is on/at the wall.
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Both those meanings also work in combination with haben. So anhaben can either mean to have (switched) on or to have (located) on/at … kind of.  The usage of the switched-on-meaning is pretty easy to comprehend.

• Ich habe mein Radio an.
• I have my radio on.
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• Ich habe das Telefon nicht gehört, denn ich hatte laute Musik an.
• I haven’t heard the phone because I had loud music playing.
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This is nothing you need that much. In real life it mostly is used in context of audio-visual media context… so to radios, TVs, news and music.
The opposite of this anhaben is aushaben and aushaben really only means that one thing.. to have (switched) off.

• Ich war in der Bibliothek und hatte mein Handy aus.
• I was at the library and I had my phone switched off.
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The other anhaben, the one which comes from the at–idea of an, could theoretically mean a lot of things but it is really narrow. It means… get ready… to wear … think of it this way: you kind of have the clothes at or on your body like a picture is at the wall.. it is next to with contact.

• Ich habe ein T-Shirt und eine Hose an.
• I am wearing a T-Shirt and a pair of pants.
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• Was hast du an?
• What are you wearing?
  
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• Ich hatte meine neuen Schuhe an.
• I was wearing my new shoes.
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Note that anhaben only means to wear when something is already being worn.. you have it on you…  it doesn’t work in situation when you are not wearing it yet:

• I can’t decide what to wear.
• Ich kann mich nicht entscheiden, was ich anhabe… is wrong.

This makes no sense in German because you can see what you “have on”…  otherwise it wouldn’t be anhaben. It sounds like this

• I can’t decide what to have on me later … that doesn’t  work in English either.

So… whenever you use to wear but you’re talking about the future in a way you should say anziehen.

• I have nothing I could wear for such an occasion.
• Ich habe nichts, was ich zu solch einem Anlass anziehen könnte.
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Now, there is also the word tragen in German which means to carry and also to wear. I’d say tragen sounds a bit more formal and fancy. Works fine for Vanity Fair.

• Die Kanzlerin trägt ein elegantes, schnelles, sparsames Kleid von Mercedes.
• The chancellor is wearing an elegant, fast and fuel efficient dress of Mer… hold on… I think I just confused something
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So… you can use tragen if you really want to but in daily talk of every day people, anhaben is DEFINITELY the way to go … except for hats and scarfs…. … … oh be patient, you’ll find out.

aufhaben

Auf has 2 meanings… of course. The first one is local and means on (top of) and the second meaning is open, mostly in context of doors, windows or venues (not so much for boxes, wallets or minds).

• Der Supermarkt ist auf.
• The super market is open.
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• Der Supermarkt ist auf dem Berg.
• The super market is on the mountain.
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What about offen, you ask… doesn’t that mean open too? Well, it does and whenever you talk about a fixed state of a door or a store you can use offen instead of auf. However, for the action of opening, auf is the only way.

• Ich mache das Fenster auf.
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You can’t say

• Ich mache das Fenster offen… very wrong

Anyway… so… auf has 2 meanings and it comes as no surprise that aufhaben also has 2.
The first one is to be open in context with stores and other venues.

• Der Supermarkt hat heute bis um 8 auf.
• The supermarket is open till 8 today.
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• Weißt du, ob die Bar noch aufhat?
• Do you know if the bar is still open?
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These phrasings are incredibly common and I would always prefer them over a version with sein.

• Der Supermarkt ist heute bis um 8 auf.
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I think aufhaben just sounds more proactive… like work is being put into being open.
The opposite of this aufhaben is zuhaben and zuhaben really only means to be closed.

• Der Supermarkt hat schon zu.
• The supermarket is already closed.
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Again, I would prefer this over the sein-version.

• Der Supermarkt ist schon zu.
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Alright… the other meaning of aufhaben, the on-top-of-one is again….  … to wear… for things like caps and hats… like… you don’t have it on you but on top of you :)

• Ich habe ein Basecap auf.
• I am wearing a baseball cap.
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• Die Frau hatte eine Perücke auf.
• The woman was wearing a wig.
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Again you can also use tragen but especially for basecap it doesn’t really match up.
Finally, there is a sort of niche-meaning for aufhaben.

• Ich habe Hausaufgaben auf.
  
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That means nothing different than that you have homework. The auf just emphasizes that they are yours to make… in daily school talk people even sometimes skip the Hausaufgaben completely.

• Na, was hast du in Mathe auf?
  
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However.. this is really limited to school homework and you may forget about it … now.

umhaben

Um usually means around and so umhaben means to have around… hmmm what could it be? I mean it can’t be to wear agai… what? … oh it IS to wear… what… oh like for scarfs and stuff like that…. I see, I see

• Ich habe einen Schal um.
• I am wearing a scarf.
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• Marie hatte eine Kette um.
• I was wearing a necklace.
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Now… I’ve said it already but I want to mention again that this haben-wearings only work for things being worn… not things that will or should be worn.

• You should wear a scarf.
• Du solltest einen Schal ummachen.
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You are not wearing the scarf yet, and in order to have it around your neck (umhaben) you first need to… well “make” it around your neck (ummachen.
So… umhaben seems really pretty limited but be aware that within this small range it is THE word.

• Ich habe einen Schal an… sounds awful
• Ich trage einen Schal… sounds a bit stiff

Alright… I promise we’re done with to wear now and there is one other really incredibly important word coming up (vorhaben) before we get to that I want to do 2 quick cover ups.

abhaben

Ab means something along the lines of from, of and up. For abhaben I think the closest is of because abhaben means to get a small piece or share of something… I think most prominently it is used by kids for food.

• Kann ich was von deinem Kuchen abhaben?
• Can a have a bit of your cake?
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Now, in German just as in English there is this idiom “to get a piece of the cake” and it means to get a share of something.

• Alle wollen ein grosses Stück vom Kuchen abhaben.
• Everyone wants to get a piece of the pie.
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However, I find that to sound a bit odd since for me the abhaben already includes the idea of a small piece. Together with Stück in there it just seems doubled. But anyway… one last thing… abhaben is basically only used in combination with verbs like wollen (want) or möchten (would like). So you won’t see it as a main verb in a statement.

• Ich hatte was von seinem Kuchen ab…. this is so weird we could call it wrong
• I had a piece of his pie.

draufhaben

Now, I can feel your frustration rising. I know how you feel right now about German but I want you to breathe slowly. Don’t freak out. That would not change the fact that auf and drauf are 2 different words with TOTALLY different grammar… drauf is short for darauf and it means on top of it... well… not the actual on top of it as a fixed idiom but this one:

• The dog is under the table and the cup is on top of it.
• Der Hund ist unter dem Tisch und die Tasse ist drauf.
  
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So…. based on that draufhaben means to have on to of that and now it would be good to know what that is. Well, in this case that is kind of a persons skill rack… keep breathing slowly… draufhaben means to kick ass or more formal to be really good at something…

• Thomas hat es einfach drauf, Leuten was zu verkaufen.
• Thomas simply kicks ass at selling things to people.
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We use it more for actions than for things.

• Thomas hat Deutsch echt voll drauf.
• Thomas is really damn good at German.
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Well… it works but I wouldn’t maybe say it.
What you also should know is nichts draufhaben. This is used quite a lot in sense of blows, sucks or can’t do anything.

• Der Schauspieler hat nichts drauf.
• The actor is bad.
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• Meine neue Kollegin hat nichts drauf.
• My new colleague is a fail.
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But now let’s get to probably most important one of all haben prefix verbs

vorhaben

Vor means in front of and before… so vorhaben should logically be to have in front of. And it is. Great huh. No surprises here. Just straight forward transla… what?… oh right… the real meaning…. Vorhaben means to plan, to intend or to be up to. You have your plan or your intention in front of you kind of because you visualize it… you also have it before you because it hasn’t happened yet so I think it makes sense that vorhaben would mean that.

• Ich habe vor, morgen in den Zoo zu gehen.
• I am planning to go to the zoo tomorrow.
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• Ich hatte nicht vor, heute nochmal rauszugehen
• I wasn’t planning on going outside again today.
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Vorhaben very often comes with a zu-construction but it doesn’t have to.

• Thomas hat nächste Woche viel vor.
• Thomas has a lot planned for next week.
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Note that it is not to plan in sense of to plot or to design… there planen is the better word.

• Thomas is planning a show.
• Thomas hat eine Show vor…. is wrong.
• Thomas plant eine Show.

Vorhaben is a really really important word in daily talk and we use it for all our plans pretty much. Here are some phrases you can hear a lot.

• Was hast du heute vor?
• What are you up to today?
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• Hast du heute was vor?
• Do you have plans for today?
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• Ich hab’ nichts vor.
• I have no plans.
  
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Or if you want to turn down an invitation…

• Oh, eigentlich total gerne aber ich hab’ schon was vor.
• Oh, I really would love to, but I already have plans.
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And finally if you really don’t understand why someone does what he or she does… like you get to the kitchen and your flatmate is emptying the fridge and attempting to flip it upside down… you can ask this:

• Was genau hast du vor????
• What exactly is your plan????
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Alright…. I think we’re done for today. All the verbs we discussed are part of daily talk in German. They may sound a bit clumsy and there are synonyms to all of them but we really like these basic verbs with prefixes like somethingmachen and somethinghaben.
The most important ones are anhaben, aufhaben and especially vorhaben… let me repeat… learn vorhaben!

Now were these all haben-prefixes? No… but the rest is (mostly) easy to grasp and not wroth discussing in detail.

mithaben /beihaben

• Ich habe mein Handy mit/bei.
• I have my cellphone with me.
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• Ich habe kein Geld bei /mit. (without bei it means you have no money in general)
• I have no money on me.
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wiederhaben

• Ich habe mein Buch wieder.
• I have my book back.
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• Ich möchte mein Pferd wiederhaben.
• I would like to have my horse back.
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durchhaben

• Ich habe das Buch durch.   I’d say, this is just short for :
• Ich habe das Buch druchgelesen.
• I am through with the book.
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überhaben

• Ich habe Pizza über.
• I am fed up with pizza.. pun intended.
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gernhaben

• Ich habe dich gern.
• I like you.
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I don’t actually think this should be thought of as one verb… it is haben and then gern extra… to me. The only instance where it does make sense is this kind of ironic gernhaben…

• Du kannst mich gernhaben.
• You can kiss my ass.
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Writing it as one word makes sense here because it makes a distinction to

• Du kannst mich gern haben.
• You sure/ most certainly can have me.
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The first version is for your stupid boss, the second for your sexy boss :).

Alright… this was our German Word of the Day with all the haben prefixes. If you have any questions or suggestions, leave me a comment and also, let me know if you want me to do more posts like this.
I hope you liked it and see you next time.