Hello everyone,
and welcome to another rendition of German Prefixes Explained. 2 months ago our interdisciplinary team of a journalist, a zoologist, a botanist, a sexist, a camera man, a survival expert and a comic relief packed up their equipment and ventured out into the wild lands where the verbs begin to observe prefixes in their natural habitat – how they live, what they eat, where they come from and what they do other than suck and confuse travelers.
Now, after weeks of strain they are back in civilization. And they did not come empty-handed. They brought with them more 100 hours of exclusive material (shot entirely in IMAX) on one of Germans prefixes, namely… oh… oh I see we have a call, hold on… Hunter from Green Ridge, Missouri, welcome to the show…
“Hey Emanuel, I have a question…”
Sure, go right ahead…
“Why was there a sexist on the team? What purpose did he serve? I mean… what’s next? A Nazi?”
Uh… I…
“This show has really reached a new low today, a sexist… come on!”
I knooooooow… we all do. When he showed up for the first prep meeting, we were all like WHAAAT… thing is this: we had asked for a gender expert, you know… for German…
“… yeah that would have made a lot more sense…”
Yeah… but those are popular and expansive nowadays so I think some network executive was just like just ‘bah, whatever… a sexist costs one figure less so that’ll have to do it’… so yeah, that’s why … so Hunter, you’re gonna stay with us for the rest of the show or what?
“Sure will :).”
Cool. So without any further ado let’s dive right in…
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Amazing article, your writing style is fun :)
Thanks a lot, happy you enjoyed it!
Hi Emanuel, that was an amazing, as usual, article, and as I read through it I realized that the zer- prefix might be close to Ukrainian роз-, and here you might ask: Why are you even saying that? well, the reason is that I wonder, if I can “craft” some verbs from Ukrainian in German with this prefix, for example, there are
розбирати, розбачити, розбити, роздавати, розкидати, there are even more with some slurs which sound quite funny, which I cannot explain unfortunately, so, I’ll go one by one so you can bare with me>
розбирати – zernehmen?, to take apart, in the meaning when for example a mom baked some buns, and kids took them all
розбачити – zersehen?, to unsee
розбити – rather added it to note an interesting detail, бити in Ukrainian means to beat, so if we combine them in German, woah-la! we have zerschlagen!
роздавати – zergeben??? (sound especially wrong to me) to give away
розкидати – zerwerfen?, meaning to throw something away/around, can also have a funny meaning as in an example situation where a man got jumped on by 3 other men, and he bet each of them unbelievably easily
Sorry for forcing Ukrainian words, I just wanted to specify them and explain so that you have a better idea of what I’m talking about, I have a feeling that some of these words might exist in other forms, but maybe some of them indeed can be crafted through “zer”, like zerfließen, which also got me surprised, as in Ukrainian it’s розпливатись, which literally means the same, I actually notice that quite often, that German and Ukrainian are sometimes extremely similar
Thanks!
Yup!
The Bulgarian equivalent is “раз-” and the idea is roughly the same as you describe.
I always felt like “zer-” leans a bit more toward “into parts” while “raz/roz-” is more about “taking it all the way/ too far”, and the notion of destruction/removal is kind of a result of that.
But I also looked up the origin of роз- and it does seem to tie in with an Indo-European branch that was about “asunder, apart” and “half”.
If you look at Ukrainian more closely (or any Slavic language for that matter), you’ll see that there are just as many prefixes as in German, and they’re just as obscure in how they change the verb sometimes.
But what they have in common with German and also the Latin prefixes is that they lend a sense of direction/destination to the verbs.
I now have a question, what languages besides English have you learned? You seem to be really interested in that :D
French, some Italian, some Finish and some Bulgarian. And a little bit of Spanish.
Wow, that’s a pretty solid set. Now a dumb question, if you had a chance to learn any language to the level of a native speaker immediately. Which one would it be and why? Can be any language, just interesting
Chinese – it’s just so different and I think actually knowing it would be a gold mine for my work here. Not in a direct sense, but more in a broadened perspective of what’s possible and how differently (or similar) approaches to expressing something can be. And I think this can only improve teaching.
Just a little comment…cows don’t fart, they burp…horses fart. Cows fart 24 7, lots of gas. Naughty cows.
Wait, which is it? Do they fart or do they not fart?
And … did I mention that in the article? It’s a bit old and I don’t remember :)
Thank you so much! This is absolutely amazing.
Vielen Dank sehr…ohne Sie bin ich verloren.
Das stimmt nicht, du hast immer noch dich :).
Aber im Ernst… danke für das tolle Feedback!!
Two comments before I read on, Der Furz hat die ganze Stimmung zerstört. Stimmung should translate mood. Picture a couple under the sheets…the fart destroys the mood. However, that messes with your cow methane digression. Secondly the English equivalent word for zersiedeln is „urban sprawl“ sorry that’s two words but that is exactly what „urban sprawl“ is, uncontrolled growth.
mein neues Lieblingspräfix!!
Welches war davor dein Lieblingspraefix :)?
As a Chinese randomly jumping into this post, I feel very warm when I see your “不及物动词”: When I try thinking of the Engish translation, it is also like “intra…blah blah”, and then my memory stops working, (or is too lazy to squeeze itself). But why are you doing this? I mean this joke seems to be working only for us Chinese, isn’t it?
Haha, wow that’s really cool that a Chinese speaker found this :). I just put that in because I don’t like grammar jargon and I wanted to show that the word “intransitive” is just as meaningless to many as a Chinese word would be. And then I thought why not actually use the accurate Chinese word for it so someone who speaks Chinese would have a little moment :). By the way… in Europe (and the US, too, as far as I know) Chinese is often used as a metaphor for a completely and utterly foreign language… not Arabic or Japanese.
I’m wondering… do you have that in Chinese, too? Which language do Chinese usually use when they want to refer to one that’s completely and utterly different and foreign?
Haha, didn’t expect your reply on this old post of yours.
I actually live in Germany (and speak broken German, shame on me!) and do know that the Germans like to use “Chinesisch sprechen” to actually mean “Unsinn sprechen”. I don’t know whether I should feel awkward or proud about it. But I do feel strange when the Germans use “Spanien sprechen” to mean the same thing, for the Spanish language should be rather easy for all Europeans to learn. Maybe the term was developed too long time ago when the Germans yet realized the variety of this planet, and considered Spanish exotic enough.
As for us, we usually say in Chinese “说鸟语“, which literally means “speak bird language”, to mock at someone who can not make sense. One may interpret it that language-wise the Chinese are so badass that no human language can surprise us. But in fact, in many occasions, for those Chinese other than Cantonese, the “bird language” is a metaphor of Cantonese. So, in reality, our own dialect is exotic enough to confuse us completely.
I actually think of “Sprech ich Chinesisch” more in sense of “Are you dumb or why do you not understand what I’m saying.” So it doesn’t refer to what I say being nonsense but to the other person acting like I speak a completely foreign language.But I guess both ideas are in use.
I really like the bird language image :).
Rammstein’s adorable song “Zerstören” (from 2005) makes good use of this prefix and is fun to sing while driving illegal speeds on the freeway.
Lyrics: https://herzeleid.com/en/lyrics/rosenrot/zerstoeren
“Ich muss ZERSTÖÖÖÖÖÖÖRENNNNN!!
(Doch es darf nicht mir gehören)”
Just scrolled through the comment section to find this comment. Otherwise I would have written it myself :D
Youre my Idol. May I Kidnappe you and “zerhacken” you, and use your face as mine?
PS: I REEEEALLLY love your explanations. Thank you a Lot
PSps: Consider my offer ;)
How creepy. But thank you nonetheless :D
[…] – “zer-” is one of the most beautiful prefixes of the German language, at least when it comes to the emotions […]
You`ve warned us about getting creative with this prefix, but I want to give it a try nonetheless:
A neighbor who is not fond of graffiti says: “Diejenigen, die meine Wand zermalt haben, werden bestimmt bestraft.”
Geht das so? (I got inspired by your Mercedes example above)
PS: Diese Webseite habe ich neulich durch eine Empfehlung auf Duolingo entdeckt, und ich finde sie schon großartig.
Works :)… es ist ein bisschen komisch, da “zer” im Kontext von “Wand” doch sehr destruktiv klingt und “malen” nicht destruktiv genug. Man würde wohl sagen “vollgemalt” oder besser noch “vollgeschmiert” aber trotzdem… ich kann mir vorstellen, dass jemand deinen Satz sagt und insofern bekommt das Wort das Prädikat : 100% native compatible :)
“Irgendein Idiot has meinen neuen Mercedes zerkratzt.”
spot the English intruder
found it :)… danke!
Wow ich mag deine prefix-specials. Wirklich sehr schön :) Ich hatte übrigens auch schon gedacht dass du Jurassic Park irgendwie magst als ich “dr.Grant” gelesen habe :) Hast du zufällig letztens auch die “neue” 3D version geguckt?
hehe… Dr. Grant :)… ja, ich mag den Film, aber die 3D-Version hab’ ich nich’ gesehen. Erstens kenn’ den Film ja schon (ich glaub’, ich hab’ den 2 mal gesehen) und zweitens find’ ich 3D irgendwie komisch. Ich hab’ bisher nur Avatar in 3D gesehen und da war mir durch die Brille das Bild viel zu dunkel. Das hat mich schon sehr gestört und seitdem bin ich suuuuuuuperskeptisch. Ich guck’ mir dann in 10 Jahren die Version an, die mit Elektroden direkt ins Gehirn gesendet wird :D
vielen dank fur dich , jetzt fing ich an es besser zu verstehen
Danke :)…. l hope you don’t mind if I correct your sentences:
Vielen Dank für dich.
The thing that you say after “für” in combination with Dank or danken is the thing that you are grateful for.
– Vielen Dank für die Blumen.
– Thank you for the flowers.
If you want to mention the person then you have to use the Dative:
– Vielen Dank dir für…
but this doesn’t sound so good. Dative sounds best with the verb.
– Ich danke dir für ….
A bit formal maybe but anyway….
I think people tend to not mention the person. When you just say “danke für/vielen Dank für…” and you don’t specify a person then it is automatically the person you talk to and that is not unfreindly or sloppy. “Vielen Dank für…” totally works even in the most formal context imaginable… so when a waiter brings you your coffee ;)
Jetzt fing ich an, es besser zu verstehen.
This is almost perfect except for the tenses. Jetzt and past tense do not go well together. It can work but then you have to establish a past tense time frame first within which you can then use “jetzt”… but it is tricky. And “fing an” sounds very definite anyway…as if you are done with anfangen and possibly also with understanding. So… present tense is the best choice as your understanding is an ongoing process:
Jetzt fang’ ich an, es besser zu verstehen.
You could also say
Jetzt habe ich angefangen es besser zu verstehen.
This pretty much means the same but it sounds stilted and more complicated than it needs to be. And as we all know… German is not complicated at all in absolutely no regard whatsoever ;)
Another great post! Vielen Dank! I’ve posted some links to your blog on Duolingo to clarify some phrases and people have commented how useful it is. Thanks for your regular posts and your creative approach! It makes learning more fun!
Thanks for the nice comment and thanks for spreading the word :D
I wonder how big will be the posts about ein- and vor-.It’s actually quite scaring thinking about them…
Thanks God zer- is simple(r) to understand! Übrigens, another good post!
hahaha… I know what you mean :D … but it really is just a question of how much into detail do you go, how long do you talk about the examples… and how much nonsense do you put in the post :) .. the ones that I am dreading are “ver” and “ent”… those are nasty
Hello, Emanuel, may I ask if you did write a post about “ent” after all? Tried to locate one, but without success…
I’m actually working on a book about these :)…. it’ll have articles for all the non-separable ones including “ent”. And there will be something else in the book, but I don’t want to spoil it just yet.
Are you close to finishing the book? I can’t wait to buy it.
Not super close but close :)