Hello everyone,
and welcome to a new episode of the series German Prepositions Explained, this time with a detailed look at
zu
As usual, we’ll first check out what the word means as a preposition, then we’ll see if and how this connects to its use as a verb prefix, and finally, we’ll take a look at the annoying … ahem zoo… of fixed combinations of the preposition with certain verbs. Which is kind of special in case of zu because there are many and none. Dun dunn dunnnnn.
So are you ready to jump right in?
Then let’s go….
I think it’s not a surprise to any of you that zu is related to the English to and too. The origin the Indo-European stem that was about pointing at/to something and that’s pretty close to the core idea the word has today which is… “toward-ness”.
“zu” as a preposition
Zu is one of the two main German word to indicate where someone (or something) is headed. The other word is Bar.
Nah, kidding. The other word is in. We’ll talk about the whole “Talking about location”-stuff in detail in a separate mini series soon (in about 153 years) but of course we can’t completely ignore that here. But I want to address one other thing real quick, for the beginners among you.
Besides zu, there will also be zum and zur in the examples. Those are shortened versions of the combinations zu der and zu dem and they’re not just something people use in spoken. They’re kind of “officially” shortened.
And those articles bring us to the other point: zu is one of the Dative prepositions. That means that it is ALWAYS followed by Dative. A l w a y s.
And just in case you’re wondering if there’s also zun as a short form of zu den (the plural Dative article) … the answer is no. We tried to get a comment from German as to why not, but we haven’t heard back so far.
Cool.
So now let’s take a look at what destinations zu is used for:
- In is used for all those locations that you can physically enter.
- Zu is used when the entity you pick as a destination cannot really be entered
(or you can enter it, but you want to emphasize that you don’t.)
One important group of zu-destinations are…. people.
- Thomas kommt zu Maria.
- Thomas comes to Maria.
- Ich komme nachher zu dir.
- I’ll come to you(r place) later.
Using in here is technically possible, but it would be understood as something very very very very very different.
Anyway, people doesn’t only mean names but also extends to job titles
- Maria fährt zum Bäcker/Arzt/Frisör…
- Maria drives to the bakery (lit.: baker)/doctor/hair dresser
… and also – and this might throw you off a bit – to all kinds of stores, if you refer to them by their brand name.
- Thomas geht nicht zu McDonalds, weil Maria das nicht will.
- Thomas doesn’t go to McDonalds because Maria doesn’t want him to. (lit.: “because Maria doesn’t want it.”)
Of course you do usually enter McDonalds but using in here would sound super wrong. The brand name basically personifies the store.
Cool.
So far, we have persons and personifications. But there’s more.
Zu is also used for events like parties, festivals, concerts, meetings and so on.
(often auf is also an option for events)
- Thomas geht heute nicht zum Meeting.
- Thomas is not going to the meeting today.
And we don’t actually need too much mind bending to get from the location-focused idea of to an event to the more abstract context of for an occasion. Which is also expressed with zu. Like.. for Christmas, birthdays or promotions. Or for lunch. Or just for the second time.
- Maria schenkt Thomas zum Geburtstag ein Happy Meal. (zu+dem)
- Maria gives Thomas a Happy Meal for his birthday.
- Glückwunsch zur bestandenen B2-Prüfung.
- Congratulations for the successfully passed B2 exam.
- Ich hab’ heut nichts zum Mittag gegessen.
- I didn’t eat anything for lunch today.
- Ich war diesen Sommer zum ersten Mal wandern.
- I was hiking for the first time this summer.
And if we think of events and occasions as a general idea of “stuff happening, stuff going on”, we’re pretty much right right at the last group of zu-destinations: activities.
- Maria geht 536 mal in der Woche zum Hatha-Yoga.
- Maria goes to Hatha-Yoga 536 times a week.
- Ich brauche Ruhe zum Arbeiten.
- I need silence for working.
- “Schatz, deine Suppe ist mal wieder zum Kotzen.”
“Freut mich zu hören.” - “Darling, your soup is disgusting once again.”
“Glad to hear that.”
(lit.: for throwing up” ; “zum Kotzen” is a pretty colloquial and strong German expression to say that something sucks, it’s not limited to food.)
Activities… hmm… those are usually represented by verbs, right? Let’s make a mental note of that for later ;).
But yeah… generally, zu expresses “toward-ness without entering” and the big three groups we can make up are:
- persons (and personifications)
- occasions (events, points in time)
- activities
This is not super strict and there are exceptions. And oh… there’s one use we should mention, because it’s super confusing.
- Ich bin zuhause.
- I am at home.
- Ich gehe nach Hause.
- I’m going home.
We reached out to German for comment but we haven’t heard back so far :).
Cool.
So now that we know when to use zu as a preposition, let’s take a look at zu as a prefix.
“zu” as a prefix
Prefix verbs usually keep the core idea of the preposition they’re made with, but they are much more “open-minded” with the interpretation. Like… really open. Which is ironic in case of zu because… but I’m getting ahead of myself.
So, we’ve seen that zu has this basic idea of toward-ness and for some it’s pretty obvious.
- Wir schicken Ihnen die Vertragsbestätigung zu. (“send to”)
- We’ll send you the contract confirmation.
(same thing as schicken basically, only that Germans get to say their beloved little word at the end)
- Die Hacker konnten auf alle Dateien der Firma zugreifen. (“grab toward”)
- The hackers could access all data of the company.
- In dem Dorf gibt es nur einen Internet-Zugang. (“the go-to”)
- In the village, there’s only one internet access.
Also kind of clear are zuhören and zugucken. Zuhören is to listen TO someone (or something) in the sense of really actively listening. So not for listening to music or to listen in the sense of heeding advice. And zugucken (also zuschauen and zusehen) is to watch, again in a very active, focused sense. So not for watching a movie.
- “Warum hörst du mir nie zu? …. Emanuel, ich hab’ dich was gefragt.”
“Oh… was… äh… sorry, ich hab nicht zugehört.” - “Why do you never listen to me?…. Emanuel, I asked you a question.”
“Oh… what… erm… sorry, I wasn’t listening.”
- Thomas ist ein guter Zuhörer.
- Thomas is a good listener.
- “Was machst du grad?”
“Ich bin am See und gucke den Einhörnern beim Synchronschwimmen zu.”
“Trinkst du schon wieder?” - “What are you up to?”
“I’m at the lake watching the unicorns play at synchronized swimming.”
“Are you drinking again?”
- Die Zuschauer waren begeistert.
- The audience (watching) was enchanted.
But the other common ones are not all that obvious anymore. Take zulassen for instance, which means to allow, in a sense of letting it happen. If we think of that as “letting toward reality” then we have a connection, but yeah… it’s kinda random.
- Wir dürfen nicht zulassen, dass die Einhörner weiter ihren Giftmüll in den See kippen.
- We must not allow that the unicorns keep throwing their toxic waste into the lake.
- Das Auto hat keine Zulassung.
- The car doesn’t have an admission/the car is not registered.
(what’s the proper English phrasing here? Any expats with car experience? :)
Or how about nehmen and geben. Nice pair, right? But once they get zu-, they don’t have much to do with one another anymore. Zugeben means to admit, zunehmen can mean to increase, and also to gain weight.
Same thing for zustellen and zustehen. You’d expect there to be some connection in meaning but nope… nothing. Zustellen means to deliver in context of mail; which is kind of straight forward… well, at least if you think of a large parcel. Zustehen on the other hand means to have a right for something. And Zustand is condition (as in shape).
- Thomas will nicht zugeben, dass er zugenommen hat.
- Thomas doesn’t want to admit that he gained weight.
- Das Paket konnte nicht zugestellt werden.
- The parcel couldn’t be delivered.
- Ich gehe nicht!! Der Free Refill steht mir zu.
- I am not leaving!! I have a right to this free refill.
- Das Haus ist in einem guten Zustand.
- The house is in good condition.
I mean… none of the meanings is completely crazy. Admitting is kind of about giving toward, gaining weight is kind of about taking toward. And being one’s right is kinda sorta standing toward. But the meanings are nothing you could guess from just looking at the parts. There are a few more useful words and I’ll give you a little list later. But first let’s look at the other core idea of zu whi… oh.. hold on, we have a call… Takumi from Japan, welcome to the show.
“Konichiwa Emanuel, thanks a lot for taking my call.”
No problem, how can I help you.
“So I’m wondering if these verbs have any versions. Like, something like the r-version that you usually talk about in the series about prefix verbs. I think you mentioned that rzu- doesn’t exist, hahaha”
Oh, great question!!! Yeah, rzu- doesn’t exist. But you can make da-versions and hin-versions for some of them.
“And I guess the meaning is pretty literal, right?”
Exactly, the core idea is adding. Dazugeben ( hinzugeben) for example is to add in context of cooking. And dazusetzen is kind of to add yourself to someone’s sitting. Like… imagine there’s hill, on top is a bench with a beautiful view and there’s a beautiful lady sitting there and you want to ask her if it’s okay for you to sit down. Then you’d say this
- Hallo, kann ich mich dazusetzen?
- Hi, mind if I join ( you sitting)?
But there aren’t many useful versions that I can think of. And you’ll definitely understand them from context.
“Cool, thanks a lot.”
No problem! Hey, do you wanna join me for a bit.
“Sure, why not…”
So,like many prefixes, zu- actually has two core ideas. Do you know what the other one is?
“Uh… something with closing right?”
Exactly. In fact, zu by itself means precisely that… closed. And the opposite is auf, by the way.
- Die Bar ist heute zu und morgen auf.
- The bar is closed today and will be open tomorrow.
“Is there any difference to geschlossen?”
No, geschlossen is just longer and zu is way more common in spoken German and there are a few really useful prefix verbs. Zumachen is a colloquial version for to close, to shut, zulassen means to leave closed and zugehen is to close by itself.
- “Kannst du das Fenster zumachen?”
“Kannst du den Mund zumachen?” - “Can you close the window?”
“Can you shut your mouth?”
- Ich lasse das Fenster zu.
- I leave the window closed.
- “Das ist nicht zuviel Bier.”
“Doch!! Wenn der Kühlschrank nicht mehr zugeht, ist es zuviel!” - “That’s not too much beer.”
“It is!! If the fridge won’t close/can’t be closed anymore, then it is too much!”
Oh, and I almost forgot zuhaben, which means to be closed for stores and stuff like that.
- Die Bar hatte gestern zu.
- The bar was closed yesterday.
“Wait… is there any difference to zusein?”
Uh, not really. Zuhaben makes it sound a bit more like a person,maybe. Oh, and zu sein is actually two words, not a prefix verb.
“But… but why? That doesn’t make any sense?”
Haha, no it really doesn’t. And before our last spelling reform, zusein was a thing. But not anymore.
“You’re kidding, right?”
No, actually I’m not. They really changed that part.
“They changed the spelling rules to make one prefix verb into not a prefix verb … breathes heavily…. while leaving one with the EXACT same meaning untouched?!?!?! Argh, the German language BS is getting too strong! I need to change into my final form to handle this: Swole-Takumi!!! Huahhhhhhhhhhh…. click”
Hello? Takumi? Swole-Takumi, are you there? Hello? Hello?
Hmmm… the connection broke up.
Anyway, so yeah… the main idea of zu as a prefix is toward-ness but with a few really common verbs, the prefix also carries the idea of closed. And the one big question is of course why. Like… is there any connection?
And yes, there is. Think about it… when you’re closing something, you move one thing toward another.
When you zumachen your mouth, you’re moving one lip toward the other. When you zumachen the window, you’re moving the window toward the frame. And if you’re now like “Emanuel, you’re forcing it.” then just take a closer look at to close. Same idea… you’re move parts close to each other :).
Cool.
So this is zu as a prefix and I think that’s also enough for today. We’ll leave the rest for next time. Then, we’ll talk about those infamous fixed prefix-verb-combinations and because that’s gonna be a surprisingly short affair, we’ll also look at dazu and go over a few nice expressions and with that.
Below, you’ll find a list of the most common and useful zu-words. We’ve talked about a few of them in details, so you can dig even deeper :).
And as usual, if you have any questions about what we’ve talked about so far, or if you want to try out some examples, just leave me a comment.
I hope you liked it and see you next time.
German Preposition ‘zu‘ – Part 2
(the most common fixed combinations and some cool colloquial phrasings with “dazu”)
** vocab **
zugeben – to admit (detailed look)
die Zugabe – the addition (cooking), the encore (concerts)
der Zufall – the coincidence (detailed look)
zufallen – fall closed
zugehen – close by itself, let itself be closed; with “auf”: go toward something/someone
der Zugang – the access; can also be used for places you can actually enter
zugänglich – accessible
zugucken – watch (very “active”, not for movies, also not for contexts of guarding)
zuhaben – to be closed (for stores and bars)
zuhören – to listen (very “active”, not for just listening to music)
der Zuhörer – the listener
die Zukunft – the future (detailed look)
auf jmd zukommen – approach someone
zulassen – allow, let happen; also: leave closed
die Zulassung – the admission (cars, doctors, professions etc)
zulässig – officially allowed
zumachen – to close
zunehmen – to increase (for quantities), to gain weight
die Zunahme – increase in quantity, gain weight
zurufen – shout something to someone
zu sein – to be closed
zusagen – formal sounding “to say yes”; with Dative also “be appealing to someone”
die Zusage – formal way for “a yes” (an “affirmative”)
zuschauen – same as “zugucken”
der Zuschauer – a person from a watching audience (works for TV, too)
die Zuschauer – the watching audience
zuschlagen – punch (without mentioning a target); also: figurative sense of “taking” a good offer
zusehen – same as zugucken; also used in sense of “to see to it/make sure”
zusetzen – rare for the metaphorical “taking a toll”; rare also for adding chemicals to food
der Zusatz – the extra, additional bit; mostly used for compounds
zusätzlich – additionally
zustehen – be someone’s right (detailed look)
der Zustand – the state/condition
zuständig – in charge
zustellen – deliver mail, can technically also mean that you close something by putting stuff there
die Zustellung – the delivery (mail)
zuwachsen – grow over
der Zuwachs – the growth (figurative sense)
zuwerfen – throw toward someone (without intention of hitting)
Hi Emanuel –
Hopefully I am not making a mountain out of a mole hill. Is drinking coffee an event or an occasion?
Ich hätte gerne etwas Zucker zu meinem Kaffee.
What about these actions? Would they still use the “zu construction”?
You need to take water with this medication.
I would like some syrup with my pancakes.
Sie müssen Wasser zu diesem Medikament einnehmen.
Ich hätte gerne etwas Sirup zu meinen Pfannkuchen.
Thanks for your understanding!!!
The action itself doesn’t really matter all that much, what matters more is how it is phrased.
“zu” is a preposition here and “mein Kaffee” is a normal noun, so this has nothing to do with zu-constructions.
German just happens to use “zu” as the connector while English would use “with” (I think)
The same goes for all the other examples. In all of them, what you’re connecting is a noun, not a verb, so the stuff of this article doesn’t really tie in with that.
For the medication, I would say “mit”, because the water is an essential part of taking it, while “zu” makes it sound more like an optional addition. For the pancakes, your example is correct.
Hope that helps :)
Apart from the topic of the lesson (zu-): does it make sense to learn all the verbs prefixed with “zu” at once? I think about it again because it seems to me that after a few such lessons with other prefixes, all the verbs of this kind (with the prefixes) start to get confused. Any ideas how to learn them effectively?
What’s the difference between zustimmen and stimmen?
“zustimmen” – to agree
“stimmen” – to be correct; to tune
What exactly are you asking about? The two don’t really overlap.
O M G!!!! Danke Danke Danke!!!
I found your blog while searching for an answer to the “zu” vs. “in” quandary. I have been struggling with this for months. ( I blame my failure on the smoke and mirrors of Zuhause). I am a subscriber now and LOVE how you incorporate humor into your blogs. So readable. Never imagined I would laugh out loud while reading an article about articles. Thank you!
Sweet :)! I’m happy to hear you enjoy it so much. Viel Spaß!!
Ich stimme zu, dass Emanuel einen sehr guten Sinn für Humor hat!
“And yes, there is. Think about it… when you’re closing something, you move one thing toward another.”
You keep blowing my mind
:).
Hey Emanuel, you’ve made it really easy.
But I still don’t understand how can a sentence like “Ich muss zum Arzt” can mean “I must go to the doctor”.
I’d really like to understand this intuitively, and not just swallow it.
(I’m not sure this would be answered, because it’s a bit late :P)
I see all comments, no matter what article, so don’t worry about that. If you have a question, just ask :).
– Ich muss zum Arzt.
It’s basically just that “gehen” got skipped.
The “zum Arzt” is enough to indicate a directed movement.
Does that help?
Wow, German dynamics are wild xD
Thanks for the help!
zum ist short for zu dem= to the
Genau!
Hi there, I was wondering what ‘zum’ means in the context of a personal name?
I’m conducting Genealogical research and have the name Albert Wilhelm Zum Bach with Zum being passed to the next generation to his son Albert Zum Bach. Is this an indication that Wilhem was the mothers maiden name?
Wilhelm is a second given name, as far as I can tell. “zum Bach” is an old school type of family name, might be low royalty.
Das Auto hat keine Zulassung. So, is eine Zulassung a license, or some kind of permit? That is, is it illegal for this car to be on the road at all (the car is unlicensed), or does this just mean it doesn’t have the proper sticker or other documentation to gain access to a particular parking garage, for example (the car doesn’t have a permit)?
It’s about being on the road, so it’s the license, I guess. The license plate is called “Kennzeichen” but you get that from the “Zulassungsstelle”… well, the numbers, not the actual plate.
Great article. BTW: What about the following?
“This is a nice article to have/purchase”
I was going to translate it to: “Dies ist ein schöner Artikel, zu haben/kaufen’. I can’t say why but it feels that this is grammatically wrong …
Your feeling is right :). This phrasing doesn’t really work in German. At least not regularly. Sometimes it sounds idiomatic, but not in this case. You’d either focus on the article being nice and just say that, or you’d focus on purchasing … maybe something with “sich lohnen” :)
OK, thanks. So, maybe one has to separate this to two sentences like: ‘Dieser Artikel löhnt sich. Du musst es kaufen und lesen.’
On a related note: I was trying to make a translation from the following citation in English to German:
‘To make mistakes is human; to stumble is commonplace; to be able to laugh at yourself is maturity. William Arthur Ward.’
This tests whether or not it is weird to make ‘zu …’ as a noun in German. I got something like:
“Fehler zu machen is menschlich; zu stolpern ist üblich; über sich zu lachen ist reif”
Again, my feeling says you can’t do this in German (zu to make a noun) because I’ve never heard of anyone says it … Thoughts?
Actually, your translation there is perfectly idiomatic! It’s the same as
– Es ist menschlich, Fehler zu machen.
Just in a different order.
Idiots copying English words. Take some pride in your own langauge.
Which word are you talking about?
“The car doesn’t have an admission/the car is not registered.”
The (American) English word would be “registration.”
Hey, I recently saw a colleague using Zugriff and Zugang with the meaning of “access” (access to file/ protected resource). Which is the right way and what is the difference?
“Zugang” is about you entering, “Zugriff” is about you being able to touch data (read or write). Using “Zugang” for a file sounds a bit weird to me. “Zugriff” in context of a Facebook profile would sound like you’re trying to get the data.
Aha. so for example me saying “Wir konnen neimand mit Zugang zu finden” was correct?
And then he replied with two sentences, one after another:
“Ich kann auch Zugang für dich beantragen, moment
Noch jemand anders der Zugriff braucht?”
He used a different word second time, although sounds like the context didn’t change. Or did it?
Ok, my placeholder was parsed :) “Wir konnen neimand mit Zugang zu [link to some website] finden”
For a website, “Zugriff” sounds better to me, but that might very well just be me. It’s not that fixed :)
If the context is a data base for example then both words work. You can “enter” a data base and “touch” the data in it (to read it for example). No difference in usage then.
Your sentence is a bit off because of the “zu” before “finden”. No need for that!
Yeah, that “zu” was for the website. Do you delete words placed inside equality signs for the security reasons? :)
Hmmm… not that I know if, but the comment plugin might.
Zu has a strong relationship to the preposition ‘up’ (at least in Canadian English??) For example, when I come up to someone, I approach them (zukommen). When I tell someone to listen up, I want them to listen very closely (zuhören). When I sign someone up, I am registering them for a program, a list, etc (zulassen?). To close up the shop, I did more than lock the doors, I did other actions like pull the blinds, lock up the money, which would make it impossible to open it until it was intended to be open. I take up a new learning endeavour. An older use of take up represents the level of interest in something, as in, ‘We have had a lot of take up in that knitting class’. A ship takes up or on passengers or water or other things that are temporary and will eventually be released (hopefully) (zunehmen). I can let up my argument for something and relax my point of view but not give it up (zulassen). Weather can also let up, or continue but less so as in, ‘The rain seems to be letting up’. I can give up my seat on the bus to someone and admit them to a space I once occupied. I can also give up my argument and admit I am wrong (zugaben). Or, I can stand up for myself and exert my rights (zustehen). Similar to zu, up conveys extra action or a lifting of meaning. I don’t know if other English speakers feel this way but prepositional phrases always feel a bit ‘common’ to me because there is usually a multi-syllable, frenchier-word that could replace it. (Perhaps 1066 caused a DNA shift, i.e. the Anglo Saxons became servants to the French in their own country!) However, this is how people speak. And, because I am Canadian, I must apologize for the length of this comment (while secretly hoping that someone found it useful).
I find the conversation wherein you teach the guy (on the phone) helpful because it resembles my learning.
In English, you have a right to something that “steht dir zu.” And in the USA, you really DO have a right to a free refill. :D
Wait… but not by law? Or do you :)?
Haha no, just by common practice. There definitely are restaurants, coffee shops, etc. that don’t do free refills. But it’s fairly unusual, so I’d say most Americans do consider themselves entitled to them.
Hallo German-is-easy Leute. Könnt ihr mir helfen? Was ist der Ursprung oder die Etymologie des Schildes außerhalb deutscher Pubs? Zum Beispiel “Zum Silbersack”, unsere Lieblingsbar in Hamburg.
Isn’t “zulassen” also “admitted” as in, to the university? z.B. Ich wurde an der Universität zugelassen.
Yeah, it is. The basic idea is that of permission (letting happen) and then the context determines the translation :)
Ich bin sehr verärgert über die Neuigkeiten. Das einzige, was hilft, ist deutsche Grammatik.
I hope this makes sense, essentially these German aritcles are the only thing that’s keeping me sane and allowing me to get to sleep at night.
Wait, by “Neuigkeiten” do you mean “news” in the sense of TV news? Because that would be “Nachrichten” oder noch klarer “News”. “Neuigkeiten” heißt auch “news” aber eben nicht für die “offiziellen” …. whops, I’m really mixing up the languages here. Sorry :)
Danke. Ein wirklich nützlicher Artikel – und lustig.
Freut mich zu hören :)
Ha. Mein iPhone stellt immer etwas nicht zu, weil es kein Zugang zum Internet gibt. (Zu ist ein tolles Wort)
Haha… schönes Beispiel :). Nur eine Sache… “zustellen” funktioniert nur für “richtige” Post. Was das iPhone macht (oder nicht macht) ist “senden”. “zustellen” ist wirklich für den Moment der Übergabe an den Empfänger.