A person who has not studied German can form no idea of what a perplexing language it is:[...] Mark Twain

The Germans have a kind of parenthesis, which they make by splitting a verb in two and putting half of it at the beginning of an exciting chapter and the other half at the end of it. Can any one conceive of anything more confusing than that? These things are called ‘separable verbs’. The German grammar is blistered all over with separable verbs; and the wider the two portions of one of them are spread apart, the better the author of the crime is pleased with his performance. A favourite one is reiste ab, which means departed. Here is an example which I culled from a novel and reduced to English:

“The trunks now being now ready, he de - after kissing his mother and sisters, and once more pressing to his bosom his adored Gretchen, who, dressed in simple white muslin, with a single tuberose in the ample folds of her rich brown hair, had tottered feebly down the stairs, still pale from the terror and excitement of the past evening, but longing to lay her poor aching head yet once again upon the breast of him whom she loved more dearly than life itself, parted.”

What are Prefixes? A PREFIX consists of one or more syllables added to the beginning of a word to change that word’s meaning. believe – disbelieve In German: prefixes are divided into two groups dependend on whether or not they can be separated from the verb.

Inseparable Prefixes most common inseparable prefixes: be- / er- / ent- / miss- / ver- / zer- bekommento receive / to get erzählento tell entschuldigento excuse missverstehento misunderstand vergessento forget zerbrechento break

Separable Prefixes There is quite a number of separable prefixes in German. They are themselves words, especially prepositions and adverbs like “mit”, for example, which means “with” (as a preposition) or “along” (as a prefix).

PREFIXES INSEPARABLE PREFIXES vergessen = to forget bekommen = to receive verstehen = to understand umfahren = to drive arou Ich umfahre den Mann. SEPARABLE PREFIXES abfahren = to drive off mitbringen = to bring along anrufen = to call (up) umfahren = to drive over Ich fahre den Mann um.

SEPARABLE PREFIXES to depart = abfahren = to drive off = (ab+fahren) Meine Eltern fahren morgen früh nach Florida ab. to bring along = mitbringen ( mit+ bringen) Er bringt seine Freundin zur Party mit.

Try to form new verbs using the following verbs you know and the prefixes gehento go / to walk laufen to run kommento come fahrento drive bringento bring machento do

PREFIXES HIN indicates a movement away from the speaker towards somewhere else it is often used in conjunction with another prefixes like auf - aus - ein - unter HER indicates a movement towards the speaker from somewhere it is often used in conjunction with another prefixes like auf - aus - ein - unter

EXAMPLES hineingehen Er geht in das Haus hinein. (I am outside and he goes in) herauskommen Er kommt aus dem Haus heraus. ( I am outside and comes out)