#trennbar

Hi everyone! I’m currently studying German in Cologne (Köln) and I thought to share a super important aspect of the German language with you as I haven’t really seen it discussed on other German langblr sites. (Correct me if I’m wrong!) 

Trennbar verbs are extremely common in the German language and they are basically ‘separable verbs’. This means that the start of verb has to always be at the end of the sentence. This may sound confusing but it is actually very simple to get the hang of!

Let’s take an example: abholen - to pick up. 

Ich hole meine Kinder von der Schule ab - I pick up my children from school. 

As you can see at the beginning part of the verb or ‘participle’ is always at the end of the sentence while the stem verb is conjugated. I hope this makes sense and I’ll give a few more examples to show you what I mean. 

mitbringen - to bring with 

Ich bringe Bier und Wein zur Party mit - I bring beer and wine to the party. 

ausschlafen - to sleep in

Ich schlafe aus - I sleep in. 

Am Samstag, schlafe ich bis 11 Uhr aus - On Saturday, I sleep in until 11 o’clock. 

You know if a verb is trennbar if it BEGINS with: 

ab- 

abholen - to pick up abstellen - to stop 

an- 

anrufen - to call  anfangen - to begin anziehen - to attract/ to put on anklofen - to knock 

auf- 

aufhören - to stop listening  aufmachen - to open up

aus- 

ausschlafen - to sleep in ausgehen - to go out ausziehen - to take off

ein- 

einladen - to invite  einkaufen - to go shopping

her- 

herkommen - to come here

hin-

hinfallen - to fall down

los-

loswerden - to get rid of

mit-

mitkommen - to come with mitnehem - to take away

raus-

rausgehen - to leave

rein-

reinkommen - to get in

vor- 

vorlesen - to read for

weg- 

wegfahren - to move/to pull away

zu- 

zumachen - close zuhören - to listen/ to listen in

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