Intermediate German: A Grammar and Workbook

Das Schiff ist untergegangen.

The ship has sunk.

Er hat früher Physik unterrichtet.

He used to teach physics.

How to spot the difference

A way of identifying a separable or inseparable prefix is to see where the

stress falls:

• if the verb is separable, the stress usually falls on the prefix: durch-
  fallen,überkochen,umfallen,untergehen,wiedersehen,widerspiegeln;


• if the verb is inseparable, the stress falls on the main verb: durchdenken,
  übernachten, umarmen, unterrichten, wiederholen, widersprechen.

Same word, different meanings

A few verbs exist as a separable as well as an inseparable verb. Although

the prefix is the same, their meaning and stress differ:

Separable Inseparable

übersetzen to ferry across übersetzen to translate

überziehen to put/pull on überziehen to overdraw (account)

umschreiben to rewrite umschreiben to paraphrase

The above separable forms often convey the literal meaning of the verb,

while the inseparable forms usually have a more figurative meaning:

Das Boot setzt über. The boat ferries across.

Marco übersetzt einen Text. Marco is translating a text.

Sie hat ihre Jacke übergezogen. She has put on her jacket.

Sie hat ihr Konto überzogen. She has overdrawn her account.

Verbs can have various prefixes

Note that many verbs in German can exist with various prefixes, such as

the verb arbeiten:

aufarbeiten(sep.) to do up, to reappraise (the past)

ausarbeiten(sep.) to work out

Unit 8: Verbs with separable and inseparable prefixes 63

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