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In the sentence,

Die angehenden Hotelfachleute durchlaufen in ihrer dreijährigen Lehrzeit verschiedene Abteilungen eines Hotels.

Why is not ... laufen ... durch. as is the case with separable verbs?

Trevor Mwangi
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There are actually two different verbs durchlaufen, one separable and one non-separable, both having the same infinite form. The separable verb's meaning is more literal "to run through", the inseparable has a rather figurative meaning "to pass". And then, there is also the verb laufen with can be used with the preposition durch with the meaning "to walk through, to traverse". Here are example sentences:

Inseparable Verb: Die Hotelfachleute haben eine dreijährige Ausbilding durchlaufen ("The hotel managers passed a three year training program")

Separable Verb: Der Kaffee ist vollständig durchgelaufen. ("The coffee ran through the machine completely.")

Verb plus Preposition:Wir sind durch den Wald gelaufen ("We walked through the forest.")

Jonathan Scholbach
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    The Wiktionary entry lists the verb twice, calling the separable on Etymology 1 and the inseparable one Etymology 2. This is perhaps a bit confusing because they give the same etymology in both cases; that's just the way Wiktionary does things. Sometimes separable vs. inseparable depends on the meaning of the prefix, and you can see this for example in the DWDS entry for "über-"; meanings are listed as "trennbar" or "untrennbar". – RDBury Jan 19 '24 at 13:40
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    @planetmaker - I had to work on this a bit. The difference in pronunciation is just the accent. "UMfahren" = "run over", "umFAHRen" = "drive around". Usually if it's separable then the prefix is accented, and unaccented if not. So the correct pronunciation of the sentence depends on how you feel about pedestrians :) – RDBury Jan 19 '24 at 14:11
  • Wouldn't you be able to separate the verb in the second example as well? "Der Kaffee ist vollständig durch [die Maschine] gelaufen." – Bergi Jan 20 '24 at 12:54
  • The stress would fall on gelaufen, which makes is sound weird. But colloquially, "Kaffee ist durch" is common. – corvus_192 Jan 20 '24 at 14:14
  • @RDBury Great pedestrian example. Would one of them also be conjugated with haben and the other with sein, then? – Luke Sawczak Jan 20 '24 at 15:20
  • @Luke Sawczak - It's really planetmaker's example, but it appears that the original comment was deleted. Anyway, I can see why you might think "umFAHRen" has auxiliary "sein", but according to DWDS it's only "UMfahren" in the sense "to take a detour/to drive around". They give the example "er ist beinahe eine Stunde umgefahren". The "motion implies 'sein'" rule isn't as clear cut as you might think. – RDBury Jan 20 '24 at 15:53
  • @RDBury the sentence as you wrote it does not exist. What you mean is "Er ist beinahe eine Stunde lang herumgefahren", meaning he drove around either aimlessly or unsuccessfully looking for something - don't quote me on "herum gefahren" vs. "herumgefahren". "umfahren" with stress on the second syllable is to drive around e.g. a blocked road, and the perfect is "Er hat die Straßensperrung umfahren". "umfahren" with stress on the first syllable is to drive into something, and the perfect would be "Er hat den Fußgänger umgefahren." – Raketenolli Jan 20 '24 at 16:18
  • @Raketenolli - Just to be clear, I didn't write the sentence; it's taken from DWDS. If it's not correct then take it up with them. – RDBury Jan 20 '24 at 20:31
  • That entry is marked as "landschaftlich", which according to DWDS itself means that it is specific to the way people speak in a certain region, and, in my experience, that it would be considered wrong by people outside of that region. Unfortunately they don't say which region it is used in or sources from. – Raketenolli Jan 21 '24 at 13:55