German Language Stack Exchange
German Language Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [prefix]

Präfix - A prefix is a part of a word which is placed before the root.

You should use this tag if your question is about the prefix which is placed at the beginning of a word, like pre- in prefix with the sense of before.

Common German prefixes are ab-, an-, be-, ent-, and ver-.

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Explanation of the prefix "er"

I am finding verbs with the prefix "er" very hard to understand and remember the meaning of. I understand how it works with verbs like ertrinken and ersticken (partly because I used erstochen once to tell a co-worker I had accidentally stabbed…
Conrad
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Unterschied zwischen senden / zusenden / versenden / absenden / übersenden

Worin besteht der Unterschied zwischen diesen Verben? Besonders versenden und senden sind mir unerklärlich...
nika0222
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When is using "sau-" for emphasis inappropriate?

How would you explain at what point using "sau-" for emphasis (z.B.: "Das ist saustark!") becomes somewhat offensive or vulgar with some word combinations?
Kevin
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Verb form of the adjective mild?

A coworker (whose native language is not English) asked me to "mild" a letter. He meant to "soften" or "tone down" the message. There really isn't such a construct in English. But is it true that in German, "mildern" means to make "mild," in the…
Tom Au
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What defines the use of the "in-/un-" prefix for building the inversion?

inexakt, but ungenau. Is this pure convention or are there any rules of thumb what prefix to choose when building an inversion of an adjective (for example pronunciation)?
Hauser
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Position of the separable prefix

In the sentence, "Why don't you come along to drink coffee?" Is it right to say "Warum kommst du nicht Kaffee trinken mit?" Or "Warum kommst du nicht mit Kaffee trinken?" Grammatically, I think it should be the first one, but for some reason I feel…
Unrivalled confusion
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What's the preterite form of »wiederaufnehmen«: »nahm wieder auf« or »nahm wiederauf«?

I came across the following sentence in Der Spiegel: Seoul will die humanitäre Hilfe für das weithin abgeschottete und wirtschaftlich marode Land [North Korea] wiederaufnehmen. According to dict.cc and die-konjugation.de, the preterit form of…
Eugene Str.
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Losgehen and Los geht's

I know that the verb losgehen means "to start going somewhere" in German. But when I was considering the sentence Los geht's (i.e. Los geht es) I was wondering why the separable prefix came at the start. The same consideration I made for this…
vik1245
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What comes last? Separable prefix or a dependent infinitive NOT related to that prefix?

I just had a small confusion regarding a simple phrase. If I want to say "It starts to smell" which one is correct? and why? Es fängt zu riechen an. Es fängt an zu riechen. I'm interested in a grammatical explanation regarding which of these parts…
Unrivalled confusion
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How to write "von" as part of family names, especially at the beginning of a sentence

How do you write "von" properly? Do you write it with capitalised v if you write von in the beginning of sentence? Which one is correct, "von Brun" or "Von Brun" if you want to write it as name lets say on a note or a memo?
Pravda Dandun Jadmiko
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Pflanzen, einpflanzen, anpflanzen - Unterschied

Wo ist der Unterschied zwischen den drei Wörtern? Hängt es damit zusammen, was man pflanzt (z.B. einen Baum, Gemüse, Zimmerpflanzen) oder dem Ziel des Pflanzens? Ich habe auch gehört, dass man "eine Pflanze setzt". Ist das richtig?
nika0222
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Can 'top-' be prefixed to adjectives (e.g. 'topfit')

From Pokemon Schwarz: Dein Pokemon-Team ist wieder topfit! I can't find any reference to 'topfit' so I'm guessing 'top-' is just a prefix meaning 'sehr' or maybe something like the English 'tip-top'. Is this a colloquial German prefix that can be…
Voriki
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What is the origin of the prefix “be-”?

Let's take an example. besuchen => to visit someone suchen => search
Revious
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Can hin- and her- verb prefixes be not related to speaker?

While trying to understand the meaning and usage of hin- and her-, I came across explanations like the following several times (here and here): HIN describes movement away from the speaker and towards a particular destination HER describes…
Alexey
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"BEschützt" vs. "GEschützt"

I am teaching my 7 year old German grandson chess. It is hard enough for him to learn the rules and tactics without his grandad's strange German confusing things so I would appreciate some help with the correct usage of certain terms in Chess, and…
Steve
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