B2 · The finishing touches
Building words
prefixes, suffixes and compounds
A stem, a prefix and a suffix — and a word nobody taught you becomes readable.
German builds new words rather than borrowing them, and it does so with a small set of parts used over and over. Knowing the parts turns a large amount of unfamiliar vocabulary into something that can be worked out rather than looked up.
Verb prefixes are the most productive. From kommen: ankommen arrive, bekommen receive, mitkommen come along, vorkommen occur, umkommen die, entkommen escape. Six verbs from one stem, and the prefixes do the same thing to other stems.
Noun suffixes carry gender reliably and are worth learning as a set: -ung, -heit, -keit, -schaft, -ei are feminine; -er, -ling, -ismus are masculine; -chen, -lein, -tum, -nis are neuter. And -ung in particular turns almost any verb into a noun: lösen gives Lösung.
Die Form
| verb prefix | kommen -> ankommen, bekommen, entkommen |
| verb to noun | lösen -> die Lösung |
| adjective to noun | frei -> die Freiheit |
| noun to adjective | die Freundschaft -> freundschaftlich |
| negating prefix | möglich -> unmöglich |
Die Regeln im Einzelnen
-ung turns a verb into a feminine noun and is fully productive.
Die Lösung war einfacher als gedacht.The solution was simpler than expected.
-heit and -keit turn an adjective into a feminine noun.
Die Möglichkeit besteht.The possibility exists.
un- negates an adjective; -los means "without".
Das ist unmöglich und sinnlos.That is impossible and pointless.
A compound takes its gender and its plural from its last part.
die Hand + der Schuh = der Handschuhhand + shoe = the glove
Genauer hingesehen
The prefixes that change a verb's grammar
Some prefixes do more than change the meaning: they change what the verb can take. Antworten takes a dative and beantworten takes an accusative — same sense, different grammar. So does steigen against besteigen, and arbeiten against bearbeiten.
Be- is the workhorse here: it turns an intransitive verb into a transitive one and lets the thing become a direct object. That is worth knowing actively rather than passively, because it is often the shortest way out of a sentence that will not come together — ich beantworte die Frage instead of ich antworte auf die Frage.
Ausnahmen und Sonderfälle (2)
-
the prefix is durch-, über-, unter-, um- or wieder-
the verb may be separable or not, with different meanings.
Er übersetzt den Text.He is translating the text.
These are still ordinary words as well as prefixes; the literal sense separates and the figurative one does not.
-
the suffix is -nis
the noun may be neuter or feminine and has to be learned: das Ergebnis, but die Erlaubnis.
Das Ergebnis liegt vor, die Erlaubnis fehlt noch.The result is in, the permission is still missing.
It is the one noun suffix that did not settle on a single gender.
Woran man es erkennt
- -ung
- -heit
- -keit
- -schaft
- -lich
- -bar
- -los
- un-
- be-
- ver-
Beispielsätze
Die Entscheidung fällt nächste Woche.The decision will be made next week.
Das ist leider unmöglich.Unfortunately that is impossible.
Die Wohnung ist möbliert.The flat is furnished.
Er hat eine freundliche Art.He has a friendly manner.
Das Gerät ist reparierbar.The device can be repaired.
Noch 8 Beispielsätze
Die Verbindung ist unterbrochen.The connection has been interrupted.
Diese Regelung gilt seit Januar.This arrangement has applied since January.
Der Antrag ist unvollständig.The application is incomplete.
Sie arbeitet an einer Verbesserung.She is working on an improvement.
Das ist ohne Weiteres bezahlbar.That is perfectly affordable.
Die Zusammenarbeit läuft gut.The collaboration is going well.
Er hat sich arbeitslos gemeldet.He has registered as unemployed.
Die Beantwortung dauert ein paar Tage.Answering it takes a few days.
Besonderheiten (2)
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-ung nouns are the register of officialdom
German administrative writing runs on nouns built from verbs: <z>Bearbeitung, Genehmigung, Bereitstellung, Inanspruchnahme</z>. Grammars call it <z>Nominalstil</z>, and it is precise, compact and heavy. Recognising it makes a form or a contract readable; writing it makes an ordinary text sound like a form.
Nach Bearbeitung Ihres Antrags erhalten Sie Bescheid.You will be notified once your application has been processed.
-
A word you invent is usually right
Compounding and suffixing are so productive that a German speaker will build a word on the spot for something with no name, and be understood without explanation. That freedom is available to a learner too — a compound assembled from parts you know is far more likely to be correct German than a phrase translated word for word from English.
Das ist ein typisches Anfängerproblem.That is a typical beginner's problem.
Die typisch deutsche Falle
Aufgepasst
German prefers to build a word where English builds a phrase. -bar corresponds to English "-able" and is productive: machbar, lesbar, essbar, bezahlbar. Reaching for a phrase instead is not wrong, but it reads as translated — and the compact form is usually the one a German writer would have chosen.
The suffix gives the gender. The last part gives the plural.
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