Diving

One verb on this list leads two lives, and a diver needs both. Auftauchen is what a body does at the end of a dive: it comes up out of the water — Wir sind nach einer Stunde aufgetaucht. Out of the water the same verb means to turn up or to crop up, of things and problems nobody was expecting: Der Schlüssel ist wieder aufgetaucht, the key has turned up again; Es sind Fragen aufgetaucht, questions have arisen. The picture is the same in both — something hidden breaks the surface — and so is the grammar: separable, with sein in the perfect. What changes is who is in charge. A diver taucht auf on purpose and at a rate somebody has calculated; a problem taucht auf of its own accord, and usually at the worst moment. Diving manuals prefer a noun for the whole climb, der Aufstieg, and keep auftauchen for the moment the head breaks the surface.