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Lesson 15 of 69 · A1, Unit 4: Building sentences

Separable verbs

Many German verbs have a prefix that breaks off and jumps to the end of the sentence: aufstehen (to get up) becomes Ich stehe um sieben Uhr auf. The prefix often changes the meaning a lot: kommen (to come), ankommen (to arrive), mitkommen (to come along).

The prefix is always stressed — AUF-ste-hen, AN-ru-fen — which is also how you hear that it's separable. After a modal, the verb stays in one piece at the end: Ich muss früh aufstehen.

By the end you can:

  • split a separable verb correctly in a statement and a question
  • keep it whole after a modal verb
  • use the most common separable verbs in daily life

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