German word for out

Hello everyone,

and welcome back to a new episode of the series German Prepositions Explained – the series that makes prepositions suck 30% less.
And today it’s time for the second part of our look at the trials and tribulations of

aus

In part one, we learned that the core theme of aus and is outward and that that can be used to express the idea of leaving, exiting, but also for the idea of emerging and origin.
If you haven’t read part one, or you want to review it again, you can find it here:

German Prepositions Explained – “aus” (Part I)

We also started to talk about aus as a prefix and saw how it bends and twists the two core ideas.
Today, we’ll continue with the prefix, because it actually has a couple of themes that are kind of new… or at least they might seem that way.
So are you ready to jump in?
Then let’s go.

Two Themes of “aus”-verbs

The first “side-theme” of the prefix aus is something like finishing or completely. And a great way to see how that ties in with the core of aus is the verb austrinken…

• Ich trinke mein Bier aus.
• I finished (drink up) my beer.

• Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop

Finishing your beer means getting it all “out”. And we can kind of find that in other verbs in that group.

• Der See trocknet aus.
• The lake dries up.

• Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop

• Morgen kann ich ausschlafen.
• Tomorrow, I can sleep in.

• Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop

• Der Chef beutet seine Mitarbeiter aus.
• The boss exploits his employees.
  (literally: “loots out”)
  

• Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop

• Lass mich bitte ausreden.
• Please let me finish (my sentence).

• Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop

• Ich bin total ausgepowert.
• I’m completely exhausted.

• Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop

In all these, we get something “out” completely.
But if we really think about it,  finishing and ending are inherently connected to the notion of leaving.When we finish a project, we also “leave” the project. When we leave the bar, then our time there ends.
Or take this example with one of the meanings of ausgehen.…

• Wie geht die Serie aus?
• How does the series end?

• Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop

Actually, just think of the phrase “The series goes out with a bang.”… that’s the perfect showcase for how leaving and ending overlap.

And that also brings us to the second theme I want to talk about.
And I’m sure many of you are already kind of familiar with it, because even though there are not that many verbs with it, it is absolutely essential for daily life that it’s hard to not see.
I’m talking of course about the idea of inactive, deactivated or simply off.

• Das Licht ist aus.
• The light is off.

• Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop

Well… technically aus sein isn’t actually a prefix verb but rather a verb and an adverb , but who cares. It’s really just a spelling convention, after all.

So, aus is THE German word for off in the sense of inactive, and at least in my opinion, it is connected to what we already had.

You see, if I leave a bar, for example, if I go outside, I’m no longer present there. Except in the mind of the ladies, of course, because I’m an absolute alpha-chad.
But yeah, I’m not in the bar anymore. Me being in the bar has ended.
And when the barkeeper later turns off the light… the light is not in the bar anymore. It “left” the space. It has ended.
The notion of leaving and the notion of off, inactive have in common the idea of not being “there”, not being present.
If you’re now like “Nah… that’s too twisted for me.” that’s totally fine, you can just ignore it then and think of off as an independent idea.
Anyways… here are some examples.

• Kannst du deine Musik ausmachen?
• Can you turn off your music?

• Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop

• “Warum ist das Projekt noch nicht fertig?”
  “Mein Computer geht immer aus, wenn ich arbeiten will.”
• “Why isn’t the project finished yet?”
  “My computer turns off whenever I want to work.”

• Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop

• “Ich habe den ganzen Tag versucht, dich anzurufen.”
  “Ja, sorry… ich hatte mein Handy aus.”
• “I tried calling you all day.”
  “Yeah, sorry… I had my phone (turned) off.”

• Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop

And while there are a few more verbs carrying this idea (like ausschalten for example), ausmachen and ausgehen and also aus sein are really all you’ll need in daily life.

All right.
So now we have a pretty complete overview over what aus can do as a prefix. And I hope you could see how the core theme of “outward” with its two aspects of leaving and emerging is wafting through all the various aus-verbs, even though it gets twisted and bent.

Usually in this series, we’d now take a look at these fixed combinations of verbs with a preposition. Like ankommen auf or Angst haben vor.

But for aus, there really isn’t anything to explore.
There are a few of these fixed combinations, like bestehen aus (consist of) or  ableiten aus (to derive from) but those are perfectly in line with the idea of origin that we already established for the preposition.

So there’s not much to analyze here.

But there is another area, that definitely could use some clearing up and that’s all the direct relatives of aus.

aus, außen, draußen, außer and so on

When it comes to expressing spatial information, German is a bit OCD, in that it really likes to be precise.
That’s why there are often several words where English uses one and the same and the aus-crew is a great example for that.

So let’s go over those real quick, in no particular order.

raus

We already talked about that in part one, but no harm in repeating this one because it’s so so important. raus essentially is out as a direction of an action.
So it is essentially an answer to the question “where to?“.
There are loads of prefix verbs with raus like rausgehen or rauskommen and it also works by itself.

• “Wo gehst du hin?”
  “Raus.“
• “Where are you going?”
  “Outside.“

• Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop

Some learners sometimes use raus as a preposition and say something like “raus dem Haus”. If you catch yourself doing that… that’s wrong :).
Because raus is NOT a preposition. So there you need aus.
Cool.
Next one!

draußen

Draußen is the “steady” version of raus, so while raus answers the question “where to?”, draußen answers the question “where?”

• “Wo bist du?”
  “Draußen.“
• “Where are you?”
  “Outside.“

• Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop

• Draußen ist es kalt.
• Outside, it’s cold.

• Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop

Like raus, draußen is NOT a preposition, so you can not say something like “draußen dem Haus” for “outside of the house“.
People would probably say vor dem Haus here, which means in front of the house. But technically, the closest word is the next one on our list… außerhalb.

außerhalb

Außerhalb means outside of and it’s one of the view prepositions in German where you actually need Genitive.

• Rauchen ist nur außerhalb des Stadions erlaubt.
• Smoking is only allowed outside of the stadium.

• Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop

• Hallo, Sie rufen leider außerhalb der Öffnungszeiten an.
• Hello, You’re calling outside of the business hours.

• Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop

As you can see, außerhalb is not limited to locations.
And it can even be used as a location by itself, in the phrase von außerhalb, which essentially means “not from here/there”.

• Ich komme von außerhalb.
• I’m not from here.

• Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop

This sounds a bit formal though, and it’s hard to use idiomatically, so I’d put that one on the pile of passive vocabulary.

außen

außen is an adverb again, so it can answer the question “where?” by itself. But while draußen is about the outside as a space, außen is more about the outside as … well… a side. On the outside is a pretty good match, actually.
It can technically stand on its own, but in practice, it is actually very often combined with a von or nach or im.

• Von außen sieht das Restaurant aus, wie ein Schuppen.
• From the outside/on the outside the restaurant looks like a shack.

• Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop

• Deine Gedanken manifestieren sich im Außen.
• Your thoughts manifest on the outside.
  (One of the standard phrases spiritual influencers use.)
  

• Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop

• Der Spieler rennt nach außen.
• The player runs outside.
  (He is still in bounds here, außen refers to the outer part of the field here, not the outside of it.)
  

• Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop

• Die Partei ist rechts außen im politischen Spektrum.
• The party is on the far right in the political spectrum.

• Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop

As you can see, it’s used in quite the range of contexts. But there’s one context where it doesn’t really fit. Which brings us to the next word.

äußerlich

äußerlich also translates to on the outside but its main use case is the context the appearance of someone, where außen would sound a bit strange.

• Äußerlich ist Maria ruhig, aber innerlich kocht sie vor Wut.
• On the outside, Maria is calm, but inside, she is boiling with rage.

• Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop

• Thomas achtet nur auf das Äußerliche.
• Thomas only cares about the looks.

• Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop

außer

Last but not least, we have außer, which is the German word for except, but (and besides, in certain contexts).

• Einhörner essen alles, außer Sushi.
• Unicorns eat everything except Sushi.

• Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop

• Thomas räumt nie auf, außer wenn ein Date kommt.
• Thomas never cleans, except when a date is coming over.

• Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop

I’ve actually talked about außer in more detail in a separate article, so I’ll leave the link below if you want to know more.

And we’re almost done but let’s give an honorable mention to the two verbs äußern and veräußern.
Äußern is basically a slightly formal sounding verb for the idea of bringing your thoughts to the outside and depending on context, it can be to make a statement or to comment or simply to express.

• Maria hat im Meeting Kritik an ihrer Chefin geäußert.
• Maria voiced/expressed criticism about her boss at the meeting.

• Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop

• Die Eichhörnchen äußern sich nicht zu den Verhandlungen.
• The squirrels are not making statements about the negotiations.
  (äußern needs a direct object, that’s why the sich is here)
  

• Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop

And veräußern is a formal term for…. selling. But it really only works for huge sales, like selling land or selling the assets of a business. It absolutely DOESN’T work for selling normal retail goods.

And I think that’s it :).
Yeaaay!
This was our look at aus, its use as a prefix and its various relatives. The main challenge are definitely the prefix verbs which are not always obvious, but I hope you got a good impression of how the core theme of outward gets twisted and bent to create the wimmelpicture of meanings that we see in a dictionary.

As usual, if you want to check how much you remember just take the little quiz I have prepared for you.
And if you have any questions are suggestions about aus, you know what to do… just leave me a comment :).
I hope you liked it, have a great week and I’ll see you next time!

further reading:

Word of the Day – “außer”

The German word for ‘to stay’ is bleiben, right? 

One of the questions that comes up in our German courses the most is how to say that you’re staying somewhere in German. Unlike English where you can safely use ‘to stay’ no matter who you’re with or where you end up being, you have a couple of choices in German.

Most learners have heard of the word bleiben, but it’s not your best option and I will show you when to use bleiben and what to say to stay on the safe side of life.

German has a few words to say ‘to stay’

When you want to tell your German friends about all the cool places you have been to, you probably will be saying something similar to this:

“I stayed with a friend in Spain, but I stayed at a Hotel in France.”

But how does one say the sentence in German? You have a couple of choices.

The German word for “to stay” is either

wohnen / übernachten

or

bleiben / sein.

I’ve already grouped them up for you, so it’s easier to grasp the meaning and use.

Wohnen and übernachten also mean ‘to stay’

Let’s start with wohnen/übernachten. Before I bore you with talking about the use, let’s have a look at some example sentences.

• “I am staying with a friend.”:

Ich werde bei einem Freund wohnen.

Ich übernachte bei einem Freund.

• “I am staying at a hotel.”:

Ich werde in einem Hotel wohnen.

Ich übernachte in einem Hotel.

When being on a holiday and staying overnight at a hotel or an apartment or with your friends, you can safely use wohnen and übernachten alternatively. They are are interchangeable.

The difference between wohnen and übernachten

The German language wouldn’t be the German language, if there wasn’t a tiny difference between the two.

First of all wohnen translates to ‘to live’ and übernachten translates to ‘to stay over’, but don’t be fooled by this translation as either can be used to express you’re staying somewhere.

Wohnen implies that you stayed longer than only a couple of days, whereas übernachten focusses on the fact that you just stayed at a certain place, maybe you just ticked off the tourist attractions of a city.

You could use the two in the following sentences:

Wir übernachten erst zwei Tage in Barcelona. Dann übernachten wir vier Tage in München und dann nochmal drei Tage in Prag.

First, we are staying in Barcelona for 2 days. Then, we are staying in Munich 4 days and afterwards in Prague 3 days.

You can also use wohnen.

Wir werden erst zwei Tage in Barcelona wohnen. Dann werden wir vier Tage in München und dann nochmal drei Tage in Prag wohnen.

First, we are staying in Barcelona for 2 days. Then, we are staying in Munich 4 days and afterwards in Prague for 3 days.

When to use wohnen, when to use übernachten?

übernachten

If you tell me “Ich übernachte dort (=there)”, I will have the feeling that you are going to do a lot of sightseeing. What first will come to mind is you and your travel partner hopping on and off some tourist buses. In my head, you two will have your cameras ready hanging around your neck and a map in your back pocket ready to be used.

wohnen

If you tell me “Ich werde dort wohnen”, I will think you might have friends there or, at least, you’re trying to get the real feel for the city. Pictures will pop up in my head of you having tapas at beautiful pub with your Spanish friends, or a Weißwurst and Brezn at a sunny Biergarten in Munich, sitting right next to your bikes and your German friends.

Usually they are used alternatively

Having just described the differences between wohnen and übernachten, be aware that the differences are very subtle. Usually people use wohnen and übernachten alternatively.

Only if you want to accentuate a certain meaning, use either the one or the other depending on what you want to put across. I recommend to add some context to make sure people will understand what you want to say.

“In Berlin wohnten wir für zwei Wochen bei einem Freund.” (In Berlin, we stayed with a friend for 2 weeks.)

“In München übernachteten wir zwei Tage in einem schönen Hotel.” (In Munich, we stayed at a beautiful hotel for 2 days.)

Germans stick to the present tense

You might have noticed another difference. In the first examples right at the start, I used the future tense for wohnen (Ich werde wohnen/I will live) and the present tense for übernachten (Ich übernachte/Lit: I stay).

This is possible because Germans quite often use the present tense when talking about the future. Only if it’s not clear that the event is going to happen in the future, even after adding “tomorrow”, you will have to use the future form.

This is why it is correct to say the following.

Ich wohne im Hotel. (Literally: I live at a hotel)

instead of

Ich werde im Hotel wohnen. (Literally: I will live at a hotel)

But here is the thing, Ich wohne im Hotel can have the connotation of someone living in a hotel instead living in a house or in an apartment, if no context is being provided.

To get away from this meaning (to live), I chose to use the future tense although the present tense would have been grammatically correct. If you want to learn more about the German word for ‘to live’, check out my post on it here.

When to use bleiben?*

Apart from wohnen/übernachten, there are other verbs that can be used to tell your friends about your trip:

bleiben  or sein.

Use bleiben/sein without “hotel” or “friend”

As bleiben (to stay) and sein (to be) is more specific, please use them without saying who you stayed with:

• Ich bleibe (für) drei Wochen. (=I am staying for 3 weeks.)
• Ich war dort für drei Wochen. (=I was there for 3 weeks.)
• Ich blieb (für) fünf Tage in Berlin. (=I stayed in Berlin for 5 days.)
• Ich war (für) fünf Tage in Berlin. (=I was in Berlin for 5 days.)

The differences between bleiben/sein and wohnen/übernachten

Contrary to popular believe, wohnen/übernachten is your best bet when talking about where you stayed on your holiday. Bleiben/sein will also be a good choice, but you will have to keep something else in mind that I’m going to tell you in a second. 

First, please notice that that in German you should mention the time or duration before you talk about the place. In English it’s the opposite, we will say ‘I’m going to the movies (location) next week (time)’ while Germans literally say ‘I’m going next week (time) to the movies (location)’.

Here’s a simple formula that it pays to remember:

Here are some more example:

• Ich wohne/übernachte für drei Wochen bei bei meinem besten Freund in Berlin. (=I am staying with my friend in Berlin for 3 weeks.)
• Ich wohne/übernachte für drei Wochen im Hotel “Bayerischer Hof” in München. (=I am staying at the “Bayerischer Hof” in Munich for 3 weeks.)
• Wir sind 3 Wochen in Mannheim geblieben. (We stayed in Mannheim for 3 weeks).
• Dann waren wir 2 Tage in Frankfurt. (Then, we were in Frankfurt for 3 days.)

Bleiben and sein are for staying with family and very close friends

The reason it’s best to use bleiben and sein without mentioning WHO you’re with, is that both sound more like this person is going to take care of you (or the other way around).

It’s not just your travel mate you’re with, there’s a very close connection, very likely your family or a very close friend of yours. For example, you could say

Ich bleibe/bin bei meinen Großeltern für drei Wochen.

(=I will be with my grandparents for 3 weeks.)

This sentence will make me think you you will be doing things families do, hanging out and talking about also having this family band wrapped around your stay.

The same sentence with übernachten makes it sound more like travelling or at least more neutral:

Ich übernachte bei meinen Großeltern für drei Wochen. (=I am staying at my grandparents’ house for 3 weeks.)

And here we have a couple of more example sentences on bleiben and sein to show you the difference:

Meine Tochter bleibt/ist am Wochenende bei ihrem Vater.

(=My daughter stayed / was with her dad over the weekend.)

The father is taking care of his daughter. She is staying with him, absolutely, but the stress is more on “the daughter was taken care of”. Don’t forget to have a look at the comment section, you will find some more examples (and maybe leave your own).

To summarise it, bleiben and sein are more specific than übernachten and wohnen. Let’s integrate this into our formula from before:

wohnen / übernachten +  duration (for) + location (at/in) + person (with)

=

bleiben / sein  + duration (for) + location (at/in) + person (with)

and

bleiben / sein  +  duration (for) + location (at/in)  + with family/close friends (with)

Where do you like to stay when going travelling? Do you like to stay with your friends and sleep on their couch or do you rather stay at a hotel? Let us know in the comments.

If you’ve just started learning German, you might be struggling to get past the beginner stage.

Maybe you feel overwhelmed by the Germanic umlauts on vowels (ä, ö, ü), or maybe that eszett letter (ß). Perhaps it’s the pace of spoken German that’s made you question your decision to start learning.

While there’s definitely truth to those concerns, worry not. There are several short and easy-to-learn words in German that can serve as a springboard while you become familiar with the language. 

Memorizing even a few basic German words for beginners will be enough of a stepping stone to help you eventually learn more. This is because many German words are composed of several shorter words that, when combined, have a unique meaning.

Take Kühlschrank, for example. This word is composed of Kühl- which means “cool,” and -schrank which translates to “cupboard.”

Combine the two and you get “cool cupboard,” which is a funny way to describe a refrigerator—the actual meaning of the word Kühlschrank.

Pretty relieving to know this, right? 

German isn’t that hard after all. The most difficult part is to summon up the courage to begin. 

That’s why we took the time to put together a categorized masterlist of the most essential words in German for beginners. 

Without further ado, let’s get right into it…

Table of Contents

1. Pronouns
2. Numbers
3. Nouns
4. Verbs
5. Adjectives
6. Conjunctions
7. Others
8. Conclusion

1. Pronouns

The first set of words you should add to your German vocabulary are pronouns. These are the words we use to refer to people, places, or things without actually using their names:

• Susan ate the chocolate bar. = She ate the chocolate bar. 

Here, we’ll be covering three types of pronouns in German: personal, demonstrative, and interrogative. 

Personal Pronouns

We’ll start with personal pronouns, given their importance in sentences. These are crucial for almost any sentence, and we recommend you memorize them by heart before you start with any other words.

English	German
I	ich
you	du
he	er
she	sie
it	es
we	wir
you (plural)	ihr
they	sie
me	mich / mir
you	dich / dir
him	ihm / ihn
her	ihr
us	uns
them	ihnen

Demonstrative Pronouns

Demonstrative pronouns are especially critical for indicating which objects or people you’re referring to in your dialogue. These four basic German words are important to master at the beginner stage.

English	German
this	dieses
that	das
these	diese
those	jene

Interrogative Pronouns / Question Words

Interrogative pronouns, or the “Five Ws,” are the words we use to ask questions. 

English	German
who	wer
whom	wen / wem
whose	wessen
what	was
which	welche

In a similar vein, there are a few interrogative adverbs you should learn at this stage as well: 

English	German
when	wann
where	wo
why	warum
how	wie

2. Numbers

The numbers from one to ten in German are rather similar to those in English. Just like with most languages, learning the first ten digits will help you understand and easily learn the rest of the numbers.

Numbers	English	German
0	zero	null
1	one	eins
2	two	zwei
3	three	drei
4	four	vier
5	five	fünf
6	six	sechs
7	seven	sieben
8	eight	acht
9	nine	neun
10	ten	zehn

3. Nouns

Nouns are one of the most important parts of speech, so you should memorize as many of them in German as you can. When used with verbs, they create a complete sentence—in a pinch, you can even use them alone to get an urgent point across! Below, you’ll find lists of beginner German nouns you should focus on right away. 

Time

Time is king, especially in a country like Germany where punctuality is paramount. Learning time-related vocabulary will come in handy in your day-to-day interactions.

English	German
hour	Stunde
minute	Minute
morning	Morgen
afternoon	Nachmittag
evening	Abend
day	Tag
month	Monat
year	Jahr
Monday	Montag
Tuesday	Dienstag
Wednesday	Mittwoch
Thursday	Donnerstag
Friday	Freitag
Saturday	Samstag
Sunday	Sonntag

People

These are the words you’d learn in the first lesson of probably any German beginner copybook. 

English	German
butcher	Metzger (m.) / Metzgerin (f.)
woodman	Holzfäller (m.) / Holzfällerin (f.)
police officer	Polizist (m.) / Polizistin (f.)
doctor	Arzt (m.) / Ärztin (f.)
nurse	Krankenpfleger (m.) / Krankenschwester (f.)
firefighter	Feuerwehrmann (m.) / Feuerwehrfrau (f.)
teacher	Lehrer (m.) / Lehrerin (f.)
father	Vater
mother	Mutter
sister	Schwester
brother	Bruder
Mr.	Herr
Ms.	Frau

Places Around Town

If you’re traveling in Germany, whether in one town or around the country, these words will help you get by and even ask for directions.

English	German
hospital	Krankenhaus
supermarket	Supermarkt
school	Schule
downtown	Innenstadt
university	Universität
city hall	Rathaus
main square	Hauptplatz
bank	Bank
museum	Museum
restaurant	Restaurant
café	Café
police station	Polizeistation
train station	Bahnhof
bus station	Bushaltestelle

School/Office Essentials

If you have to study or work in Germany, these words will be helpful when you’re in class or at the office.

English	German
pen	Kugelschreiber
notebook	Notizbuch
computer	Computer
pencil case	Federmappe
headphones	Kopfhörer
mouse	Maus
keyboard	Tastatur
wifi	WLAN
charger	Ladegerät
cable	Kabel
backpack	Rucksack
desk	Schreibtisch
copybook	Heft

Body Parts

English	German
eye	Auge
nose	Nase
ear	Ohr
face	Gesicht
arm	Arm
chest	Brust
cheek	Wange
forehead	Stirn
mouth	Mund
chin	Kinn
armpit	Achselhöhle
abdomen	Bauch
leg	Bein
toe	Zeh
finger	Finger
ankle	Knöchel
hip	Hüfte
forearm	Unterarm
elbow	Ellbogen
wrist	Handgelenk

Food

Germans are proud of their cuisine and German culture values eating healthy, fresh food rather than buying frozen or ready-to-eat meals. Here’s a list of words for your next grocery shopping spree.

English	German
ٍٍvegetables	Gemüse
fruit	Obst
meat	Fleisch
milk	Milch
egg	Ei
coffee	Kaffee
yogurt	Joghurt
bread	Brot
bacon	Speck
pie	Kuchen
ham	Schinken
chicken	Huhn
juice	Saft
sausage	Wurst

4. Verbs

As a beginner in German, you’ll greatly benefit from picking up the most commonly used verbs. Learning them together with nouns will give you a headstart when it comes to forming sentences and communicating with others. 

Daily Routine Verbs

If you’re into daily journaling, doing that in German will require you to know a set of daily routine-related verbs. Here’s a list to get you started:

English	German
to get up	aufstehen
to eat	essen
to drink	trinken
to go	gehen
to work	arbeiten
to study	studieren
to drive	fahren
to ride	reiten
to sleep	schlafen
to wake up	aufwachen
to hang	hängen
to do laundry	Wäsche machen
to nap	ein Nickerchen machen
to work out	trainieren
to go out	ausgehen
to prepare	vorbereiten
to cook	kochen
to clean	putzen
to wash	waschen
to tidy up	aufräumen
to connect	verbinden
to communicate	kommunizieren
to wear	tragen
to warm up	aufwärmen
to grab	greifen
to mix	mischen
to hold	halten
to freeze	einfrieren
to change	wechseln
to move	bewegen

Other Common Verbs

English	German
to give	geben
to get	bekommen
to do	tun
to make	machen
to let	lassen
to ask	fragen
to smile	lächeln
to find	finden
to use	benutzen
to take	nehmen
to come	kommen
to look	schauen
to hear	hören
to smell	riechen
to talk	sprechen
to exit	gehen
to call	rufen
to feel	fühlen
to answer	antworten
to laugh	lachen
to cry	weinen
to steal	stehlen
to run	rennen
to walk	gehen
to meet	treffen
to create	erschaffen
to finish	beenden

5. Adjectives

Using adjectives in your speech or writing can add a layer of meaning and help you better express yourself. To get you started, here are a few beginner German adjectives in different categories. 

Describing Objects

English	German
big	groß
small	klein
long	lang
short	kurz
round	rund
rectangular	rechteckig
smooth	glatt
rough	rau

Describing People

English	German
pretty	hübsch
handsome	gutaussehend
tall	groß
short	klein
disgusting	ekelhaft
sociable	kontaktfreudig
funny	lustig
beautiful	schön
lovely	lieblich
caring	fürsorglich
selfless	selbstlos
arrogant	arrogant
humble	bescheiden
courageous	mutig
weak	schwach
strong	stark
quirky	schrullig

Describing Emotions

Being able to describe our own emotions is critical for well-being and also helps us better understand others. Here’s a list of adjectives for describing emotions:

English	German
happy	glücklich
sad	traurig
joyful	freudig
angry	sauer
depressed	depressiv
anxious	ängstlich
stressed out	gestresst
jolly	fröhlich

Describing Weather

English	German
rainy	regnerisch
wet	nass
humid	feucht
dry	trocken
arid	dürr
cool	kühl
frigid	kalt
foggy	neblig
windy	windig
stormy	stürmisch
breezy	luftig
windless	windstill
calm	ruhig

6. Conjunctions

English	German
and	und
but	aber
then	dann
because	weil
so	so / also

7. Others

Below is a short list of filler words that Germans use in their conversations. Using these will make you sound like a native and they’ll come in handy in many situations.

English	German
I see (sudden understanding)	ach so
sure	klar
simply	halt
well	tja
already	schon

8. Conclusion

Armed with these German beginner words, you’ll be able to understand even more of the spoken language than you may have thought (thanks to those nifty word combinations!). How many of these words were new to you? And how many did you know already? We look forward to hearing from you in the comments! 

As you read more German, pay attention to how different words are composed. You’ll often notice they can be broken down into parts, which will help you derive their meanings more easily. 

Your goal should be to learn around 1000 German words; statistically, that’d cover 85.5% of all words you hear.

In other words, if you learn 1000 words, you’ll be able to speak German almost fluently. You’ll only have issues expressing yourself 14.5% of the time.

Memorize the 200+ from our list, and you’ll only be 800 words away from fluency.

Wondering where and how to learn those other 800 words?

Buckle up and head to GermanPod101.com.

Here, you can access lessons and word lists for the most important day-to-day vocabulary. Our lessons all feature the most effective learning tools, such as flashcards, slideshows, slowed-down audio, line-by-line breakdowns, and more.

You can also opt for 1-on-1 guidance from a language expert to answer your questions. Your private tutor can even give you a personalized learning program to match your learning goals.

You can get all of this and more by signing up for free on the GermanPod101 website.

No credit card or unnecessary information required.

Sign up here and access our materials from your desktop or mobile phone.

If you’ve ever been on a German Autobahn, you’ve seen this sign:

To English speakers it is a funny word that sounds a lot like the English word fart.

Now…what exactly does the German word “Ausfahrt” have to do with the English meaning of “fart”?

To be exact … nothing.

However it has everything to do with the German love for making new words by simply putting together existing words.

A Ride Through German Wordland

“Ausfahrt”, the German word for exit, is a combination of two words: “aus”, meaning out of, and “Fahrt”, meaning journey or drive.

It really means: “Good-bye and have a good trip”

If you’d like to wish someone a pleasant journey, you say, “Auf Wiedersehen und gute Fahrt”.

If you translated each word literally it would mean, “To again-seeing and good journey.”

What it really means is “Good-bye and have a good trip.”

Pretty logical, if you ask me: you’re driving out of something, so the “drive-out” is called Aus-Fahrt.

You might be thinking that you could Aus-Fahrt from this page and try a  free practical German lesson too, but your German teacher would definitely have a better suggestion for how to say that.

Einfahrt to McDonalds

Einfahrt is the German word for entrance.

Now that you know the word “Fahrt” you can use it for other combinations as well:

The “Einfahrt” is a combination of “ein”, meaning “in” or “into”, and — “Fahrt”, you guessed it. Any clue what an Einfahrt is, then? Right, an into-drive, literally, or an entrance.

Pedestrians Never Einfahrt

On a side note, “Ausfahrt” and “Einfahrt” can only refer to exits and entrances for vehicles. “Fahrt” means “drive” or “journey”, so only vehicles which can be driven (or ridden, such as a bike, a bus, a train, etc.) can drive into or out of the Ausfahrt or Einfahrt.

An example of the word “Ausfahrt” used in a sentence could be the following:

Die Ausfahrt ist links. The exit is left. The exit is on the left-hand side.

Nimm diese Ausfahrt! Take this exit!

Die Ausfahrt ist eng. The exit is narrow.

Solving the German Language Word Puzzle

The German language is basically a big word puzzle. But once you understand that big long scary looking words are usually combinations of short simple words that you already know, the German word puzzle gets a lot easier.

Feurerwehrzufahrt. Yes, that’s all one word and it means “Firebrigade entrance.”

If you take the simple word “Fahrt” and add different prefixes, you get all kinds of fun signs. Take a look at this sign: Feuerwehrzufahrt. That means firebrigade entrance and yes it’s really all one big word. However if you start taking the word apart it’s simple.

Let’s start with the bottom part of the word. Zufahrt is a composite of the puzzle pieces „zu“ and „Fahrt“, „zu“ meaning „to“. A “Zufahrt”, therefore, is the way to something. Obviously feuerwehrzufahrt literally would literally translate as “Firebrigade to ride or journey.”

Now that you know the word “Fahrt“ and its derivatives you’ll be a better driver in Germany and German train travel will be easier as well.

Abfahrt is made up of “ab” and “Fahrt”. By now you know what Fahrt means. “Ab” is the German word for “off”: The departure, or “off-drive”, literally, is the time when the train takes off. Isn’t German wonderfully logical?

The Precise German Language

Germans are exact (or so we like to say), and our language is exact as well. That’s why we have specific words for things other languages have to describe with complete sentences.

Instead of saying “the way there”, for example, we piece together the preposition “hin”, which means “to, towards, there” and the word “Fahrt” and get, voilà, “Hinfahrt”, literally, “to-drive”, or the way there. One word instead of three!

You probably figured by now that there’s a word for the way back as well: It’s “Rückfahrt”, “rück” being a short form of “zurück”, which means back, and our old friend “Fahrt”, once again.

To say you’d like a single ticket (not a round trip) in German, you’d say to the ticket agent: “Nur die Hinfahrt, bitte”. Literally this translates as, “Only the there-drive, please.” and it really means, “I only want a one way ticket please.”

Of course, you can piece together different nouns as well:

Radfahrt – a composite of “Rad” (bike) and “Fahrt” (journey), “Autofahrt” – consisting of “Auto” (car) and “Fahrt” (drive), “Bahnfahrt” – puzzled together out of “Bahn” (train) and “Fahrt” (journey). I’ll stop here, but the list goes on.

And all this with one simple word that sounds funny to most English ears: “Fahrt”.

Big German Words are Made From Little German Words

The German love for precision and word combining can get out of hand though. There are words that seemingly stretch over a whole page. To give you an example:

Fahrt. (drive/journey)

Schifffahrt. Schiff (ship) + Fahrt (drive/journey) = shipping

Binnenschifffahrt. Binnen (inside) + Schiff (ship) + Fahrt (drive/journey) = inland navigation

Binnenschifffahrtsstraßen. Binnen (inside) + Schiff (ship) + Fahrt (drive/journey) + Straßen (streets) = inland waterways

Binnenschifffahrtsstraßenordnung. Binnen (inside) + Schiff (ship) + Fahrt (drive/journey) + Straßen (streets) + Ordnung (order) = traffic regulations for inland navigation

Binnenschifffahrtsstraßensordnungsparagraf. Binnen (inside) + Schiff (ship) + Fahrt (drive/journey) + Straßen (streets) + Ordnung (order) + Paragraf (paragraph) = paragraph in the traffic regulations for inland navigation

Having fun yet? That’s German for you! It’s very exact.

The good news is that the really big words are almost always combinations of little words which makes learning and understanding them a LOT easier.

Do You Want to Learn German?

If you are planning on traveling to Germany or if you are already in German, you will definitely have a LOT more fun if you can speak at least a little German.

This German learning program is very good at getting you conversational basics very quickly.