Learn about German prefixes
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| Chuck: This is Advanced Focus Lesson 10. |
| Judith: Willkommen! |
| Chuck: Welcome to another Advanced Focus Lesson. Here we improve our understanding of German vocabulary by analyzing verb prefixes. |
| Judith: When you understand how a German word came to be, you’ll find it a lot easier to remember this word and to use it correctly. |
| Chuck: So, which prefix are we looking at today? |
| Judith: Today we shall look at several related prefixes actually. [ein, hinein] and [herein]. |
| Chuck: Three prefixes in one lesson. Wow, that’s a good value. But before we dive into the lesson, I want to remind our listeners about the free vocabulary trainer in our learning center. |
| Judith: Yes, you can practice your vocabulary right there! In the learning center of GermanPod101.com, we even added the words from this lesson already, so you don’t need to add them yourself. |
| Chuck: For this lesson, you can find not just the word we mention here but also some other useful words that use today’s prefixes. |
| Judith: I hope you will use this tool to improve your German by leaps and bounds. But, let’s speak German now. |
| Chuck: Okay. |
| Judith: [Alle Vorsilben, die wir besprechen, spalten sich ab]. |
| Chuck: All prefixes we’ll discuss today are split off. |
| Judith: [Fangen wir an mit “ein”]. |
| Chuck: [ein] has the meaning of “inside” and it’s often translated as “in”. |
| Judith: [Zum Beispiel “einbrechen”]. |
| Chuck: “To break in”. |
| Judith: [eindringen]. |
| Chuck: “To intrude”. |
| Judith: [Oder “einfügen”]. |
| Chuck: “To paste in”. Are there other examples that English does not use in? |
| Judith: [Natürlich, zum Beispiel sich “einschreiben”]. |
| Chuck: “To write in”, but you said only without “in”. |
| Judith: It means “to register at the university”. Or there’s also [einfallen]. |
| Chuck: “Fall in”? |
| Judith: “To have an idea” or [einsehen]. |
| Chuck: “To see in”. |
| Judith: “To see in and finally accept something”. |
| Chuck: [Ah, jetzt einsehen]. |
| Judith: [Jetzt sehe ich es ein], but don’t forget that they split. |
| Chuck: Of course. [Jetzt sehe ich es ein]. Okay, so moving to the other prefixes, what’s the deal with [hinein] and [herein]? |
| Judith: [her] is always a movement towards the speaker, where else [hin] is a movement away from the speaker. These are also prefixes in their own right. For example, both [hinsehen] and [hersehen] is “to look at something”, but in the case of [hinsehen], the direction of looking is away from the speaker. In the case of [hersehen], it’s in the direction of the speaker. |
| Chuck: So, [Sieh hin] is “look there”, where else [Sieh her] is “look here”. |
| Judith: That makes it more clear, [danke]. |
| Chuck: And what about [hinein] versus [herein]? |
| Judith: Both of them have the meaning of “into”, so unlike [ein], it’s a direction. [Herein] is used when the speaker is inside and [hinein] is used when the speaker is outside. It’s the same idea of moving towards the speaker or away from him. |
| Chuck: So, let me get this right. To see in can be either [hineinsehen] or [hereinsehen], it’s the same thing? |
| Judith: Yes, but you have to remember that the two are not interchangeable. If you’re inside, you have to say [Er sieht herein] and if you’re outside, you have to say [Er sieht hinein]. |
| Chuck: Let me summarize. [Ein] for something that’s unmoving inside, [herein for moving into a place and towards the speaker, [hinein] for moving into a place away from the speaker. |
| Judith: Yeah, you got it. |
| Chuck: Well, it’s logical I guess. But that does take some time getting used to. Especially to use when speaking. |
| Judith: Start practicing now! |
| Chuck: [Herein, Herein]! Oh, not right now? |
| Judith: The sooner you start, the sooner you will master this unique feature of German. |
| Chuck: And the best place to practice German is still GermanPod101’s learning center. I think you should’ve known this earlier, but let’s say it again that it has all kinds of exercises there. |
| Judith: So, see you there! |
| Chuck: Until the next time! |
| Judith: [Bis nächstes Mal]! |
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