The Complete Guide to German Separable Verbs

The German language has many fascinating and intricate aspects, but separable verbs frequently present challenges for learners.

Today, we will explore everything about separable verbs, including their usage, when to separate them and when not to. I have organized this information into simple steps and reduced the amount you need to memorize.

What Are German Separable Verbs?

In German, some verbs split into two parts when used in the present tense. Although this might seem unusual—to break a word apart during normal use—English does something similar. In English, these are known as “phrasal verbs.”

For instance, think about what you do with a library book: do you check it? No. You check it out. You might also check for the book while looking through the shelves (to confirm it is there). And when you return it, you ensure it gets checked back in—after the librarian has checked it over to confirm you haven't marked it with crayon or spilled a drink on the cover.

Simply by adding a preposition (a word that indicates the relationship between two things, like in, on, at, over, under, etc.), we alter the verb's meaning.

In German, many verbs consist of a prefix (often a preposition) and a core verb. Adding a prefix to a core verb changes its meaning.

This also happens in English—we can modify the meanings of some English verbs by adding a preposition, but in English, it comes after the verb as a separate word. Consider the phrasal verbs get along, get over and get down. All three include “get,” but changing the following preposition shifts the meaning from having a good relationship to recovering from something to dancing enthusiastically. The prepositions (or in German, the prefixes) significantly change the meaning!

Now, when you begin with a German separable verb, known in German as a trennbares verb (separable verb), you might first encounter it in the infinitive form. This is advisable if you prefer to keep things simple.

For example, aufstehen (“stand up” or “get up”) literally means “upstand” or “upget” since the preposition is attached to the front. If you want to state what time you get up in the morning, you detach the auf- from the trennbares Verb (aufstehen), place it at the sentence's end, and conjugate stehen as usual:

Ich stehe um sieben Uhr auf. (I get up at seven o’clock.)

Let’s try another with the verb zuhören (to listen to).

To say “I listen to you,” separate the zu- from the front and put it at the end, again conjugating the main verb, hören, according to the subject:

Ich höre dir zu. (I listen to you.)

Also, remember we use dir and not dich or du here because it's in the dative case. What a wonderfully straightforward language!

As a final common example, if you call your friend, you use the verb anrufen (to call), which becomes:

Ich rufe meine Freundin an. (I call my friend.)

Just like English phrasal verbs, these separable verbs can confuse learners, but they appear in many everyday expressions. Therefore, learning them is essential for achieving full proficiency in the language.

Be careful of prefixes—not all of them are separable!

There are numerous examples of prefixes that change word meanings. Many are prepositions but, similar to English, some are not standalone words, but simply prefixes.

Consider the verb laufen (to walk). Well, sich verlaufen means to go astray. So you might think, “Ah ha! Here we have a prefix, ver, attached to the verb's beginning. I know what to do when conjugating it. I put the prefix at the sentence's end and conjugate the core verb normally.”

Unfortunately, that is incorrect here.

If you said “Ich laufe mich ver,” your sentence would be wrong and confuse your listener. That means “I walk me… ver” with the prefix ver- awkwardly placed in the middle, lacking a clear standalone meaning.

It is true that ver- is a prefix and it is attached to a core verb (a verb that would be fine without it), but this is not a separable verb. This is a non-separable verb. Here, you keep the prefix in place and conjugate the rest of the word normally:

Ich verlaufe mich. (I go astray.)

Before you start using separable verbs in German, you should keep reading. Ich empfehle es. (I recommend it.) Notice how I slipped that example in? Empfehlen (to recommend) has the prefix emp-, which does not separate from the core verb, so we leave it there and work around it, conjugating the core verb normally.

How do you know if a prefix or verb is separable?

Fortunately, you don't need to memorize every verb and whether it is separable. You can just remember which prefixes detach and which do not. To minimize effort, you only need to recall the list of non-separable verb prefixes; it's shorter and easier to remember.

The following are non-separable prefixes:

• be-
• ent-
• emp-
• er-
• ge-
• miss-
• ver-
• zer-

That’s it. You’re finished. Really, it's that simple. Seriously!

For example:

Kaufen (to buy): Ich kaufe einen Apfel. (I buy an apple.) No prefix. Easy.

Einkaufen (to shop or to buy): Ich kaufe einen Apfel ein. (I buy an apple.) Notice that this prefix isn't on our non-separable list? Then detach that ein and place it at the end.

Verkaufen (to sell): Ich verkaufe einen Apfel. (I sell an apple.) Here we have the prefix ver-, which is on our non-separable list, so we leave it in place.

One side note: the distinction between kaufen and einkaufen can sometimes be unclear, so you might want to read more about that.

And just for fun, here’s another example:

Sprechen (to speak): Wir sprechen Deutsch. (We speak German.) No prefix, no issue.

Absprechen (to agree): Wir sprechen den Preis ab. (We agree on the price.) Here we have a prefix not on our non-separable list, ab, so we remove it from the verb and place it at the end.

Versprechen (to promise): Wir versprechen, nur Deutsch zu sprechen. (We promise to only speak German.) That ver- is a non-separable prefix so we leave it alone.

All other prefixes, which you can read about with their definitions, are separable prefixes.

So unless it's one of those few non-separable prefixes listed above, you can be sure it separates and you can safely conjugate the core verb and put the prefix at the end. Here’s a handout for testing yourself on separable and non-separable verbs.

Of course, there are exceptions to every rule, and here three prefixes sometimes separate and sometimes don't. For more on that, see this post about separable verbs on the Deutsched website.

Now that you know how to identify verbs with separable and non-separable prefixes—and how to practice them in context—let's look at when you actually need to apply this knowledge.

When to Separate Separable Verbs

Here are three tips that cover most situations. We'll start with when not to separate a verb.

1. Do not separate them when used with modal verbs

If you use a separable verb in the infinitive form, it remains together. That's the straightforward part. This means if you're using it with a modal verb, you can place the entire separable verb at the clause's end and not worry about it further.

For example:

Ich will Geld ausgeben. (I want to spend money.)

Sure, aus- is a separable prefix. Notice it's not on our short non-separable list above? But here we're using it in the infinitive because it follows the modal verb wollen (to want), conjugated in first person singular present tense: will (want). So we don't separate it.

Bonus example:

Ich werde es abgeben. (I will give it up.)

Ab- is also a separable prefix, but that doesn't matter here because it's used with a modal verb so we keep it in its infinitive form. When a separable verb follows a modal verb, we leave it intact. Treat it like any infinitive verb. Nothing special here. Move along.

2. Separate them when used in the imperative

For giving directions or commands, you'll need to know the imperative form. To tell someone to wash their hands, wasche deine Hände ab is a useful phrase. Notice how abwaschen (wash off) has a separable prefix and in the imperative, that prefix detaches and goes to the end.

3. Separate them when used as participles

Participles are quite useful. We'll focus on three uses: present perfect, past perfect, and as participial adjectives.

If your eyes glazed over, come back! Don't worry, we're still on separable verbs. When a separable verb is a past or present perfect participle, the ge- normally added to a word's front is inserted after the separable prefix of a separable verb.

This definitely needs an example or two:

Das Wasser ist gelaufen. (The water has run.)

Das Wasser ist ausgelaufen. (The water has run out.)

Another grammatical note: you might recall we use ist instead of hat here for our helping verb because this is an intransitive verb indicating a new state. For more, see transitive verbs.

Here’s another example:

Ich bin gegangen. (I went.)

Ich bin eingegangen. (I went in.)

And if you want to use the participle as an adjective, for example, describing your freshly washed hands, you can refer to your abgewaschenen Hände (washed-off hands). Notice again, the ge- normally at the verb's front here goes between ab- and waschenen because abwaschen is a separable verb. See that prefix?

Enough about participles.

Where to Separate and Place Separable Verbs

By now, you likely understand where the separation occurs when dividing separable verbs, but if you want to see a detailed list of prefixes and their meanings, you'll know exactly where to split the verb or insert the ge-.

The rule is always to separate between the prefix and the core verb.

Here’s a basic example:

Ich habe es abgesprochen. (I arranged it.)

See how the ge- goes between the ab- and the gesprochen? But you already knew that, right?

Just to be doubly sure, try this one:

Die Milch ist abgelaufen. (The milk has expired.)

A word on negation: to negate separable verbs, put the nicht right before the prefix.

Zum Beispiel (for example), we would say “he washed his hands” as:

Er wäscht sich seine Hände ab.

If Herr Muster (Mr. Sample) is a bit of a slob, we can say:

Er wäscht sich seine Hände nicht ab. (He doesn’t wash his hands off.) Eww!

Tips for Learning and Using Separable Verbs

It's amazing how much computing power many of us carry in our pockets, purses, or backpacks nowadays. When you want to learn something, your smartphone is a great first step, whether you need to look up translations online or use apps to memorize vocabulary or understand language rules.

To master German separable verbs, try an app like Quizlet and search for flashcards on German separable prefixes. There are many sets available, and if none suit you, you can always create your own.

Since separable verbs often share common core verbs, it's also important to learn those core verbs and their meanings. This is something you'll want to do when learning any new language: learn the verbs.

You can use language learning programs like Lingflix to find more examples of these words used naturally in authentic German videos. Lingflix takes authentic videos—like music videos, movie trailers, news, and inspiring talks—and turns them into personalized language lessons.

Lingflix also lets you create multimedia flashcard decks to study these verbs and review them through personalized quizzes. If you're unsure when to use a verb, you can search for it to see how native speakers use it in various contexts.

But if you want to focus specifically on separable verbs, study the meanings of the prefixes and prepositions used in them. For a list, see this great post on the meanings of German prefixes.

Learning German doesn't have to be difficult. In fact, taking it step by step makes it almost effortless.

German separable verbs become easier once you have a good grasp of a few core verbs and know which prefixes separate. With that knowledge, you can use separable verbs confidently. Soon, your verb separation anxiety will be a thing of the past.