3 Switching on and off: separable verbs

Hallo! Ich bin die Caroline, and today we are going to look at separable verbs, or trennbare Verben, as they’re called in German.

Okay, so first of all, what are they? A separable verb in the infinitive has a main part which is usually another verb, which you are already familiar with, probably, and a prefix. So, if we begin, I think if I click we’ll get the main verb, sehen, which you know means ‘to see’, and the prefix is fern. Which as I said in the previous video, about television statistics, it literally means ‘to see far’. So, I think that’s a wonderful word, much better than ‘watching TV’, to see what’s going on a long way away. You can see that what happens when you conjugate the verb, that’s to say when you use it with a person or a thing or some sort of subject, this prefix goes to the end. So here are some examples. Ich sehe jeden Abend fern. Siehst du auch oft fern? And the reply: Ja, wir sehen eigentlich zu viel fern. First person says: Ich auch, und mein Mann sieht auch zu viel fern. Notice: siehst du and sieht. These are the irregular bits of sehen, where there’s a vowel change in the second and third person singular. So in the du, and in the er, sie, es. Siehst du, and mein Mann sieht. And then: Die Kinder sehen auch viel zuviel fern. Much too much television. And the last one: Ich möchte das ganze Wochenende… I’ve left a space. Just to remind (no not to remind you, you may not have come across this), just to say that with modal verbs, the infinitive is used, and the two parts go back together. So: Ich möchte das ganze Wochenende fernsehen. So, you can see with modal verbs it’s not separated, just goes back to the straightforward infinitive, which is kind of logical, because that’s what the infinitive is, and the infinitive is what you use with modal verbs. Modal verbs include: müssen, having to; können, ich kann, to be able to; dürfen, ich darf, to be allowed to; sollen, to ought to (not very good English!); and wollen, to want to. I think that’s most of them.

Okay, jetzt üben wir. And what I’d like you to do is to use this infinitive: den Fernseher anschalten, meaning ‘switch on the television’, in the first person with ich. So, I’m going to count to ten in my head while you think of what you would put, and then I’ll bring up the answer. Ich schalte den Fernseher an. Okay? So, the infinitive has separated out into the verb and the prefix. So, the next one: umschalten, which means to change channel constantly. Um often has a lot to do with change when its used as a prefix in separable verbs . So, ‘my son is changing channels every five minutes’ [alle 5 Minuten umschalten/ mein Sohn]. So, I’ll give you a little while to work out the answer to that. Mein Sohn schaltet alle 5 Minuten um. Next one has got ich möchte, so be careful with whether or not you’re going to separate the prefix from the verb [den Fernseher ausschalten/ ich möchte]. Ich möchte den Fernseher ausschalten, you can see that you don’t separate it because the actual verb is ich möchte, and ausschalten stays in the infinitive, and the infinitive doesn’t separate the prefix from the verb. Ich möchte den Fernseher ausschalten, aber meine Tochter hat die Fernbedienung. And you can see that is the Tochter mit der Fernbedienung, looking very happy, and definitely not about to give up control of that remote. Okay, and the last one. The verb is anfangen. I should warn you its irregular, and it has a vowel change from, in the second and third person singular. So you would say du fängst something an, and I’m not quite sure what you would put in the rest of that sentence, but certainly in the third person singular the vowel change is to fängt. So that’s important for you to know for this one. And it means to start. So it‘s um 8 Uhr anfangen, and die Sendung. Die Sendung fängt um 8 Uhr an. And if you listen very carefully you will hear my dog having a drink in the background, which he always does when I’m trying to record. I’ve got everything else quiet, but the dog goes and has a little drink. Never mind, onwards!

Okay, so now we’re going to practice some more, weiter üben, and I just wanted to emphasize that because we’ve used verbs, a lot of verbs to do with watching television, that separable verbs are by no means limited to one topic. So, I’ve chosen another topic where there are a lot of them, but they can be used for any topic, any, you know, they crop up all over the place. You’ll find a lot of them whatever you’re talking about. So, let’s practise this one. Um 7 Uhr ankommen, with wir. Whoops, I did the wrong one! Um 10 Uhr abfahren/der Zug: Der Zug fährt um 10 Uhr ab. And you can see, just a reminder, fahren is irregular, so der Zug fährt um 10 Uhr ab. You’ll begin to get a feeling of what these prefixes mean. Ab is generally moving away from where you are. And the next one: um 7 Uhr ankommen. An is generally moving towards where you are. I’d like you to do this one with wir [um 7 Ukr ankommen / wir]. Wir kommen um 7 Uhr an. Okay, the next one: In Hamburg aussteigen [in Hamburg aussteigen/ sie]. Aus means, as a preposition it means ‘out of’, and it has a similar sense when it’s used as part of a separable verb. So, its ‘getting out’, get out of the train. Literally, you climb out of the train. And the answer is: Sie steigen in Hamburg aus. With the next one, I‘ve introduced Sie müssen [in Hamburg aussteigen / Sie müssen], so can you remember the rule for where you have a modal verb? Sie müssen in Hamburg aussteigen. So, no separation of the prefix when its with a modal verb. Next one, oops I did that to fast for you, sorry! Clicked on them both, never mind. Ich steige in Rostock um. And again, that is said with umschalten, that um tends to be to do with changing. So, ‘I change trains in Rostock’. And the last one: Ich muss in Rostock umsteigen. I must change trains in Rostock. Again, the infinitive here with no separation. Okay, so separable verbs aren’t limited to travelling by train either any more than they are to fernsehen. And you will come across a lot more of them in the course.

So now, we say danke für die Bilder, there weren’t many of them, but I’m always grateful for pictures, I think they do a huge amount to enhance learning and make it more fun.

Ja, okay, that’s it. Ich wünsche Ihnen viel Spaẞ beim Weiterlernen. Tschüs!