German Inseparable Prefixes

Learn about inseparable prefixes on German verbs

     

Need more German? Try the German courses at Udemy, the videos with subtitles and translations at Yabla German and FluentU, the audio and video lessons at GermanPod101.com, and the German Interlinear book with English translations

---

Buy German Language Tutorial as a PDF e-book! German Language Tutorial includes a vocabulary and grammar review of the German language, with German realia photos taken in Germany and Austria so you can see how the language is used in real life. The PDF e-book and 127 mp3s recorded by two native speakers (most of which are not online) are available for immediate download with FREE lifetime updates. Thank you for supporting ielanguages.com! Download the first ten pages of German Language Tutorial (including the table of contents).

Buy German Language Tutorial

---

If you'd like to download the mp3s, please purchase German Language Tutorial.

German Inseparable Prefixes

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

These prefixes always remain attached to their infinitives.  The inseparable prefixes are unstressed syllables, as compared to the separable prefixes which can stand alone as different words.  Some examples of verbs with inseparable prefixes are besuchen - to visit, erzählen - to tell, gewinnen - to win, and versprechen - to promise.

Unter and über can function as separable prefixes, but they are much more commonly used as inseparable prefixes.  When prefixes are stressed, they are separable; when they are not stressed, they are inseparable.  The stress on the following verbs in not on the prefix, so they are all inseparable: unterhalten - to entertain, unternehmen - to undertake, überholen - to overtake, and übersetzen - to translate.

 

---