Separable and Inseparable Prefixes-Study Page

There were strange sentences in our dialogue, with a short word at the end:

Ulrike geht zur Tür und macht auf.
Komm doch rein.
Sie schenken Andreas eine Tasse Kaffee ein .
Er zieht heute noch ein.

Then you had to learn the verbs in their infinitive forms, with the short word now serving as a prefix:

aufmachen
reinkommen
einschenken
einziehen

Obviously, these verbs seem to split up when you use them in a conjugated form. Funny, isn't it? Let me explain!

In German, we talk about separable and inseparable prefixes. You have already learned some German verbs made of a stem and an inseparable prefix, like ge-fallen. Inseparable prefixes change the meaning of the verb in most cases. The verb gefallen comes from the verb fallen; fallen means to fall, gefallen means to please. Quite different meanings!

However, you also have a number of verb prefixes that separate themselves from the verb when used in the present tense. Once separated, these prefixes move to the end of the sentence.

We have to tell you a little more about the separable prefixes.

They are not separated from the verb when the verb is used as infinitive or as participle. They are separated in the finite forms (the ones with person and number) and in all tenses.
In the infinitive or participle of a verb with a separable prefix, the prefix carries the word accent!
In many cases, the separable prefixes do not change the meaning of the verb, but specify its meaning.

kommen, to come	reinkommen (=hereinkommen), to come in
ziehen, to move	einziehen, to move in
schenken, to give as a gift	einschenken, to pour (hospitably!)

Two-word verbs in English

In English you have two-word verbs that are a little bit like the German verbs with "separable prefixes". They consist of a verb plus a preposition--only the preposition extends the meaning of the verb and has no object of its own.

bring up (raise children)
put off (postpone)
try out (test)
count out (exclude)

The preposition is separable in that it comes after the object of the verb, towards the end of the sentence, like the German separable prefix:

My parents brought us up to respect the law.
Let's put this meeting off.
They tried the car out.
We will have to count John out. (But: Please count out the money.)

Why would we say "count me out" but "count out the cards"? Keep studying German and you will see that it is easier to identify and understand these different verb formations than it is in English.