With ver- You Go down the Drain

In the German language you can make an expression shorter or more elegant by using verbs with prefixes. Even your demise will be a brief affair. Just add the prefix ver-.

It is bad enough when Don Giovanni stabs the Commendatore with his sword. The man bleeds.

Der Mann blutet.

As we all know the worst happens. When he bleeds to death three little letters (ver) join bluten and lead it to it’s deadly conclusion: verbluten. Der Commendatore verblutet.

In many instances, adding the prefix ver– worses things or messes them up, or leads into inevitable death.

Die Blumen blühen. Nice, a wonderful symbol of life.
Die Blumen verblühen. Down they go. No happy ending.

Das Haus brennt. Call the fire department!
Das Haus verbrennt. Only ashes will be left.

Die Suppe dampft. Steaming. A joy on a cold day.
Die Suppe verdampft. Too long on the stove; soon the soup will be evaporated, the pot will be empty, and we’ll go hungry:

Wir hungern.
If we do not find food, we will starve to death. Wir verhungern.

A ship can sinken, but there is still a chance to grab a life boat. Once the ship is submerged, it is versunken (which is the participle of versinken).

The noun Massel (der or das, both articles are possible) means unexpected (and sometimes undeserved) luck, and stems from the Hebrew word massal (star, destiny).

Du hast Massel, du kannst an der Staatsoper vorsingen. You are pretty lucky, my friend. You can audition at the Staatsoper.

But: Der Pianist vermasselt die Arie. The pianist messes up the aria.

Often we have to use the verb only in retrospect, because we do not know if the house verbrennt while it is burning or the soup verdampft while it is cooking. We must create the perfect tense. Because these ver-verbs describe a changing state (a change from A to B), we need to use sein as auxiliary verb.

Die Blumen sind verblüht. Die Suppe ist verdampft. Das Haus ist verbrannt.

Do not mix up ver-verbs. If you got lost on your way to the agent’s office, you are not verloren (lost). Just add ver– to laufen and approach a stranger and say, “Ich habe mich verlaufen.” The stranger will give you directions. If you say, “Ich bin verloren,” as you would do in English, the stranger will hug and comfort you. You just stated that you are doomed.

You get lost according to the means of transportation:

laufen – sich verlaufen
fahren – sich verfahren
fliegen – sich verfliegen (if you are a pilot or a pigeon.)

Please note, that these verbs are reflexive. If you express them in perfect tense you need to use the auxiliary verb haben as you have to with all reflexive verbs.
Often the ver-prefix can take another meaning, depending if the verb is reflexive or not.

sprechen: Ich verspreche mich. I misspeak.

But: Ich verspreche viel Geld. I promise a lot of money.

lassen: Ich verlasse mich auf den Repetiteur. I rely on the répétiteur.

But: Ich verlasse meine Freundin. I leave my girl friend.

However, be not afraid of the prefix ver– in matters of the heart. Lieben (to love) is impossible without sich verlieben (to fall in love).

The prefix ver– has also another job. It can breathe life into adjektives and turn them into an actvity, a verb:

besser: verbessern, schlecht: verschlechtern, kurz: verkürzen, lang: verlängern.

Some verbs with ver– do not relate to its stem verb:

versagen (to fail), verbringen (to spend time), vergessen (to forget).

The ver-prefix is the champion. Among the non-separable prefixes of verbs it takes number one with 45 per cent, followed by be- (25 percent) and ent- (15 percent), and er- (10 percent).

To conclude this little article, I have decorated some verbs and one adjective with the prefix ver– with the hope you can find out their meaning:

verklingen, versorgen, verdreifachen, vervierfachen, versichern, verheizen, verdünnen, verschreiben.

If you have typed the wrong word into the search engine and landed on this blog, you must admit: Ich habe mich vergoogelt.

Return next week when we examine in part III of this mini series the prefixes ent- and er-.

Verbs: A Little Prefix Can Change Your Life (I)

 

Although no sentence, no statement of any significance, can do out without them, verbs appear in the German language in pretty small numbers. No more than two percent of the German vocabulary are verbs: only 900 to 1.000 words. However, the German language has a nice tool to make them look larger than life: the prefix, little guys consisting of two or three letters who can be attached to many verbs. There are only a dozen of them, but they can increase the meaning of a verb exponentially and quadruple the chance of a life-changing misunderstanding.

Don’t tinker with prefixes like an-, auf-, zu-, er-, ver-, emp-, ein-, aus-, ge- etc. unless you know exactly what you want to say.

With the verb fallen for example you can simply fall. With the prefix auf– , thus auffallen, you stand out, with ver– as in verfallen things decline or fall apart , with ge– as in gefallen you will please.

Lady Gaga muss immer auffallen.

Mein Haus in Berlin verfällt.

Ich gefalle dem Regisseur.

In part I of my little series about prefixes (Vorsilbe) we are going to look at the prefix be-.

The prefix be– is especially treacherous because very often (not always) it does not change the meaning of the verb directly. A moment ago, staunen (to be astonished) was a nice, independent verb, only committed to the subject of the sentence, something that is capable of staunen, a human being or some animal. Die Touristen staunen.

Now, with the prefix be– it needs an object, something to marvel at: Die Touristen bestaunen das Teatro Colón, the great opera theater in Buenos Aires.

In many cases (not in all cases), the prefix be– changes an intransitive verb, a verb that does not have an object like leben (to live), into a transitive verb, a verb that needs an object, like beleben (to revive, to revitalize, to activate).

Die Kinder leben.

Die Kinder beleben die Atmosphäre im Haus.

Other examples are…

– lügen (to lie) > belügen (to lie to someone): Das Volk belügt die Politiker (just kidding);

– zahlen (to pay) > bezahlen (to pay for something): Ich bezahle das Bier (no kidding);

– urteilen (to judge, to pronounce a judgement) > beurteilen (to judge or to evaluate something or someone): Die Kritiker beurteilen den Tenor.
– lächeln (to smile) > belächeln (to smile at something or someone condescendingly): Die Diva belächelt den Bühnenarbeiter.

Other verbs change their objects after they got aquainted with be-. The verb singen can stand alone, like the soprano on the stage: Sie singt. It can have an object, too: Sie singt das Schubert-Lied.

With besingen however, she celebrates or praises something. She sings the Schubert-Lied, but sie besingt die Liebe.

Beethoven besingt die Freiheit in Fidelio.

Other examples are…

– antworten (to answer a person, dative) > beantworten (to answer a letter, e-mail, twitter, questions etc.)

Wir antworten dem Freund. Wir beantworten seine E-Mail.

– schenken (to give something as a gift) > beschenken (to give a gift to a person),

Ich schenke (der Sängerin) Blumen. Ich beschenke die Sängerin (mit Blumen).

– bauen (to build a building) > bebauen (to build a building on something, for instance, a piece of land),

Die Stadt baut eine neue Oper. Die Stadt bebaut ein Stück Land.

– fahren (to drive a vehicle) > befahren > (to drive a vehicle on a street, alley, Autobahn etc.).

Der Bariton fährt einen Porsche. Viele Autos befahren die Autobahn nach Hamburg.

Sometimes, be– modifies the verb’s meaning:

– fragen (to ask a question) > befragen (to consult, to canvass, to interrogate, to survey)

– grüßen (to greet) > begrüßen (to welcome someone)

– raten (to advice) > beraten (to consult)

Next week: With ver- You Go Down the Drain

Spit over Your Shoulder! Toi! Toi! Toi!

 

Although the opera houses in the German speaking countries are very different in their artistic emphasis, their repertoire, roots and traditions, they, nevertheless, have one thing in common: The people who work here – singers, directors, administrative and stage workers – share the same superstitions (der Aberglaube).

– Never whistle

Nobody ever whistles inside an opera house, not even after a phenomenal salary raise that makes everybody happy. To whistle a song or even the little minuet from “Don Giovanni” is not allowed, nor is it permissible to whistle to call or signal to a person.

– Greet always with “toi, toi, toi”

Everybody who comes across a singer before a performance on or behind the stage or in the corridors of the theater is required to greet them with “toi, toi, toi.” Toi stands for “Teufel”, the devil; no one less should hold the artist’s fate in his hands. It means “good luck” although to wish “viel Glück” is considered inappropriate, a greeting from an outsider.

– Don’t respond to a greeting

After hearing “toi, toi, toi,” the artist passes by without uttering a word. The artist must shut his or her mouth; there is no other way. To thank the greeter or to say something else will bring bad luck. For polite people from the English speaking world it will be difficult to be silent when a person wishes them all the best, but it is essential for their success in the upcoming performance.

– You can wear a hat on stage, but don’t eat or drink

What happens on stage during the day is also crucial for the success of the evening’s performance. During the rehearsals, only actors or singers are allowed to wear a hat. Everybody else who enters the stage with a cap or a hat on his or her head will be kicked out. Eating and drinking on stage brings bad luck, too.

– Spit over your shoulder

If you are going to sing in the premiere, you better spit three times over your shoulder.

Otherwise, your performance will fall through.

From: Ach ich fühl’s – German for Opera Singers in Three Acts: Studying, Speaking, Singing

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Between the Balloons: Tamara-Danz-Straße

 

Berlin: 8.000 balloons along the boundary where the wall once stood will be released into the air tonight marking the 25^th aniversary of the opening of the border between West and East Berlin. For the last couple of days tens of thousands of people have been flocking to the 15 kilometer long display, like here at the East Side Gallery, close to Oberbaumbrücke. Across the remnants of the wall, I discovered a street named after the singer Tamara Danz. Ms. Danz was born in Thuringia in East Germany. She started her singing career in 1971 with the band Die Cropies. After the prestigious music school “Hanns Eisler” rejected her request to study voice, she sung in various bands, eventually with “Silly,” a popular East German rock band in the 1980s. She received several awards, among them East Germany’s best female rock singer. In September 1989, she demanded in a petition from the East German government political reforms. She ignored the gag order against the petition and read it out loud at her concerts. Two months later, the wall crumbled and, under the pressure of the people, collapsed and preluded the swan song for the state and its ruling party. After the reunification, Tamara Danz continued to sing until she passed away of breast cancer in 1996, just 43 years of age.

What Does the Swan Do in Our Premonitions?

When Richard Wagner wrote the last great scene of Lohengrin singing his farewell to the swan, the composer did not know that he had been creating a colloquial phrase as strong and lasting as his music. Once in a while, everybody of German tongue says the phrase mein lieber Schwan. People show with mein lieber Schwan either surprise or an indignation they do not mean really seriously.

“Mein lieber Schwan! Das hast du aber gut gemacht!” (I did not really expect that you did so well; aber is here an intensifier.)

“Mein lieber Schwan! Du kommst heute das dritte Mal zu spät.” (Oh my, today you are late the third time in the row.)

In the opera the swan becomes Gottfried. In the German language the swan becomes the verb schwanen. We use it in dative. The synonym may be ahnen, a word for forebode or to have a premonition.

“Mir schwant Böses.”

“Mir schwant, dass er morgen das vierte Mal zu spät kommt.”

However, the verb schwanen is older than the opera. The Grimm brothers wrote about it decades before “Lohengrin” was created. In ancient fables and myths mysterious and prophetic women often appear in the guise of a swan. Usually, they do not tell things one can look forward to. They predict bad things. So, be aware: If someone utters the verb mir schwant followed by dass du or dass Sie, you better run without listening to the end of the sentence. You will know enough that your future does not look good.

From: Ach ich fühl’s – German for Opera Singers in Three Acts: Studying, Speaking, Singing.

More information: Click.