Separable Verbs in German: The Full Prefix List and How Many There Really Are

Separable verbs in German split into two parts, a prefix and a base verb, and in most sentences the prefix detaches and travels to the end: aufstehen becomes ich stehe um sieben auf. That single rule causes most of the word-order confusion English speakers run into with German. The harder question is scale: which prefixes can you trust to behave the same way every time, and how many separable verbs are there, really. Below is the full prefix breakdown, a sourced answer to the "how many" question that most grammar sites avoid, and a leveled list of the separable verbs worth learning first.

What makes a German verb separable

A separable verb is a base verb (kommen, machen, fahren) joined to a prefix (an-, auf-, mit-) that changes or sharpens its meaning. Kommen means "come", ankommen means "arrive", mitkommen means "come along". In the infinitive and in word lists, the two parts sit together as one word.

Where the prefix lands depends on the sentence. In a main clause, it detaches and moves to the end: Der Zug kommt um acht an (the train arrives at eight). In a subordinate clause or after a modal verb, it stays attached to the infinitive: Ich weiß, dass der Zug um acht ankommt, or Der Zug soll um acht ankommen. In the perfect tense, -ge- slots between the prefix and the base verb: angekommen, not geankommen. With a zu-infinitive, zu does the same: Es ist Zeit, anzukommen.

Stress is the quickest spoken clue. Separable verbs stress the prefix: AN-kommen, AUF-machen, MIT-bringen. That stress pattern, more than spelling, is how native speakers and dictionaries tell a separable verb apart from a look-alike inseparable one.

The prefixes that are always separable

A closed set of German prefixes is always separable, in every verb they attach to. Lingolia's grammar reference, one of the more careful German-English sources on this topic, lists the following 15:

If a verb starts with one of these 15 prefixes, you can rely on it splitting in a main clause, with no exceptions to memorize. For how these same prefixes reshape meaning beyond separability, see the full prefix guide.

The prefixes that are never separable, and the ones that can go either way

Eight prefixes sit at the other end: always inseparable, always unstressed, never splitting off. They are be-, emp-, ent-, er-, ge-, miss-, ver- and zer-. Verbs built on them, like bestellen (to order) or verstehen (to understand), never take -ge- in the perfect tense: bestellt, verstanden, not gebestellt or geverstanden.

Between those two closed sets sits a smaller, trickier group that Lingolia's own categorization flags as ambivalent: durch-, hinter-, über-, um- and unter-. The same spelling can be a separable or an inseparable verb depending on stress and meaning, and only the specific verb tells you which. DWDS's entry for *umfahren* is the clearest case: with stress on the prefix (separable, perfect umgefahren), it means to knock something over while driving; with stress on the base verb (inseparable, perfect umfahren), it means to drive around something. *Übersetzen* works the same way: stressed on über- (separable, perfect übergesetzt), it means to ferry someone across water; stressed on the base verb (inseparable, perfect übersetzt), it means to translate a text. When a verb could go either way, the perfect-tense test settles it fast: if -ge- shows up in the middle, it split.

So how many separable verbs are there, really

Most lists sidestep this question or guess at it. One competitor page claims "50+ separable verbs" without a source. A direct check of Lingolia's own grammar page, the most detailed English-language reference on this topic, found that it categorizes the prefixes carefully but never states or implies a total count of separable verbs.

The honest answer is that there is no fixed number, because separable verbs are not a closed vocabulary list the way irregular verbs are. The roughly 15 always-separable prefixes combine productively with ordinary verb roots: almost any transitive or intransitive German verb can take auf-, an-, vor-, mit- or another separable prefix and form a new, valid separable verb with a related meaning. New combinations appear the same way English speakers coin new phrasal verbs ("zoom in", "log off"). That is why every teaching list, including the one further down this page, caps at a practical 40 to 50 examples rather than claiming completeness. You are looking at a curated starting set, not an inventory.

Common separable verbs by level, B1 to C1

Most separable-verb lists stop at A1-B1 basics. The table below adds the B2-C1 range too, since separable verbs keep showing up in more abstract, exam-relevant forms as you advance.

Notice that sich durchsetzen and sich auseinandersetzen both use prefixes from the ambivalent group (durch-, auseinander-), but in these specific verbs they behave as separable: the perfect tense confirms it, hat sich durchgesetzt and hat sich auseinandergesetzt, with -ge- in the middle. Teilnehmen an adds a second layer: beyond being separable, it locks to the preposition an, the way many German verbs pair with a fixed preposition.

How to stop guessing which prefix goes where

Memorizing 15 separable prefixes, 8 inseparable ones and a handful of ambivalent cases is manageable with a list. What is harder is remembering it for a specific word weeks after you first met it, especially once a verb family branches: kommen, ankommen, mitkommen, bekommen all look related, but only one of them is inseparable.

That is the gap Worio's WordDNA is built for. When you save a German word you meet in reading or conversation, WordDNA shows its prefix, root and word family, explained in English, so a verb like ankommen comes with its separable prefix and its relatives already laid out instead of sitting alone as an isolated flashcard. You practice it with spaced repetition the way you would any saved word, but the explanation is there the next time you forget which part of the verb moves.