Umfahren or Umfahren? One Word With Two Meanings Posted by Larissa on Aug 31, 2021 in Language
The German language never fails to interest me as I learn new words and phrases, even after living here for 9 years. When learning how to drive in Germany, I discovered a very interesting German word that has two meanings. There are of course some words in other languages that also have more than one meaning, but this word I found very interesting as it means the complete opposite to one another. Let’s take a closer look.
Meaning One: umFAHREN
The first meaning of this word means “to drive around”, “fahren” means to drive, and “um” means in this case “around”. The way to differentiate between the two meanings is through the emphasis on the word. For this meaning, you have to emphasize the second part of the word: “FAHREN“.
Here are some examples of how to use it in a sentence:
umfahren Sie das Hindernis– drive around the obstacle (note the Sie is formal).
ich umfahre die Baustelle – I drive around the construction site
ich kann es nicht umfahren – I can’t drive around it
UMfahren or umFAHREN? Photo by PublicDomainPictures on Pixabay. CCO
Meaning Two: UMfahren
So now we come to our second meaning, which is where things begin to get a bit more interesting. If you say “umfahren” this way, you mean “to run over”. That’s right, instead of driving around, all of a sudden you would be driving someone/something over!
Here “um” takes on another meaning which is “at”, and “fahren” remains the same as before, meaning to drive, so it can be translated into “to drive at”. For this meaning you need to emphasize the first part of the word: “UM“.
Here are some examples of how to use it in a sentence:
Ich werde dich umfahren – I will run you over
Ich bin fast umgefahren worden – I was almost run over (note that here umfahren is in past tense)
You can see how this could get confusing for drivers! Hopefully you will never need to use the second meaning, but I still find it very interesting to see how the same word can have two opposite meanings. If you want more information on driving in Germany, you can find another blog post here and here.
Have you ever driven in Germany? Let me know in the comments below!
Thanks for reading,
Larissa
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About the Author: Larissa
Hello I'm Larissa. I live in Germany and I am half German and half English. I love sharing my passion for Germany with you through my posts! Apart from writing posts I teach fitness classes in Munich.
Comments:
Günter GABELUNKE:
Dear All,
I am a native German (since 72 years….) and I can state, that UMfahren means „to run over“ and umFAHREN means „to drive around“, which is contrary to the mentioned pronounciation.
There may be – of course – local differences, which is quite common in the German language.
Larissa:
@Günter GABELUNKE Hello Günter, thanks for your comment! You are indeed correct, thanks for pointing this out. I have swapped them round.
Timothy Mercer.:
Ich bin fast umgefahren geworden – I was almost run over (note that here umfahren is in past tense)
I would write:
Ich bin fast umgefahren worden.
Larissa:
@Timothy Mercer. Thanks Timothy! I have corrected this 🙂 I hope you enjoyed the post
Rainer:
Hello- very nice article.
However, I believe the meanings in the article are accidentally reversed.
According to duden.de, UMfahren (stress at the beginning) means to drive over something. umFAHREN (stress on the second part) means to drive around something.
This is similarly described at https://www.germanpod101.com/lesson/absolute-beginner-questions-answered-by-anja-18-does-umfahren-have-two-different-meanings/
Larissa:
@Rainer Hello Rainer, thank you for pointing this out and for the helpful links! I have swapped them round now 🙂
Lara:
@Larissa I’m glad I read the comments. The article still shows signs of the switch as it is written right now because it says: For this meaning, you have to emphasize the “first” part of the word: “FAHREN“. (Notice that FAHREN is the “second” part)
An analogous mistake declares UM to be the second part of the word. while it is (of course) the first.
Thanks for a delightful and insightful article
Larissa:
@Lara Hello Lara, I’m so glad you liked the article! I have swapped around the “first” and “second” so it should all make sense now, thanks for pointing this out.
Donald S Modaro:
in 1955, my US Army buddies and I bought a 1949 Mercedes Benz and we toured around Ansbach and outlying areas.
I also got a ticket from a MP for speeding on the Autobahn in a 2-1/2 ton truck; can you believe it?
Larissa:
@Donald S Modaro Hello Donald, wow so you have quite a lot of experience with driving in Germany then! Hopefully there was no UMfahren involved 🙂
Thanks for reading and commenting!
Constanze:
Well I’m glad I’m not doing my driving test in Germany as I’d crash