{"id":6060,"date":"2015-02-16T11:12:36","date_gmt":"2015-02-16T11:12:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/?p=6060"},"modified":"2017-11-20T14:14:54","modified_gmt":"2017-11-20T14:14:54","slug":"aus-vs-raus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/aus-vs-raus\/","title":{"rendered":"Aus vs. Raus"},"content":{"rendered":"
\""Nazis<\/a>

Photo by hinkelstone on flickr.com under CC BY 2.0<\/p><\/div>\n

Guten Tag!<\/em><\/p>\n

One of my favourite ways of getting inspiration for blog posts is simply by talking to people. I absolutely adore it when people ask me questions, because even if they are as simple as, \u201cWhat\u2019s the word for xyz in German?\u201d I always come away from the conversation with new ideas.<\/p>\n

This particular one came from a friend who was talking about the word Ausland<\/strong>. When I said that it literally translates to \u2018Out-Country\u2019 or \u2018Out-Land\u2019 he said, \u201cBut I thought the word for out<\/em> was raus<\/em>?\u201d<\/strong> He thought this because he knew that the translation of the Rammstein song Rein, Raus<\/em><\/strong> was In, Out<\/em><\/strong>. I tried to explain why it was aus<\/em> and not raus<\/em>, but my explanations are always better when I\u2019ve had time to sit, think, and write everything down. So that’s what I did. I hope this helps.
\n
\nAUS<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Aus is a little confusing because it has numerous meanings:<\/p>\n

Aus can mean off<\/strong> (\u2018Mach das Licht aus\u2019 \u2013 turn the light out)<\/p>\n

Aus can mean come from<\/strong> (\u2018Er kommt aus Finnland\u2019 \u2013 he comes from Finland)<\/p>\n

Aus can mean made from<\/strong> (\u2018Aus welchem Material ist deine Jacke?\u2019 \u2013 which material is your jacket made of?)<\/p>\n

Aus can mean out of<\/strong> (\u2018Ich ging aus dem Haus\u2019 \u2013 I went out of the house)<\/p>\n

Aus can mean over\/finished<\/strong> (\u2018Der Film ist aus\u2019 \u2013 The film is over)<\/p>\n

Using raus <\/em>in place of aus<\/em> in any of the above sentences would make the sentences meaningless.<\/p>\n

If you said simply said \u201cAus.\u201d, you\u2019d be giving an instruction to switch something off\/end something.<\/span><\/p>\n

If you simply said \u201cRaus.\u201d, you\u2019d be commanding someone or something to get out (of your home, office, etc.)<\/span><\/p>\n

RAUS<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Raus comes from the word heraus<\/strong>, which roughly translates to \u2018out of here\u2019<\/em>. The word raus is used as a command, implying that someone or something goes from one place to another. It is quite normal to say \u2018Geh raus!\u2019 (\u2018Get out!\u2019) or \u2018Raus von hier!\u2019 (\u2018Get out of here!\u2019), but saying \u2018Geh aus!\u2019 or \u2018Aus von hier!\u2019, using aus instead of raus, does not have the same implication.<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

Take the following two phrases, both of which literally translate to \u201cLight out\u201d:<\/p>\n

Licht aus.
\nLicht raus.<\/p>\n

So if both aus and raus mean out, these commands mean the same thing, right? Wrong.<\/p>\n

Licht aus<\/em> <\/strong>is telling you to turn off your light.
\nLicht raus<\/em><\/strong> is telling you to get out your light (as in, physically get it out of your pocket or something).<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

There is a song by Otto Kermbach titled \u201cLicht aus, Messer raus!\u201d meaning \u201cLights out, knife out!\u201d It is immediately clear to an English speaker that these are two very different actions \u2013 turning a light out and getting a knife out – they just happen to share the same English word, \u2018out\u2019. But they do not in German. If you understand why these two actions differ, then you will be able to understand why aus and raus differ.<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

In the case of the Rammstein song Rein, Raus <\/em><\/strong>the use of these words instead of \u2018Ein, Aus\u2019 makes sense because the words \u2018Rein\u2019 and \u2018Raus\u2019 describe the actions of going \u2018in and out\u2019 (which matches the song\u2019s, erm… commanding tone) whereas the words \u2018Ein, Aus\u2019 make it ambiguous; if it were called \u2018Ein, Aus\u2019 it could translate to \u2018On, Off\u2019, which is wrong, and nothing to do with the meaning of the song. Also note that the word rein<\/strong> comes from herein<\/strong> \u2013 just like raus<\/strong> comes from heraus<\/strong> \u2013 and means get in\/go in.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Himmelsausverkauf\"<\/a>

A closing down sale sign that reads: “Alles muss raus!” – “Everything must go!” – Photo by kefraya on flickr.com under CC BY-ND 2.0<\/p><\/div>\n

So back to the original question: Why is it Ausland<\/strong> and not Rausland<\/strong>? Hopefully, if my post has been informative enough, you\u2019ll now understand why the word Rausland makes no sense whatsoever. That might translate to\u2026 A country where everybody gets out? It is too nonsensical to even translate! The word Ausland, however, should now make perfect sense.<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

There are many more complexities to the German words aus and raus, and this post was not meant to cover them all. But I hope it has at least cleared up the confusion over why aus and raus are not one and the same.<\/p>\n

As always, questions, suggestions and comments are welcome!<\/p>\n

Bis sp\u00e4ter!<\/em><\/p>\n

Constanze x<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

Guten Tag! One of my favourite ways of getting inspiration for blog posts is simply by talking to people. I absolutely adore it when people ask me questions, because even if they are as simple as, \u201cWhat\u2019s the word for xyz in German?\u201d I always come away from the conversation with new ideas. This particular…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":119,"featured_media":7460,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[11971,8],"tags":[358354,6,376023,375953],"class_list":["post-6060","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-grammar-language","category-language","tag-aus","tag-grammar","tag-language","tag-raus"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6060","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/119"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6060"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6060\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9184,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6060\/revisions\/9184"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7460"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6060"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6060"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6060"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}