A hundred verbs and their opposites for building your German vocabulary – part nine
Part nine closes the series, and its method differs: a hundred verbs paired with their opposites. Pairing by opposition is one of the oldest known aids to memory, because the mind holds the two together and recalls one through the other.
The table below carries twenty-five chosen pairs, most of them from the home, the office and work rather than from books alone.
Why a store of words is built by volume, not by rule
Grammar organises what you already know; it does not produce what you do not. Someone who still cannot speak in the street after a year of study is usually short of words, not of rules. That is why this series comes in batches: fifty words at a time, heard, repeated and used, rather than analysed and explained. Anyone measuring their own progress knows that the distance between one level and the next is counted in words before it is counted in anything else.
Twenty-five pairs of verbs and their opposites
| Deutsch | English |
|---|---|
| kommen ↔ gehen | to come ↔ to go |
| geben ↔ nehmen | to give ↔ to take |
| kaufen ↔ verkaufen | to buy ↔ to sell |
| öffnen ↔ schließen | to open ↔ to close |
| anfangen ↔ aufhören | to begin ↔ to stop |
| anziehen ↔ ausziehen | to put on ↔ to take off |
| einsteigen ↔ aussteigen | to get on ↔ to get off |
| anmachen ↔ ausmachen | to switch on ↔ to switch off |
| finden ↔ verlieren | to find ↔ to lose |
| fragen ↔ antworten | to ask ↔ to answer |
| lachen ↔ weinen | to laugh ↔ to cry |
| erlauben ↔ verbieten | to allow ↔ to forbid |
| vergessen ↔ sich erinnern | to forget ↔ to remember |
| mieten ↔ vermieten | to rent ↔ to let |
| leihen ↔ zurückgeben | to borrow ↔ to give back |
| sparen ↔ ausgeben | to save ↔ to spend |
| gewinnen ↔ verlieren | to win ↔ to lose |
| holen ↔ bringen | to fetch ↔ to bring |
| sich anmelden ↔ sich abmelden | to register ↔ to deregister |
| ankommen ↔ abfahren | to arrive ↔ to depart |
| aufmachen ↔ zumachen | to open up ↔ to shut |
| einschlafen ↔ aufwachen | to fall asleep ↔ to wake up |
| arbeiten ↔ sich ausruhen | to work ↔ to rest |
| einpacken ↔ auspacken | to pack ↔ to unpack |
| zunehmen ↔ abnehmen | to gain ↔ to lose weight |
How to fix a word so it does not slip away
- Listen to the part once through, then again while pronouncing along with it, not after it
- Split the fifty over five days, ten a day — a single large batch is forgotten whole
- Review yesterday's words before starting today's; two minutes are enough
- Write one sentence per word taken from your own life, not from a book
- Review the whole part after a week and again after a month — spacing is what moves a word into long-term memory
- Anything forgotten twice goes on a small separate list and is reviewed on its own
Frequently asked questions
Why is learning by opposites more effective?
Because the two words enter memory linked, so recalling one drags the other with it. That is cheaper than learning fifty scattered words with nothing joining them.
Does every verb have an opposite?
No. Some have none, and some have more than one depending on context. Take the clear pairs and leave the ambiguous ones.
Which pair is most useful to a newcomer?
sich anmelden ↔ sich abmelden — most housing, insurance and school procedures turn on those two.
How should I close the series?
Go back to part one and review all nine parts in nine days, one part a day. What is still in your memory after that pass is your real store.
Watch the video
The video is on the OK+ channel on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kqQFryAIfTQ
Also on OK+
A tool that shortens the road
The OK Plus DE app gathers German administrative calculators and form templates in one place, free, ad-free, in seven languages. Android and iPhone, from the same page:
Get the OK Plus DE app
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