this post was submitted on 11 Oct 2025
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I think there are a number of word phrases in English that would be, what are called, Trennbare Verben in German. To give English speakers the idea, when somebody says they "work out", it's not like just "work" - it has a specific fitness idea because of the additional word "out".
In German, the equivalent verb would be "outworking". In common English grammar, the "out" is always separated. In German, many words can be inserted between working and out - so like "working on the elliptical machine out". That need not be the case in English, but it often is.
In English I would like to say "I outbuffed the scratch in my car with a chamoisé.", or "I uppicked a record from the flea market." or "I uppumped my tires last week." or "I downfell and broke my ulna while skiing."
Which is more correct: "I pumped up my tires last week." or "I pumped my tires up last week."?
In German it could be "I buffed the scratch in my car with a chamoisé out.", "I picked a record from the flea market up.", "I pumped my tires last week up.", and "I fell and broke my ulna while skiing down."
I'm just saying we should normalize these two-word combinations as a "standalone verb" concept so the trailing qualifier is not so difficult to parse and locate correctly in a sentence - since each of the meanings absolutely requires both parts of the verb.