German Starting & Stopping Vocabulary
This set covers how German talks about things beginning, ending, and getting interrupted along the way, with verbs like anfangen, aufhören, and abbrechen. English speakers usually trip up on anfangen versus beginnen, which are near-synonyms, and then get surprised that German has separate, non-interchangeable words for "cancel" depending on who does the cancelling: absagen for a person calling something off, ausfallen for an event simply not happening.
Learn these 18 words
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All 18 words
- anfangenA1
begin, start
Hier fängt die Bahnhofstraße an. — Bahnhof Street begins here.
- aus seinA1
be over/finished
Das Licht ist aus. — The light is off.
turn off
Mach bitte das Licht aus! — Please turn off the light!
- beginnenA1
begin/start
Das Spiel beginnt um 15.30 Uhr. — The game begins at 3:30 PM.
- endenA1
to end
Die Straße endet hier. — The street ends here.
- startenA1
to start
Das Konzert startet um acht Uhr. — The concert starts at eight o'clock.
- aufhörenA2
to stop
Wann hört ihr mit der Arbeit auf? — When do you stop working?
- beendenA2
finish, end
Du musst deine Ausbildung auf jeden Fall beenden. — You must definitely finish your apprenticeship.
be finished
Wir müssen gleich gehen. Bist du fertig? — We have to leave right away. Are you finished?
take place
Das Spiel findet auch bei Regen statt. — The game takes place even in the rain.
lose
Ich habe meinen Schlüssel verloren. — I lost my key.
miss
Ich habe den Zug verpasst. — I missed the train.
try, attempt
Kann ich es auch einmal versuchen? — Can I try it too?
was in process
Ich war dabei, die Hausaufgaben zu machen. — I was in the process of doing my homework.
to break off, cancel
Sie musste das Training leider abbrechen. — She unfortunately had to cancel the training.
- absagenB1
cancel, call off
Ich muss unser Treffen leider absagen, weil ich krank geworden bin. — I unfortunately have to cancel our meeting because I got sick.
- aufgebenB1
give up, abandon
Ich habe auf der Post ein Paket aufgegeben. — I dropped off a package at the post office.
cancel, fall out
Nächste Woche fällt der Kurs aus. — Next week the course is cancelled.
How to learn this set
Notice that anfangen, aufhören, ausmachen, and abbrechen are all separable-prefix verbs: the prefix (an-, auf-, aus-, ab-) jumps to the end of the sentence in present tense, so "Ich höre auf" is one verb, not two. Drill these by writing short sentences that force the split, like "Der Film fängt um acht an" and "Ich höre jetzt auf." Also group the three cancel/end-badly words together: absagen, ausfallen, and abbrechen each describe a different way something doesn't finish as planned, so practice them as a set with example events (a meeting, a flight, a game) rather than as isolated flashcards. Finally, pair aus sein and fertig sein since both use sein and describe a finished state rather than an action, which is a different logic from the action verbs beenden and enden.
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Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between anfangen and beginnen?
Both mean "to begin" and are often interchangeable, but anfangen is separable and more common in spoken German, while beginnen is not separable and sounds slightly more formal or written.
What is the difference between aufhören and beenden?
Aufhören means to stop an ongoing action, usually your own, like aufhören zu rauchen (stop smoking). Beenden means to actively finish or complete something, like beenden ein Projekt (finish a project), and needs a direct object.
How do you say an event was cancelled in German?
Use absagen if someone calls it off, as in "Die Party wurde abgesagt," or ausfallen if it simply doesn't happen, as in "Der Unterricht fällt aus."
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