German Travelling & Moving About Vocabulary
This set covers the verbs of getting from one place to another: abfahren, ankommen, and einsteigen cover departing, arriving, and boarding, while fahren and fliegen split "go" depending on whether you're on wheels or in the air. English speakers often trip on einsteigen and aussteigen because German treats boarding a taxi, train, or plane as "stepping in" and "stepping out" (steigen = to climb), where English just says "get in" or "get on" without the climbing image.
Learn these 19 words
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All 19 words
- abfahrenA1
depart, leave
Wir fahren um zwölf Uhr ab. — We depart at twelve o'clock.
- ankommenA1
arrive
Wann kommt dieser Zug in Hamburg an? — When does this train arrive in Hamburg?
get out
Wo muss ich aussteigen? — Where do I have to get out?
to board; get in
Schnell, steig ein, der Zug fährt gleich. — Quick, get in, the train leaves soon.
- fahrenA1
drive, go
Ich fahre mit dem Auto zur Arbeit. — I drive to work by car.
- fliegenA1
fly
Ich fliege nicht gern. Deshalb fahre ich mit dem Zug. — I do not like to fly. That is why I take the train.
- kommenA1
come, arrive
Woher kommen Sie? – Aus Frankreich. — Where do you come from? – From France.
- reisenA1
travel
Ich reise gern. — I like to travel.
plural: die Taxis
taxi
Es gibt heute keinen Bus mehr. Er fährt mit dem Taxi. — There is no bus today. He is taking a taxi.
- zurückA1
back
Einmal Frankfurt und zurück. — One ticket to Frankfurt and back.
to reach, achieve
Wenn wir uns beeilen, erreichen wir noch den Zug um acht Uhr. — If we hurry, we can still catch the eight o'clock train.
gets in
Schnell, steig ein, der Zug fährt gleich ab. — Quick, get in, the train is leaving soon.
be on the way
Warte bitte auf mich. Ich bin unterwegs und komme gleich. — Please wait for me. I'm on the way and coming soon.
accompany, go with
Ich begleite dich ein Stück. — I will go part of the way with you.
- eilenB1
hurry
Es eilt sehr. Bitte machen Sie schnell. — It's very urgent. Please hurry.
meet halfway
Auf dem Weg nach Hause ist mir mein Nachbar entgegengekommen. — My neighbor met me halfway on my way home.
- fliehenB1
to flee
Der Einbrecher ist sofort geflohen. — The burglar fled immediately.
- folgenB1
to follow
Es folgen die Nachrichten. — The news follows.
backwards
Ich bin rückwärts aus der Garage gefahren. — I drove backwards out of the garage.
How to learn this set
Almost every verb here is built from a separable prefix plus a plain root: ab-fahren, an-kommen, aus-steigen, ein-steigen all pair fahren/kommen/steigen with a prefix that does the real work of telling you direction. Once you notice that ein- means "into" and aus- means "out of," steigt ein (present tense, 3rd person, prefix pushed to the end) stops being a separate word to memorize and becomes a pattern. Drill these in short sentences that force the prefix to move: "Ich steige in das Taxi ein" not just the infinitive, since that split is what actually trips people up in speech.
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Frequently asked questions
What's the difference between fahren and reisen?
Fahren describes the actual physical act of driving or riding, tied to a vehicle. Reisen is broader and means to travel or take a trip, without specifying how you're getting there.
Why does einsteigen mean 'to board' if steigen means 'to climb'?
German uses steigen (to climb, step) as the base for both einsteigen (step in, board) and aussteigen (step out, get out), treating boarding a vehicle as a stepping motion rather than borrowing a separate verb like English does.
Is das Taxi masculine or feminine?
Neither, it's neuter: das Taxi. Many borrowed words for vehicles and vehicle-adjacent nouns end up neuter in German regardless of their gender in the source language.
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