You may know one or both of the words in the title above: der Mut means "the courage" and mutig means "courageous" or "brave." However, there are many nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs that contain these words as roots, some of which have nothing to do with courage. Let's have a look.

As you can see, nouns ending in -mut may refer to a mood, emotional state, or feeling:

Hochmut kommt vor dem Fall.

Pride comes before the fall. 

Caption 24, Eva erklärt - Sprichwörter

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Was bei vielen Autofahrern für Freude sorgt,

What causes happiness among many drivers,

stiftet Unmut bei den Grünen.

causes discontent among the Greens [Green Party].

Caption 19, Deutsche Autobahnen - Geschwindigkeitsbegrenzungen

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Die Queen residierte hier bereits und Michael Jackson

The Queen resided here already and Michael Jackson

hielt im Übermut sein Baby aus einem Hotelfenster.

held his baby boisterously out of a hotel window.

Captions 24-25, Berlin - Hotel Adlon feiert 15 Jahre Neueröffnung

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...in spektakulärer Anmut auf die Wasseroberfläche zu klatschen.

...to smack against the surface of the water with spectacular grace.

Caption 8, Evolution - Meeresbewohner

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banner PLACEHOLDER

Notice above that der Hochmut, der Übermut, and der Unmut are masculine, while die Anmut is feminine. You can also look up der Wagemut, der Missmut, die Sanftmut, and die Schwermut. For der Demut, you may more often see the related adjective (note the umlaut!):

Es war jedenfalls demütigend genug.

In any case, it was humiliating enough.

Caption 20, Lerchenberg - Das Wunder

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It's additionally good to know the adjectives ermutigend and entmutigend. These respectively mean "encouraging" and "discouraging."

When it comes to verbs, you may have seen zumuten, vermuten, and anmuten. These verbs each have a number of possible meanings.

Man vermutet, hier ist irgendwas in der Lüftung vom Willy-Brandt-Haus.

One suspects there is something in the ventilation here in the Willy-Brandt-Haus.

Caption 75, heute-show - Die männliche Merkel hat Erinnerungslücken

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Traditionen sind was Schönes

Traditions are something nice

und können für Nichteingeweihte mitunter ganz schön skurril anmuten.

and can occasionally appear quite bizarre to the outsider.

Captions 1-2, Barfuß unter Schafen - Schäferwettrennen

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Petrus muss Dortmund-Fan sein, anders ist kaum zu erklären,

Saint Peter must be a Dortmund fan, there's almost no other explanation

was der Himmel dem FC Bayern und seinen Fans zugemutet hat.

for what the heavens had in store for FC Bayern and its fans.

Captions 1-2, FC Bayern München - Triple-Feier im Dauerregen

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Further Learning
Look up these words using your favorite online dictionary or on Yabla German to understand the full extent of their meanings. Keep in mind that there are other nouns ending in -mut that are unrelated to emotional states, such as das Mammut or der Wermut.

It is pretty unusual in English to have the same word with a completely different meaning occur twice in the same sentence. But as you will learn today, in German it is a fairly commonplace occurence.

Separable verbs often start with prefixes that are identical to prepositions. Here is a partial list of separable verbs that start with prefixes that on their own are prepositions, followed by examples of one of the verbs and the preposition:

BANNER PLACEHOLDER

Preposition: ab (from, off, starting, beginning, away)
Separable verbs: abbrennen (to burn down); abgeben (to turn in, to hand over); abkürzen (to shorten); abnehmen (to lose weight, to take something off); abschließen (to finish, to lock something)

Nimm mal die Brille ab! Er hat ganz rote Augen.

Take off the glasses! He has really red eyes.

Caption 31, Pastewka - Cantz fährt betrunken Auto

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Ab nächster Woche geht das Fitnessprogramm wieder los.

Beginning next week, the fitness program will get going again.

Caption 36, Claudia Schiffer - Nach der Babypause

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Using the verb abnehmen and the preposition ab, you can construct a sentence such as the one below. Can you tell from the sentence structure which ab is part of the verb and which is the preposition?

Ab diesem Zeitpunkt nehme ich die Sonnenbrille ab.
From this moment on, I'm taking off my sunglasses.

Preposition: an (at, upon, on, to, towards)
Separable verbs: anerkennen (to recognize); andeuten (to hint at, to suggest); angeben (to indicate, to state, to brag); anklagen (to accuse); anschauen (to watch); anstellen (to hire, to employ); anweisen (to instruct); anwenden (to use); sich anziehen (to dress)

Dieser gibt an, wie die Hühner gehalten werden.

This indicates how the chickens are kept.

Caption 11, Bioeier - Wie funktioniert der Erzeugercode?

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Behindert werden an dieser Stelle weder der Verkehr noch die Fußgänger.

Neither the traffic nor the pedestrians are impeded at this point.

Caption 29, Richter Alexander Hold - Richtig parken

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Er gibt an dieser Stelle an, was er getan hat.
At this point, he states what he has done.

Preposition: auf (onto, upon, on, to, at, up)
Separable verbs: aufatmen (to breathe a sigh of relief); aufbleiben (to stay up, to stay open); aufführen (to perform); aufklären (to inform, enlighten, clear up); auflockern (to liven up); aufnehmen (to record, to take a picture); aufpassen (to look out, to take care); aufräumen (to clean up); aufschlagen (to open up); aufwachsen (to grow up)

Achtung, Luise, pass auf!

Attention, Luise, watch out!

Caption 59, Bretten - Das Peter-und-Paul-Fest

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Sie waren die Schnellsten auf dem Acker.

They were the fastest on the field.

Caption 18, Barfuß unter Schafen - Schäferwettrennen

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The verb aufpassen generally means "to watch out" for something, but combined with the preposition auf and a person, it means "to take care":

Pass auf dich auf, hm?

Take care of yourself, hm?

Caption 16, Lilly unter den Linden - Kapitel 4: Die Grenze

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Further Learning
See if you can come up with some other sentences that contain a separable verb and a preposition that is identical to the verb's prefix and have your teacher check your work. You can also look for more examples of separable verbs used with the same prefixes as prepositions on Yabla German.