In today's lesson, we'll look at the many different meanings of the German verb ausmachen, which is a separable verb.
If we look at the parts of this verb, machen means "to do" or "to make" and aus means "out," "off," or "over." This will help us, but only to a certain extent. First, we have a very common translation of ausmachen, which is "to turn off":
Handys bitte ausmachen!
Please turn off your cell phones!
Caption 31, Verstehen Sie Spaß?: Sascha Grammel
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So, Annakind, jetzt wird aber Licht ausgemacht.
So, little Anna, now the light will be turned off.
Caption 17, Filmtrailer: Als Hitler das rosa Kaninchen stahl
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Next, it can also mean "to put out" when it comes to fire, and is used instead of the verb löschen ("to extinguish"):
Mit wenigen hundert Litern können wir einen Wohnungsbrand ausmachen.
With a few hundred liters we can put out an apartment fire.
Caption 87, Feuerwehr Heidelberg: Löschfahrzeug
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Willst du nicht mal die Zigarette ausmachen?
Don't you want to put out the cigarette?
Caption 1, Lerchenberg: Viva La Television!
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The verb ausmachen can be used if you've made an agreement with someone or arranged something:
Wir hatten doch ausgemacht, dass wir uns duzen!
But we had agreed that we'd address one another informally!
Caption 3, Konjugation: Das Verb „können“
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Und da haben wir auch, direkt auch einen Songwriting-Termin ausgemacht.
And then we also arranged a songwriting session right away.
Caption 31, LOTTE & Max Giesinger: Interview
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You can use ausmachen to state that something matters or has an effect:
...wie unheimlich viel das ausmacht, wenn jemand einfach so 'nen Laden gut im Griff hat.
...how incredibly much it matters when someone simply has a good grip on the shop.
Captions 24-25, Live-Entertainment-Award: Glamouröse Preisverleihung
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And in a related usage, it's very common to use the following construction to inquire about a potential negative effect, bother, or inconvenience:
Würde es Ihnen denn was ausmachen, wenn wir ...
Would it be a problem for you then if we...
Caption 40, Weihnachtsfilm: Ein Sack voll Geld
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Yet another translation is "to form," "to constitute," or "to comprise":
Du hast einen Zauber, der dich ausmacht.
You have a magic that forms you.
Caption 14, Cris Cosmo: Herzschlag
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Wien besitzt viele unterschiedliche Parkanlagen und ist weltweit eine der Städte mit dem höchsten Grünflächenanteil, der die Hälfte des Stadtgebiets ausmacht.
Vienna has many different parks and is one of the cities worldwide with the largest percentage of green areas, which comprise half of the city's space.
Captions 19-21, Reisebericht: Wien
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Be careful, as "to make out" in English has meanings that ausmachen does not. We might say, "I could make out the shape of her house in the distance" or "I couldn't make out what he wrote" in English, but other German verbs (such as erkennen or entziffern) are generally used in these contexts. The common slang usage of "to make out" in English that involves kissing has its own verb in German, which is knutschen, and ausmachen also isn't used for the idea of "making out well" in a deal or situation.
Further Learning
Create a sentence using each definition of ausmachen and etwas ausmachen listed above. You will find many more examples on Yabla German if you do a quick search.
You may be familiar with the verb rutschen ("to slip" or "to slide") from our previous newsletters about the phrase Guten Rutsch, which is used on New Year's Eve.
Er ist durch den Kamin gerutscht?
He slid down the chimney?
Caption 79, Peppa Wutz - Weihnachten
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You may also hear the verb ausrutschen, which means to slip (and possibly fall), and the command rutsch rüber, which is how you tell someone to "slide over" or "move over" so that you can have a seat.
Ich bin mal ausgerutscht auf der Bühne.
I once slipped on stage.
Caption 39, Live-Entertainment-Award - Glamouröse Preisverleihung
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When we talk about falling, common verbs are herunterfallen or its shortened colloquial form runterfallen (which are similar to "to fall down"), hinfallen and umfallen (a bit more like "to fall over"), and stürzen and abstürzen (these are often used to indicate a bad fall).
Er ist da bestimmt nicht zufällig runtergefallen. Das war kein Unfall.
He certainly didn't fall off accidentally. That was no accident.
Caption 10, Großstadtrevier - Von Monstern und Mördern
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Im Herbst sind die Blätter rot und orange.
In autumn, the leaves are red and orange.
Im Winter fallen sie herunter.
In winter, they fall down.
Captions 44-45, Deutsch mit Eylin - Pronomen
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Ich bin ja auch schon zweimal hingefallen, aber ist bis jetzt...
I've also already fallen two times, but up till now...
nichts passiert.
nothing has happened.
Captions 15-16, Jenny und Alena - Autos und Motorräder
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Und dann ist er bei einer Bergtour abgestürzt.
And then he fell during a mountain hike.
Caption 12, Lilly unter den Linden - Kapitel 2: Lilly und Tante Lena
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Nach Elmau, da ist ein Skifahrer gestürzt und hat eine
Toward Elmau, a skier has fallen and has a
Rückenverletzung.
back injury.
Caption 7, Rettungsflieger - Im Einsatz
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The verbs fallen and fallen lassen are used when you drop something. Look at how the following sentences are constructed:
Oje, Linus hat seine Gießkanne ins Wasser fallen lassen.
Oh dear, Linus has dropped his watering can into the water.
Caption 28, Peppa Wutz - Sport
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Dennis ist kein Stift runtergefallen.
Dennis didn't drop a pencil.
Caption 109, Kurzfilme - Das Tagebuch
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You will also see fallen or its past participle gefallen used with the meaning of "to fall." As you know, gefallen is also a completely different verb that is used when we like something. However, structural and contextual differences between the phrase Es hat mir gefallen ("I liked it") and a sentence like Ich bin ins Wasser gefallen ("I fell into the water") don't allow for much ambiguity.
Further Learning
You will find many more examples of these phrases and verbs used in context on Yabla German. These will help you get a better grasp of which verb is appropriate in which context, and how they are implemented structurally.
The slang word "mega" means "big" and it comes from the Greek word megas (μέγας), which means "great." Put "mega" in front of anything and it's instantly much larger than what you started with. As the Collins Dictionary rather stodgily puts it, "Young people sometimes use 'mega' in front of nouns in order to emphasize that the thing they are talking about is very good, very large, or very impressive."
As luck would have it, this mega fabulous word "mega" is also used in German!
Und die Clubs sind natürlich megawichtig [umgangssprachlich, sehr wichtig].
And the clubs are, of course, mega [slang, very] important.
Caption 19, Live-Entertainment-Award - Glamouröse Preisverleihung
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Am zweiten Jahrestag der Megapleite sind in Frankfurt erneut Menschen auf die Straße gegangen.
On the second anniversary of the mega-crash, the people in Frankfurt took to the streets again.
Caption 6, Finanzkrise - Die Lehman-Pleite
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Further Learning
You probably won't find "mega" in the works of William Shakespeare, nor will you impress your academic friends by slipping the word into the conversation, but a bit of slang in your spoken German might make you sound just that much more like a native speaker. Read this hilarious article about the 1980s origins of the word as English slang and find some more examples of "mega" on Yabla German to see how it is used in a real-world context.
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