Verbs: What You Can Say with the Prefix “be”

Verbs are usually seen as indispensable for creating a sentence. It doesn’t make much sense to have a couple of nouns hanging out with some adjectives and doing nothing. Only verbs can keep them busy. Who would have thought then that verbs represent only a pathetic minority. No more than two percent of the German vocabulary are verbs, only 900 to 1.000 words. However, the German language has a nice tool to make them look larger than life: the prefix, little guys consisting of two or three letters who can be attached to many verbs (or many verbs can be attached to them, depend on your viewpoint). There are only a dozen of them, but they can increase the meaning of a verb exponentially and quadruple the chance of a life-changing misunderstanding.
Don’t tinker with prefixes like an-, auf-, zu-, er-, ver-, emp-, ein-, aus-, ge- etc. unless you know exactly what you want to say.
With the verb fallen or example you can simply fall. With the prefix auf- , thus auffallen, you stand out, with ver- as in verfallen your talent declines, with ge- as in gefallen you will please.
Today, we are going to look at the prefix be-.
The prefix be- is especially treacherous because very often (not always) it does not change the meaning of the verb directly. A moment ago, staunen (to be astonished) was a nice, independent verb, only committed to the subject of the sentence, something that is capable of staunen, a human being or some animal. Now, with the prefix be- it needs an object, something to marvel at: Wir bestaunen das Brandenburger Tor.In many cases (not in all cases), the prefix be- changes an intransitive verb, a verb that does not have an object like leben (to live), into a transitive verb, a verb that needs an object, like beleben (to revive, to revitalize, to activate).
Other examples are...
- lügen (to lie) > belügen (to lie to someone): Das Volk belügt die Politiker (just kidding);
- zahlen (to pay) > bezahlen (to pay for something): Ich bezahle das Bier;
- urteilen (to judge, to pronounce a judgement) > beurteilen (to judge or to evaluate something or someone): Der Chef beurteilt meine Arbeit.
- lächeln (to smile) > belächeln (to smile at something or someone condescendingly): Die Diva belächelt den Fan.
Other verbs change their objects after they got aquainted with be-. The verb singen can stand alone, like the soprano on the stage: Sie singt. It can have an object, too: Sie singt das Lied (song).
With besingen however, she celebrates or praises something. She sings ein Lied von Schubert oder Madonna, but sie besingt die Liebe.
Other examples are...
- antworten (to answer a person, dative) > beantworten (to answer a letter, e-mail, twitter, questions etc.),
- schenken (to give something as a gift) > beschenken (to give a gift to a person),
- bauen (to build a building) > bebauen (to build a building on something, for instance, a piece of land),
- fahren (to drive a vehicle) > befahren > (to drive a vehicle on a street, alley, Autobahn etc.).
Sometimes, be- modifies the verb’s meaning:
- fragen (to ask a question) > befragen (to consult, to canvass, to interrogate, to survey)
- grüßen (to greet) > begrüßen (to welcome someone)- raten (to advice) > beraten (to consult)