stören : to disturb => zerstören : to destroy
"Ver-" is not quite so bad as "Zer-", but is rarely good.
schlafen : to sleep => verschlafen : to sleep for too long
"Er-" is worse than "Ver-", and debatably as bad as "Zer-", for it ends in certain death.
schiessen : to shoot => erschiessen : to shoot dead
I once got confused between being stung by a wasp: "Ich wurde von einer Wespe gestochen." and being stabbed to death by a wasp: "Ich wurde von einer Wespe erstochen."
Today I made another prefix mistake. I was trying to say "I furnished my room" and ended up claiming "I executed my room". One letter, one prefix, and a rather different meaning.
Well, you are not alone. Our great emperor of Bavaria, Ed Stoiber, executes every day a flower in his garden. (mp3 curetsy of the bavarian social democrats...)
ReplyDeleteHerr Stoiber made the mistake of using "hinrichten (to execute)" instead of "aufrichten (to straighten up)". Here is a complete list of possibilities.
ReplyDeleterichten - to aim
abrichten - to dress [tech]
anrichten - to wreak
aufrichten - to straighten up
ausrichten - to align
berichten - to report
einrichten - to furbish
entrichten - to pay
errichten - to build
herrichten - to spiff up
hinrichten - to execute
nachrichten - to realign
unterrichten - to teach
verrichten - to perform
zurichten - to injure
Note that errichten sadly doesn't result in death, despite my rule in the main post. Sadly, despite "hin" being the opposite of "her" (like "to" and "fro"), herrichten doesn't cancel hinrichten. So the sentence "Drei Tage nach seiner Hinrichtung wurde Jesus wieder hergerichtet" sadly can't be used.
An excellent phrases to muddle up is "seine Notdurft verrichten", which means "to empty one's bowels". I will try to leave polite company with the excuse, "Entschuldigung, ich muss meine Notdurft anrichten". I don't know exactly what this would mean, but I hope that it is something like "Excuse me, I have to wreak poo."