As you remember from our previous lessons, verbs with an inseparable prefix such as be-, er-, ver-, zer- do not put ge- in front. This applies to regular verbs such as bezahlen and verkaufen and also to irregular verbs such as verlieren:

Er hat das Essen bezahlt. – He’s paid for the meal.
Wir haben das Auto verkauft. – We’ve sold the car.
Ich habe meinen Terminkalender verloren. – I’ve lost my diary.

Frequently used verbs with inseparable prefixes are beantworten „to reply“, erzählen „to tell“, verdienen „to earn“, verkaufen „to sell“ and verstehen „to understand“.

Er bezahlt mit seiner Kreditkarte. – He pays with his credit card.
Sie verkauft ihren alten Computer. – She is selling her old computer.

The prefix emp- is a variant of ent- and is primarily used with three verbs: empfangen (receive), empfehlen (recommend), and empfinden (feel).

The prefix be- makes verbs transitive; that is, they are verbs that can have a direct object. Compare the base verb with the transitive verb formed with be-:

Practice Makes Perfect German Problem Solver

No matter what the prefix is, verbs tend to be conjugated as they are without a prefix. Consider the following pairs of regular and irregular verbs:

Exercise 1