stoßen in German

The meaning and use of “stoßen”

Because they’re all what I would call “occasional” translations. So they do work sometimes, but none of the words actually really captures stoßen and stoßen is not the prime translation for any of them. For stoßen, it’s better to remember it as an idea, rather than a translation and this core idea could be described as:

some (straight) momentum that then hits an object

Sounds very physical and abstract, but there’s actually a really great way to visualize it: billiards.

Stoßen is what we do with the cue (the stick). We stoßen against the ball. And even more important, the balls stoßen against each other and against the wall.
There’s momentum that then hits an object.

• Das Auto ist gegen den Baum gestoßen.
• The car bumped/crashed/ran into into the tree.

  As you can see by my translation, stoßen works for a mere bump as well as for a crash.
  But the main use case for stoßen in daily life is actually hitting body parts.
  And not in the sense of punching or boxing. Those are schlagen and boxen.
  What I mean is this moment, when we go to the kitchen at night to get some “fromage du minuit” from the fridge and then we hit our toe on one of the new  “design” chairs because their back legs protrude out into the room in a weird and unnecessary way.
  In that scenario, what I’d say is

  • “Aua. Verdammte Scheiße! Scheiß-Drecks Ikea-Design-Scheiße.”

  Something along those lines.
  And later, when I am explaining to the police why I am burning furniture in my driveway in the middle of the night, I’ll say this:

  • Ich habe mir den Zeh  gestoßen.
  • I hit my toeAnd I’m sure many of you now are thinking the same as the officers: Sir, why is the German version twice as long? And why are we using haben now for the past, when earlier we used sein? And what’s up with this weird phrasing anyway?
    Great questions.
    The answer to the first one is simply – it’s because German is well-hung. I mean… its… its parts are longer then the average. Like… the words and the structures.
    Then, we have the question why we used habe gestoßen now and ist gestoßen earlier?
    And that is because earlier, the car itself was the moving entity with the momentum.
    Take these examples:
    • Ich bin mit dem Zeh gegen den Stuhl gestoßen.
    • I bumped with my toe against the chair.
      • Ich habe mir den Zeh am Stuhl gestoßen.
      • I hit my toe on the chaiBoth sentences describe the same thing, but the phrasing is different. In the first, I am moving through space, which is a case for sein. In the second version, I am moving and bumping my toe against the chair, as a direct object, and that’s a case for haben.

        And why is it den Zeh and not meinen Zeh. And what is the mir doing there.
        This is actually a really common idiomatic type of phrasing that German likes to use for body related things.
        I’m sure many of you have seen it already elsewhere.
        Instead of “I wash my hands.” in German you’ll say “I wash MYSELF THE hands.” . And instead of “I cut your hair.”, Germans say “I cut you the hair.”.  In a way, it shifts the focus of the act more toward the rendering of a service. Like… “I am doing some handwashing to/for myself“. Or “I am doing my hair cutting for you.”
        The other phrasing (aka the one most languages use) does exist, as well, but no one really uses it and it sounds a bit theatrical or epic.
        So, please do try to learn the “weird” one. It’ll make you sound much more natural AND it has the added benefit that you practice the Dative (reflexive) pronouns a little.
        I mean… hitting our head or toe AND practicing mir… if that’s not awesome, then I don’t know what is 🙂

        • Das Einhorn stößt sich in der Höhle der Zwerge immer den Kopf.
        • The unicorn always hits its head in the cave of the dwarfs
        • Du bist heute irgendwie so dumm.”
          “Ja, ich hab’ mir gestern den Kopf gestoßen.”
          “Ach sooo.”
        • “You’re so stupid today, somehow.”
          “Yeah, I hit my head yesterday.”
          “Ohhh.”Oh and to make things even more confusing, if you just generically want to say that you bumped against something, then YOU are the direct object. So you say “I bumped myself against…”
          • Ich habe mich am Tisch gestoßen.
          • I bumped against the table.
          • Ich habe mir den Kopf am Tisch gestoßen.
          • I hit my head against the table.

          So in both sentence, we have a direct object. That’s what I “hit”. And then in the second, we have ourselves as the “beneficiary”.
          And before you think about this too hard and end up confused, let’s swiftly move on :).

          Because, besides stoßen in the context of bumping body parts somewhere, you’ll likely sooner or later also come across the phrasing the combo stoßen auf.  Which means pretty much that…  to come across, to run into, and it’s usually used in the contexts of discovering something.

          • Die Eichhörnchen sind auf ein geheimes Moonshine-Lager der Einhörner gestoßen.
          • The squirrels have come across/discovered a secret Moonshine stash of the unicorns.
          • Bei meiner Recherche bin ich auf ein paar echt interessante Theorien gestoßen.
          • During my research I came across a few interesting theories. and more importantly, all the various prefix versions.
            And you’ll be surprised just how useful they really are.

            The Prefix Versions of “stoßen”

            Let’s start with the one that’s the most fun – anstoßen. Because anstoßen is what you do at a bar with your friends. I mean… before the yelling, table dancing and vomiting.
            I’m referring of course to toasting – bumping your glasses together.

            • Lass uns auf das Leben anstoßen.
            • Let’s drink a toast for life.
              • “Wenn man sich beim Anstoßen nicht in die Augen guckt, hat man 3 Jahre sc… ”
                “Halt die Klappe und trink.”
              • “If you don’t look each other in the eye while clinking glasses, you’ll have three years of ba…”
                “Shut up and drink.”Besides that, anstoßen is also used in a sense of giving an initial push, usually for a project or a reform. And in some sports, specifically bori… I mean, soccer, it’s the moment of kicking the ball to start the game.
                • Der Politiker hat wichtige Reformen angestoßen.
                • The politician has launched/given a first push to important reforms.But the main use is definitely clinking glasses. And that’s also a context where we can find the next one, which is aufstoßen.
                  Which can technically mean to push or shove something open. But by far the more common use is something that happens quite a bit when we drink, especially if we drink fast….
                  • Wenn ich Wein trinke, muss ich immer aufstoßen.
                  • Whenever I drink wine, I have to burp/I get reflux.
                    The stomach “shoves” something upward, that’s the logic here. And the focus is really on this momentum upward, not the actual burp.
                    And oh, it’s actually not only used for the biological reflex but also in a figurative sense of something that you had to swallow that doesn’t really “sit right”.
                    • Was mein Chef im Meeting gesagt hat, ist mir sauer aufgestoßen.
                    • What my boss said at the meeting left a bad taste in my mouth.This sounds a little bit formal or high register though, so don’t feel like you HAVE to use that in actual conversation.
                      Cool.
                      Next up, we have abstoßen, and that too is basically about the “reverse” momentum, the momentum that pushes you AWAY from something. So we can translate it as to push off. Swimmers abstoßen themselves at the end of the lane, and two positive poles of a magnet abstoßen each other. And sometimes, it is also used in the context of someone’s behavior or looks or smell, though it is a REALLY strong word there.
                      • Zwei gleiche magnetische Pole stoßen sich ab.
                      • Two identical magnetic poles push each other offAnd to give you another idiom…
                        • Thomas will sich die Hörner abstoßen.
                        • Thomas wants to sow his wild oats.
                          (lit.: “push off his horns”)For the bo… uh… soccer fans among you, you’ll definitely need the noun der Abstoß, which is the goal kick. Like… when the goalie punts the ball forward like it’s actual real footbalSweet.
                          The next one (and they’re in no particular order here) is ausstoßen, and with abstoßen being about pushing off, it’s no surprise that ausstoßen is about pushing out.
                          Context matters a lot here though, because  ausstoßen is pretty much only used in two specific contexts… exhausting gas and kicking someone out of a community. Like… in an epic sense. Not just banning someone on Reddit.
                          • Der weltweite Ausstoß an CO2 steigt jedes Jahr.
                          • The worldwide emission of CO2 is rising every year.
                            (the German word is actually more like “blow out” or “ejection”)And that transitions us right over to the next one, zustoßen. Because not only is that what unicorns can do with their horn, it’s also the word for to happen in the sense of something bad happening to someone. Which is not unlikely for a lonely vegetarian unicorn alone in the magical forest with its many dangers.
                            • “Ich hoffe, dem armen vegetarischen Einhorn ist nichts zugestoßen.”
                              “Mach dir keine Sorgen. Es kann immer mit seinem Horn zustoßen.“
                            • “I hope nothing bad happened to the poor vegetarian unicorn.”
                              “Don’t worry. It can always stab at things with its horn. ”This was our look at the family of stoßen.