durchfallen
German
Etymology
Verb
durchfallen (weak, third-person singular present durchfallt, past tense durchfallte, past participle durchfallt, auxiliary haben)
- (intransitive) to fall through
- Das Gitter war zu weitmaschig. Der Ball ist einfach durchgefallen.
- The grating was too wide-meshed. The ball simply fell through.
- (intransitive) to fail; not to pass (with regard to some test or examination)
- Ich bin durchgefallen. ― I failed.
- Ich bin bei / in der Prüfung durchgefallen. ― I failed the exam.
Usage notes
- Unlike English “to fail”, German durchfallen cannot take a direct object. The thing that one fails may be given with the prepositions bei or in + dative case. However, an even commoner construction is fallen + durch + accusative. Note that this is not a compound verb, but a simple verb + preposition:
- Ich bin durch die Prüfung gefallen. ― I failed the exam.
- In order to express that a teacher or examiner “failed somebody”, that is “made them fail”, durchfallen is construed with lassen:
- Der Lehrer hat mich durchfallen lassen. ― The teacher failed me.