All German word comparisons · Back to the topic overview
Meaning, sentence patterns and examples
| Word | Core meaning | Typical context | Grammar |
|---|---|---|---|
| folgen | follow | a person, argument or sequence | dative; usually ist gefolgt here |
| verfolgen | pursue or track | a goal, person or development | accusative; hat verfolgt |
| befolgen | comply with | advice, instructions or rules | accusative; hat befolgt |
| erfolgen | occur or take place | a payment or delivery | no direct object; ist erfolgt |
folgen
Meaning and usage: Use folgen when moving behind someone, following an explanation or acting on advice. It also expresses sequence: a discussion can follow a presentation. The followed person, argument or advice commonly appears in dative.
Grammar: Weak verb: folgte. These following and sequence uses form the perfect with sein: ist gefolgt. A separate obeying sense can use haben, so do not declare one auxiliary for every sense. Auf + accusative can express what an event follows.
Bitte folgen Sie der Mitarbeiterin zum Ausgang.
Please follow the employee to the exit.
Ich kann deinem Argument folgen.
I can follow your argument.
verfolgen
Meaning and usage: Use verfolgen for pursuing someone or a goal, or observing the course of something attentively. Tracking a delivery or following a discussion online need not involve chasing a person. Context determines whether pursuit, monitoring or another documented sense is intended.
Grammar: Inseparable ver-; verfolgte, hat verfolgt. The pursued or monitored thing is accusative. Do not transfer folgen’s dative pattern to this prefixed verb.
Wir verfolgen die Entwicklung des Projekts.
We are following the project’s development.
befolgen
Meaning and usage: Use befolgen when someone actually acts according to a rule or recommendation. Reading an instruction is not yet obeying it. The emphasis is compliance rather than physically following a person.
Grammar: Inseparable be-; befolgte, hat befolgt. The advice or instruction is accusative: den Rat, die Vorschriften. Do not insert ge- into the participle.
Alle Gäste müssen die Sicherheitsregeln befolgen.
All guests must follow the safety rules.
erfolgen
Meaning and usage: Use erfolgen for an event happening or a procedure being carried out, particularly in administrative descriptions. Die Zahlung erfolgt morgen describes when payment takes place. It does not mean someone succeeds merely because Erfolg means success.
Grammar: Inseparable er-; erfolgte, ist erfolgt. The event is the subject, and there is no ordinary direct accusative object. The auxiliary sein is important despite the absence of physical movement.
Die Lieferung erfolgt am Freitag.
Delivery will take place on Friday.
Overlap and context
Einem Rat folgen and einen Rat befolgen can describe the same compliance. The case changes with the verb. Einem Gespräch folgen emphasizes understanding it; ein Gespräch verfolgen can emphasize attending to its progress. Do not use verfolgen for neutral accompanying without considering its pursuit connotations. Erfolgen is especially useful for reading formal notices, but simpler active wording may be clearer in conversation.
Common mistakes
- Say Ich folge dir, but Ich verfolge dich; the meaning also changes.
- Keep ist erfolgt separate from hat befolgt.
- Do not assume erfolgen means succeed; learn its event-taking-place sense.
Memory aid: Follow a person in dative, pursue a target in accusative, obey a rule in accusative, and let an event take place as the subject. Read each prefix with its whole construction.
Try it
Complete with befolgen and the correct article: Bitte ___ ___ Rat der Trainerin.
Show the answer
befolge den
Befolgen takes the advice as an accusative object: den Rat. With folgen the construction would be Bitte folge dem Rat der Trainerin.