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'Fallen' or 'fällen'? German verb pairs for happening and causing

German often has two related verbs where English makes do with one. The first describes something that simply happens: a tree falls, a ship sinks, prices go down. The second describes someone making it happen: a worker fells the tree, the navy sinks the ship, the company lowers its prices. Compare fallen and fällen, sinken and versenken, aufwachen and aufwecken.

English speakers stumble here because English frequently uses one verb for both jobs: the ship sank and they sank the ship. The natural move is to do the same in German and put a direct object after the verb that is used without an object. The result is a sentence like Die Firma sinkt die Preise, which sounds wrong to a German ear.

Word list
aufwachenA2 to wake up no object: ich bin aufgewacht aufweckenA2 to awaken + accusative: er hat mich aufgeweckt beendenA2 to end + accusative: er hat die Sitzung beendet endenA2 to come to an end no object: die Party endet bald fallenA2 to fall no object: der Baum ist gefallen weckenA2 to awaken + accusative: der Wecker hat mich geweckt brennenB1 to burn no object: das Feuer hat gebrannt senkenB1 to decrease + accusative: die Preise senken steigenB1 to increase no object: die Mieten steigen steigernB1 to increase + accusative: den Umsatz steigern verbrennenB1 to burn + accusative: Briefe verbrennen erwachenB2 to wake up no object: er ist früh erwacht fällenB2 to cut down + accusative: einen Baum fällen löschenB2 to put out + accusative: die Feuerwehr hat das Feuer gelöscht sinkenB2 to sink no object: das Schiff ist gesunken sinkenB2 to decrease no object: die Preise sinken versenkenB2 to sink + accusative: ein Schiff versenken erlöschenC1 to go out no object: das Feuer ist erloschen
How it works

Ask yourself one question: is there someone or something doing it to an object? If there is not, use the verb that is used without an object. If there is, use the causative verb, which takes a direct object in the accusative.

English is not completely different. It has a few pairs of its own, such as fall / fell, rise / raise and lie / lay. The trouble is that English has far fewer of them, so for sink, burn or wake you have to learn the German pair deliberately.

Two clues help you tell the verbs apart:

The perfect tense

Verbs of movement or change that are used without an object usually take sein: ist gefallen, ist gesunken, ist aufgewacht. The causative partners take haben: hat gefällt, hat versenkt, hat aufgeweckt.

The shape of the word

The causative verb is often regular, with a changed vowel (fallen → fällen, sinken → senken), a prefix (versenken, verbrennen) or an ending (steigen → steigern).

The words
Waking up

aufwachen is what you do yourself. aufwecken is what an alarm clock or a crying baby does to you. The shorter forms erwachen and wecken follow the same split.

Ich bin heute schon um sechs aufgewacht.
(I woke up at six today.)
Das Baby hat mich um drei Uhr aufgeweckt.
(The baby woke me up at three o'clock.)
Falling

fallen is for anything that drops or falls down. fällen means to cut down, and it is used almost only for trees. It also appears in the fixed phrase eine Entscheidung fällen (to make a decision).

Beim Sturm ist ein Baum auf unser Auto gefallen.
(During the storm a tree fell onto our car.)
Die Stadt hat die alten Bäume im Park gefällt.
(The city cut down the old trees in the park.)
Sinking and going down

sinken covers both a ship going under and numbers getting smaller. There are two causative partners: versenken for ships and objects, and senken for prices, costs and temperatures.

Das Schiff ist in wenigen Minuten gesunken.
(The ship sank within a few minutes.)
Im Krieg wurde das Schiff von einem U-Boot versenkt.
(In the war the ship was sunk by a submarine.)
Nachts sinken die Temperaturen unter null.
(At night the temperatures drop below zero.)
Der Supermarkt senkt ab Montag die Preise für Obst.
(The supermarket is lowering its prices for fruit from Monday.)
Rising

steigen means to go up or increase. steigern means to increase something actively. English is similar with rise / raise.

Die Mieten in der Stadt steigen jedes Jahr.
(Rents in the city go up every year.)
Wir wollen unseren Umsatz im nächsten Jahr steigern.
(We want to increase our sales next year.)
Burning

brennen means to be on fire. verbrennen means to destroy something with fire.

Im Kamin brennt ein kleines Feuer.
(A small fire is burning in the fireplace.)
Er hat alle alten Briefe verbrannt.
(He burned all the old letters.)
Watch out
verbrennen works both ways

It is not a pure causative. It can also mean to burn up or get burnt with no object at all, and then it takes sein. Your cake can burn all by itself:

Oh nein, der Kuchen ist verbrannt!
(Oh no, the cake has burnt!)

Note also that brennen takes haben in the perfect (das Feuer hat gebrannt), so the sein clue does not help with this pair.

The typical mistake

Learners put an object after the verb that is used without an object: Die Regierung sinkt die Steuern instead of Die Regierung senkt die Steuern, or Ich falle den Baum instead of Ich fälle den Baum. If your sentence has an accusative object, check that you have chosen the causative partner.

More pairs to look out for

The same pattern appears in ertrinken / ertränken (to drown / to drown someone), springen / sprengen (to jump / to blow up) and erlöschen / löschen (to go out / to put out). Two verbs even split into a strong form that is used without an object and a weak causative form: erschrecken (ich bin erschrocken = I got a fright, er hat mich erschreckt = he gave me a fright) and hängen. The position verbs liegen / legen, sitzen / setzen and stehen / stellen follow the same logic and have their own article.

Summary

Before you choose the verb, check whether there is a direct object. If something simply happens, use the verb that is used without an object (fallen, sinken, steigen, aufwachen, brennen), which usually takes sein in the perfect. If someone makes it happen to something, use the causative partner (fällen, senken, versenken, steigern, aufwecken, verbrennen), which takes an accusative object and haben. Remember that verbrennen can also be used without an object.