German

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Etymology

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From durch- +‎ fallen.

Pronunciation 1

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  • IPA(key): /ˈdʊʁçfalən/, [-ln̩], [-ln], [dʊɐ̯ç-], [dʊəç-], (Northern or Central Germany) [dʊɪ̯ç-], (Southern) [dʊɐ̯x-], (Southern) [dʊəx-]
  • Audio:(file)

Verb

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durchfallen (class 7 strong, third-person singular present fällt durch, past tense fiel durch, past participle durchgefallen, auxiliary sein)

  1. (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.
  2. (intransitive) to fail, to not pass [with bei (+ dative) or in (+ dative) ‘an exam, a test’]
    Ich bin durchgefallen.I failed.
    Ich bin bei / in der Prüfung durchgefallen.I failed the exam.
Usage notes
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  • 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 someone”, that is “made them fail”, durchfallen is construed with lassen:
Der Lehrer hat mich durchfallen lassen.The teacher failed me.
Conjugation
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See also
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  • durch, fallen (transitive equivalents of both senses are constructed with the preposition)

Pronunciation 2

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Verb

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durchfallen (class 7 strong, third-person singular present durchfällt, past tense durchfiel, past participle durchfallen, auxiliary haben)

  1. (transitive) to fall for (a distance), to cross by falling
    Er hatte schon einen Kilometer durchfallen, als ihm einfiel, dass er seinen Fallschirm vergessen hatte.
    He had already been falling for one kilometer when he realised that he had forgotten his parachute.
Conjugation
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Further reading

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