Verlassen ("to leave" a place or a person) is a high-frequency verb that bundles together three features learners often get wrong individually, all at once: it is an inseparable prefix verb, it is strong with an a→ä vowel change in the present, and it has a frequent reflexive life as sich verlassen auf ("to rely on"). It is built on the strong verb lassen ("to let/leave"), and it inherits lassen's irregular Präteritum stem.
Principal parts
| Infinitive | Präteritum | Partizip II (auxiliary) |
|---|---|---|
| verlassen | verließ | verlassen (hat) |
Read this as verlassen – verließ – hat verlassen. Two things stand out. First, the Präteritum stem verließ is spelled with ß (long vowel before ß). Second, the participle is simply verlassen — identical to the infinitive, and crucially without ge-. The auxiliary is haben.
Why no ge-: the inseparable prefix
Ver- is one of the inseparable prefixes (be-, ge-, er-, ver-, zer-, ent-, emp-, miss-). These prefixes are unstressed — you say ver-LAS-sen, not VER-lassen — and they fuse permanently onto the verb. Two consequences follow that English has no analogue for:
- The prefix never splits off to the end of the clause the way separable prefixes do. Compare separable anrufen → Ich rufe dich an with inseparable verlassen → Ich verlasse dich (the prefix stays put).
- The participle takes no ge-. The ge- prefix can only attach to a stressed first syllable; an unstressed inseparable prefix blocks it. So the participle is verlassen, never geverlassen or vergelassen.
See inseparable prefixes and the ge-less participle of prefix verbs for the full system.
Präsens (present): the a→ä vowel change
As a strong verb, verlassen changes its stem vowel a→ä in the du and er/sie/es forms — exactly like its parent lassen (and fahren, schlafen, tragen). Everywhere else the stem stays a.
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| ich | verlasse |
| du | verlässt |
| er / sie / es | verlässt |
| wir | verlassen |
| ihr | verlasst |
| sie / Sie | verlassen |
Note that du verlässt and er verlässt are identical. This happens because the stem already ends in -ss: the du-ending -st would normally add an s, but the stem's s and the ending's s merge, so both forms come out as verlässt. (Contrast du fährst vs er fährt, where the stem does not end in s.) For the vowel change generally, see strong vowel change a → ä.
Sie verlässt das Haus jeden Morgen um Punkt sieben.
She leaves the house every morning at seven sharp. (a→ä in the er/sie form)
Wenn du jetzt das Gebäude verlässt, kommst du nicht mehr rein.
If you leave the building now, you won't get back in. (informal; du verlässt)
Präteritum (simple past)
The strong stem is verließ (note the ß). The strong-verb endings are zero for ich/er, -st for du, and -en/-t/-en for the plural.
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| ich | verließ |
| du | verließest |
| er / sie / es | verließ |
| wir | verließen |
| ihr | verließt |
| sie / Sie | verließen |
Er verließ die Firma im Streit und sprach nie wieder darüber.
He left the company in anger and never spoke about it again. (literary/narrative Präteritum; note verließ with ß)
Perfekt (present perfect)
Present of haben + the participle verlassen (no ge-).
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| ich | habe verlassen |
| du | hast verlassen |
| er / sie / es | hat verlassen |
| wir | haben verlassen |
| ihr | habt verlassen |
| sie / Sie | haben verlassen |
A natural trap: because verlassen describes a change of location, English speakers reason "it's a verb of motion, so it takes sein." But the rule is about the subject's own motion through space (gehen, kommen, fahren). Verlassen is transitive — it has a direct object (das Haus), and transitive verbs take haben. For the auxiliary logic, see haben vs sein in the Perfekt.
Die letzten Gäste haben das Lokal erst gegen drei Uhr verlassen.
The last guests didn't leave the place until around three in the morning. (Perfekt with haben, no ge-)
Konjunktiv II (would leave)
The synthetic Konjunktiv II of a strong verb takes the Präteritum stem plus an umlaut where possible: verließe. The ß stays, and the stem already has a long ie, so there is no further umlaut to add. This form is alive in careful writing; in speech you will also hear würde verlassen.
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| ich | verließe |
| du | verließest |
| er / sie / es | verließe |
| wir | verließen |
| ihr | verließet |
| sie / Sie | verließen |
An ihrer Stelle verließe ich diese Beziehung sofort.
If I were her, I'd leave this relationship immediately. (synthetic Konjunktiv II, formal/written register)
Government 1: transitive verlassen + accusative
In its core meaning, verlassen takes a direct object in the accusative — the place or person being left. There is no preposition, unlike English "leave from" or "depart from".
Bitte verlassen Sie umgehend das Gebäude!
Please leave the building immediately! (formal Sie-form; emergency/announcement register)
Er hat seine Familie verlassen.
He left his family. (accusative object, no preposition)
Government 2: sich verlassen auf + accusative ("to rely on")
Add a reflexive pronoun and the preposition auf, and the meaning shifts completely to "to rely / depend on". Here verlassen is reflexive, and auf is one of the two-way prepositions that go accusative in this fixed combination. The literal logic is helpful: you "leave yourself onto" someone — you place your weight on them. See reflexive verbs with prepositions.
Auf ihn kann man sich hundertprozentig verlassen.
You can rely on him a hundred percent. (sich verlassen auf + accusative)
Verlass dich nicht darauf, dass er pünktlich kommt.
Don't count on him arriving on time. (informal imperative; darauf + dass-clause)
Note the da-compound darauf when the object is a whole clause, and the imperative verlass dich (the reflexive pronoun dich stays even in commands).
Common idioms and fixed expressions
| Expression | English |
|---|---|
| jemanden im Stich lassen / verlassen | to leave someone in the lurch, to abandon them. |
| Da verlässt mich mein Latein. | "My Latin leaves me" — I'm at the end of my wits/knowledge. |
| Wenn mich nicht alles täuscht / verlässt... | If I'm not mistaken / if my memory doesn't fail me... |
| ein verlassener Ort | a deserted / abandoned place (participle used adjectivally). |
In dem Moment hat mich der Mut verlassen.
At that moment my courage left me. (figurative: an abstract subject 'leaves' a person)
Common Mistakes
❌ Ich bin das Haus verlassen.
Wrong auxiliary — verlassen is transitive (it has an object), so the Perfekt uses haben, not sein.
✅ Ich habe das Haus verlassen.
I left the house.
❌ Er hat die Stadt geverlassen.
Incorrect participle — an inseparable prefix blocks ge-; the participle is simply verlassen.
✅ Er hat die Stadt verlassen.
He left the city.
❌ Sie verlasst das Büro um fünf.
Missing vowel change — the er/sie form of this strong verb is verlässt (a→ä), not 'verlasst'.
✅ Sie verlässt das Büro um fünf.
She leaves the office at five.
❌ Du kannst auf mich verlassen.
Missing reflexive pronoun — the 'rely on' meaning needs sich: du kannst dich auf mich verlassen.
✅ Du kannst dich auf mich verlassen.
You can rely on me.
❌ Ich verlasse von der Arbeit um sechs.
False preposition — verlassen takes a direct accusative object, never 'von'; to express 'leave for the day' use a different verb like gehen or Feierabend machen.
✅ Ich verlasse das Büro um sechs.
I leave the office at six.
Key Takeaways
- Principal parts: verlassen – verließ – hat verlassen (Perfekt with haben; note the ß in the past).
- Inseparable ver-: the prefix never splits and the participle has no ge-.
- Strong a→ä: du/er verlässt (and du = er here, because the stem ends in -ss).
- Core meaning is transitive (accusative object, no preposition) → therefore haben, even though it involves leaving a place.
- sich verlassen auf
- accusative = "to rely on" — a completely different, reflexive meaning.
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Start learning German→Related Topics
- Inseparable Prefix VerbsA2 — The eight prefixes that never split, never take ge-, and are stressed on the stem: be-, emp-, ent-, er-, ge-, miss-, ver-, zer-.
- Present Tense: Strong Verbs with a to ä, au to äu, o to öA2 — How strong verbs add an umlaut (a to ä, au to äu, o to ö) in the du and er/sie/es forms only.
- Participles of Separable and Inseparable VerbsB1 — Where the -ge- goes when a verb has a prefix: inside separable verbs, and nowhere in inseparable ones — predicted perfectly by stress.
- Reflexive Verbs with Fixed PrepositionsB2 — Verbs that stack a reflexive pronoun, a fixed preposition, and a governed case — dense three-part frames like sich freuen auf and sich interessieren für, plus their da- and wo-compounds.
- Inseparable Verb Prefixes (be-, ver-, er-, ent-, zer-)B1 — What the inseparable prefixes be-, ver-, er-, ent-, zer-, miss- and emp- contribute to a verb's meaning, and the mechanical rules that set them apart from separable prefixes.
- lassen: Full Conjugation and UsageB1 — Complete conjugation of the strong verb lassen 'to let / leave / have done' across all tenses and moods, with the causative bare-infinitive construction, the double-infinitive Perfekt, the sich lassen passive, idioms, and the errors English speakers make.