German word of the day: Scheitern

Why do I need to know scheitern?

Because failure is a big part of life. 

What does scheitern mean?

The verb scheitern, which sounds like this (and yes it is like a swear word), means to fail, to be unsuccessful or not reach a goal. It is also used to mean collapse, break down, fall through or shipwreck although these are less common. 

The word is said to have been around since the 16th century. There are different theories into how it developed over the years, although most agree that it comes from (der) Scheit -  the word for a log or piece of wood. Scheitern was originally used to mean 'to break into pieces' or 'to shatter'. 

Some linguists say scheitern also developed from the phrase zu scheitern werden (to become shipwrecked) which was used when ships ran aground or broke into pieces.

After the epic failure of the so-called 'traffic light' coalition, with the Social Democrats, Greens and Free Democrats, there have been plenty of headlines featuring this word. As The Local has been reporting, on November 6th Chancellor Olaf Scholz, of the SPD, fired Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP), leading to the collapse of the government. A snap election will take place on February 23rd 2025.

German newspaper Handelsblatt recently posed the interesting question: Warum ist die Ampelkoalition gescheitert? which means 'Why did the traffic light coalition fail?' In this case the version of scheitern is the past participle (hence the ge added to the front).

We can also learn a bit about the grammar from this example. The past perfect uses 'sein' (to be) not 'haben' (to have) as the auxiliary verb, which is often a confusing concept for German learners. Germans say a project 'ist' gescheitert whereas in English we say the project 'has' failed.

It is most often used to describe a thing failing (like the government or a project). It is also for a big failure or serious situation. For something not so serious, you can say nicht klappen (which means to not work out)

By the way, there is also the noun (das) Scheitern which generally means a failure or a breakdown. 

Use it like this: 

Manchmal ist es gut, zu scheitern.

Sometimes it's good to fail.

Wenn man scheitert, muss man es erneut versuchen.

If you fail, you need to try again.

Die Karriere des Politikers ist gescheitert.

The politician's career has failed.