durchfahren

Durchfahren is a German verb meaning to drive through or pass through a route, area, or object. It is used for movement by vehicle or on foot and can refer to a tunnel, city, mountain pass, border crossing, or any stretch that is traversed without a stop. The focus is on the act of continuing movement through a space rather than on entering and staying.

Grammar and usage: Durchfahren is a separable-prefix verb. In the present tense you say: ich fahre durch, du fährst durch, er fährt durch, wir fahren durch, ihr fahrt durch, sie fahren durch. In the simple past: ich fuhr durch, du fuhrst durch, er fuhr durch, wir fuhren durch, ihr fuhrt durch, sie fuhren durch. The past participle is durchgefahren, and with the perfect tense the auxiliary is typically sein: Wir sind durchgefahren. The verb can take a direct object in the accusative when the thing being passed through is specified (for example, durch den Tunnel fahren).

Related terms and variants: The common noun for the act of moving through a space is Durchfahrt or Durchfahrtssführung in specific contexts, rather than a noun form of durchfahren itself. Related verbs include durchlaufen (to run through in a procedural or sequential sense) and durchziehen (to pull through, carry out). In traffic and travel language, durchfahren often conveys unbroken movement through a route, as opposed to stopping or detouring.

Usage notes: In everyday speech, simple forms like „durchfahren“ with a prepositional object are frequent (z. B. den Tunnel durchfahren). The choice between durchfahren and synonyms depends on whether the emphasis is on the act of moving through a space or on completing a process or route.