vorkommt

Vorkommen is a German verb meaning to occur or to be present. The standard present tense form for the third person singular is written as zwei words: er/sie/es kommt vor. The prefix vor- in vorkommen is separable, so in main clauses the verb is split, as in “Solche Fehler kommen häufig vor.” In the perfect tense it becomes vorgekommen, as in “Solche Fehler sind schon vorgekommen.” The single word form vorkommt is not used in standard German orthography for the present tense.

Vorkommen also exists as a noun: das Vorkommen. It denotes an occurrence or the presence of something, and in geology or resource geology it refers to a deposit or find of a substance, for example “ein Vorkommen von Erdöl” or “das Vorkommen von Metallen.” The plural is Vorkommen. When used as a noun, it is capitalized, as is customary in German.

Etymology and use: vorkommen comes from the prefix vor- meaning “before” combined with kommen, with the sense shift from “to come before” to “to occur” over time. In practice, vorkommen is used to talk about frequency, appearance, or presence of phenomena, events, or items. The expression “Es kommt vor” or “Es kommt vor, dass …” conveys that something happens or can occur.

See also: auftreten, geschehen, passieren. In specialized contexts, Vorkommen is common in geology and natural-resource discourse to describe ore bodies, mineral deposits, or reserves.