Umziehen im Perfekt - haben oder sein?

One of my dearest students @kzujic brought this question up after a diskussion with his IRL-German teacher. I really appreciate the curiosity behind that question, and while it seems to be awfully specific, you might find that it´s answer applies as well to other verbs.

So if you say “Ich bin am Wochenende umgezogen” (I have moved this weekend) the you´d use SEIN, because you clearly moved from A to B, the verb is intransitiv.

But the Duden specifies that you can also use haben, e.g. in the case that you are transporting an item: “Ich habe meinen Kleiderschrank umgezogen.” (I have moved my closet) You used the verb transitiv.

There are quite some verbs that you can use in different ways, such as fliegen, fahren, reiten, tanzen, brechen and many more. The following blog has great articles about this and other topics together with examples and explanations, so for all the grammar curious chatterbugs out there I highly recommend it.

Did you ever stumble about an issue like this? Comment below :slight_smile: and happy chattering! :catbee:

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One of the most common examples is “tanzen”, which appears in an exercise early in 3.0. Sometimes the explanation about the different uses of a verb can be quiet challenging. That’s why I just explained that in this case “haben” and “sein” can both be used.

How do you explain those (at times) tiny differences in meaning? :thinking:

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