schaffen or erreichen?

Q: schaffen or erreichen?

English covers both with *to achieve*. schaffen means managing something difficult, often only just and with effort. erreichen means getting to a goal, a figure or a person. The object decides it: a task or a target.

English covers both with to achieve. schaffen means managing something difficult, often only just and with effort. erreichen means getting to a goal, a figure or a person. The object decides it: a task or a target.

schaffen

To manage something difficult. The object is the task itself, and often it is just „es“. Perfect: hat geschafft.

Ich habe den Zug gerade noch geschafft.I only just made the train.

erreichen

To get to a goal, a place, a figure or a person. The object is the target, not the effort.

Wir haben unser Ziel für dieses Jahr erreicht.We reached our goal for this year.

The mistake

Ich habe die Prüfung erreicht.

Ich habe die Prüfung geschafft.

An exam is not a mark you get to but a hurdle you get through. With erreichen only a figure works: Ich habe 90 Punkte erreicht.

Rule of thumb

Ask: task or target? You schaffen a task and erreichen a target. And take care: schaffen with the forms schuf and geschaffen is a different verb and means to create.

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