By far most compound verbs belong to this category. Rather than learning all separable compound verbs by heart, you better learn which verbs are _in_ separable.
Where prefixes of _in_ separable compound verbs are never separated from their verbs, separable compound verbs can occur in two pieces: In certain situations the prefix is separated from its verb.
So when do we break up the verb and when do the elements remain attached to each other?
- In the [simple present](#/lesson/Verbs.Re07) and [simple past](#/lesson/Verbs.Re10), we separate the prefix from the verb:
samenwerken (to cooperate)
zij werkten samen (they cooperated)
- In the [past participle](#/lesson/Verbs.Re13), the separable compound verb remains intact:\*
zij hebben samengewerkt (they have cooperated)
(\*)There are cases where even the past participle is split in two. See the chapter about word order and the [prefix of a compound verb](#/lesson/WordOrder.25).
The main difficulty lies in distinguishing separable from inseparable compound verbs. An important characteristic of the separable compound verb:
the stress always lies on the adverbial prefix
not on the verb
This is a good way to distinguish this category from the category of inseparable compound verbs, where the stress lies on the verb. Good dictionaries indicate the position of the stress.