to come up with
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to come up with
To invent, develop, or devise something by thinking. This can refer to creative ideas, plans, stories, or even excuses.
Für den Kindergeburtstag müssen wir uns noch ein paar lustige Spiele ausdenken.
For the children's birthday party, we still have to come up with a few fun games.
'Ausdenken' (to come up with) is a separable verb. The prefix 'aus-' goes to the end in main clauses, but stays connected to the verb in subordinate clauses. In the infinitive with 'zu', 'zu' stands between the prefix and the verb.
Ich denke mir schnell eine Ausrede aus.
I'll quickly come up with an excuse.
This verb is almost always used reflexively with a dative pronoun and an accusative object. The structure is: person (nominative) + denkt sich (dative pronoun) + something (accusative) + aus.
Du denkst dir immer die besten Geschenke aus.
You always come up with the best gifts.
You can come up with both creative and positive things as well as negative things. Typical nouns are 'eine Geschichte' (a story), 'ein Plan' (a plan), 'ein Spiel' (a game), but also 'eine Ausrede' (an excuse) or 'eine Lüge' (a lie).
Die Kinder haben sich eine ganze Fantasiewelt ausgedacht.
The children came up with an entire fantasy world.
to develop
Both words can refer to a new idea or plan. Ausdenken emphasizes inventing something mentally, whereas entwickeln usually refers to working it out and testing it step by step. Use ausdenken for a first idea and entwickeln for the subsequent systematic work.
Mia denkt sich für die Lern-App eine spannende neue Funktion aus.
Mia is coming up with an exciting new feature for the language-learning app.
Das Team entwickelt die Idee für eine Lern-App Schritt für Schritt weiter.
The team is developing the idea for a language-learning app step by step.
