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What is the difference between "auszählen" and "zählen" when they mean to count something? The DWDS dictionary defines "auszählen" as "durch Zählen die genaue Anzahl ermitteln" (meaning 1) and "zählen" as "die Anzahl von etw. feststellen" (meaning 2). Both seem identical to me.

Related example with the "Auszählung" noun:

Nach Auszählung fast aller Stimmen hat die konservative Partei deutlich weniger Sitze erhalten als die Demokraten.

(source: https://www.tagesschau.de/multimedia/sendung/tagesschau/ts-64174.html , 02:57)

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  • Even as a native speaker, I'm not sure I could pinpoint the exact difference. Maybe collecting some examples for the usage of "auszählen" in this sense can help to clear the picture. Of course, there's the usage in the context of votes, "Die Stimmen werden ausgezählt". And there's the usage in microbiology, "die Bakterienkolonien in der Petrischale auszählen". As a first thought, maybe the gist is that the result of the count has direct consequences? Like, who won the vote, does this sample count as "infected" etc.?
    – Henning Kockerbeck
    Commented Apr 11 at 19:23

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Auszählen means doing the statistics. You don't simply count the votes —8,156— but you account them to one or another candidate —A got 4,427, B got 3,123, C got 599, seven votes void—.

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