What is the difference between "herbei" and "her"? Is it right we say "herbei" is more formal?
Herbei is the long-form of "her" and can be used as a synonym. You can say "Kommt alle her!" just as "Kommt alle herbei!". Herbei sounds a bit old-fashioned or formal though, I would expect it to be used in theater or so.
The adverb of herbei is not very frequently used, it means "from there to here".
But of all occurrences I found on a quick glance, in more than 80% of the cases it was the separated particle of the verbs
- herbeiführen
- herbeilaufen
- herbeizitieren
Espcially herbeiführen has such a special meaning, that replacement by herführen is impossible.
