brauchen
From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
See also: Bräuchen
Etymology
From Middle High German brūchen, from Old High German brūhhan, from Proto-West Germanic *brūkan (“use, employ, consume”). Cognate to English brook and Dutch bruiken.
Pronunciation
Verb
brauchen (weak, third-person singular present braucht, past tense brauchte, past participle gebraucht, past subjunctive (prescribed) brauchte or (always used in speech, common in writing) bräuchte, auxiliary haben)
- (transitive) to need, to be in need of, to require [with accusative or (archaic) genitive ‘something/someone’]
- Ich brauche deine Hilfe. ― I need your help.
- Ich brauche nie lang. ― It never takes me long. (literally, “I never need long.”)
- Dafür brauchen wir dringend eine politische Lösung. ― For this, we urgently need a political solution.
- (auxiliary, chiefly in the negative or with nur (“just, only”)) to need to, to have to
- Du brauchst nicht auf mich (zu) warten. ― You don’t need to wait for me.
- Sie braucht mich nur an(zu)rufen. ― She just needs to call me.
Usage notes
- Traditionally, brauchen has been a weak verb in standard German with a regular past subjunctive brauchte. However, the irregular form bräuchte has since found its way from the dialects into the standard. It is already the only common form in spoken German,[1] and is gradually becoming dominant in writing as well (although some grammars may still discourage this usage).
- If the verb is used with another verb in the perfect or pluperfect tense, the infinitive replaces the past participle (ich hätte es nicht zu machen brauchen).
- In colloquial German, the verb may be even further assimilated to modal verbs by taking a bare infinitive instead of a zu infinitive (du brauchst nicht schreien instead of standard du brauchst nicht zu schreien) and sometimes by taking an endingless third-person singular present (er brauch, instead of er braucht). Both of these are properties of modal verbs, cf. er soll gehen, er muss bleiben.
Conjugation
| infinitive | brauchen | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| present participle | brauchend | ||||
| past participle | gebraucht | ||||
| auxiliary | haben | ||||
| indicative | subjunctive | ||||
| singular | plural | singular | plural | ||
| present | ich brauche | wir brauchen | i | ich brauche | wir brauchen |
| du brauchst | ihr braucht | du brauchest | ihr brauchet | ||
| er braucht | sie brauchen | er brauche | sie brauchen | ||
| preterite | ich brauchte | wir brauchten | ii | ich brauchte1,2 ich bräuchte1,3 |
wir brauchten1,2 wir bräuchten1,3 |
| du brauchtest | ihr brauchtet | du brauchtest1,2 du bräuchtest1,3 |
ihr brauchtet1,2 ihr bräuchtet1,3 | ||
| er brauchte | sie brauchten | er brauchte1,2 er bräuchte1,3 |
sie brauchten1,2 sie bräuchten1,3 | ||
| imperative | brauch (du) brauche (du) |
braucht (ihr) | |||
1This form and alternative in würde both found.
2Prescribed.
3Always used in speech, common in writing.
Derived terms
Related terms
References
Further reading
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