klauen
See also: Klauen
German
Etymology
From earlier kläuen, from Middle High German kleuen, klæwen, from Old High German klawēn, chlawēn, klawjan, from Proto-Germanic *klawjaną. Later remodelled after and related to Klaue (“claw”), that is “to grab with one’s claws”. The sense “to steal” originated in West Central German and Low Franconian, and is supposed to have been spread among soldiers during World War I.
Pronunciation
Verb
klauen (weak, third-person singular present klaut, past tense klaute, past participle geklaut, auxiliary haben)
- (transitive, somewhat informal) to steal
- (with dative) to steal from
Usage notes
- Klauen is the most common word for “to steal” in colloquial German. Written standard German generally prefers stehlen, although klauen is also seen here and there.
- The syntactical construction is identical to that of stehlen (see there).
Conjugation
infinitive | klauen | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
present participle | klauend | ||||
past participle | geklaut | ||||
auxiliary | haben | ||||
indicative | subjunctive | ||||
singular | plural | singular | plural | ||
present | ich klaue | wir klauen | i | ich klaue | wir klauen |
du klaust | ihr klaut | du klauest | ihr klauet | ||
er klaut | sie klauen | er klaue | sie klauen | ||
preterite | ich klaute | wir klauten | ii | ich klaute1 | wir klauten1 |
du klautest | ihr klautet | du klautest1 | ihr klautet1 | ||
er klaute | sie klauten | er klaute1 | sie klauten1 | ||
imperative | klau (du) klaue (du) |
klaut (ihr) |
1Rare except in very formal contexts; alternative in würde normally preferred.
Synonyms
Further reading
Categories:
- German terms inherited from Middle High German
- German terms derived from Middle High German
- German terms inherited from Old High German
- German terms derived from Old High German
- German terms inherited from Proto-Germanic
- German terms derived from Proto-Germanic
- German 2-syllable words
- German 1-syllable words
- German terms with IPA pronunciation
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- German weak verbs
- German verbs using haben as auxiliary
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- de:Crime