anfallen

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See also: Anfällen

German

Etymology

From Middle High German anevallen, from Old High German anafallan, from Proto-West Germanic *anafallan. Equivalent to an- +‎ fallen. Cognate with Dutch aanvallen.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈanˌfalən/
  • Audio:(file)

Verb

anfallen (class 7 strong, third-person singular present fällt an, past tense fiel an, past participle angefallen, auxiliary haben or sein)

  1. (transitive, auxiliary haben) to set upon, to attack suddenly (especially of animals or persons compared to animals)
    Synonym: (plötzlich) angreifen
    Einmal hat mich im Wald ein Wildschwein angefallen.
    I was once attacked by a wild boar in the forest.
    Die Joggerin wurde von einem Sittenstrolch angefallen.
    The female jogger was attacked by a sexual predator.
    1. (figurative) to assail, overwhelm
      Synonym: bestürmen
      Wo sie auch hingeht, wird sie von Paparazzi angefallen.
      Wherever she goes, she is assailed by paparazzi.
      Jedes Mal, wenn ich ihn sehe, fällt er mich an und will Geld von mir.
      Every time I see him, he assails me with pleas to give him money.
    2. (figurative, formal) to befall, grip, overwhelm suddenly (of moods, feelings)
      Synonyms: befallen, überkommen
      Wie ich da so saß, fiel mich eine tiefe Verzweiflung an.
      As I was sitting there, a deep sense of despair befell me.
  2. (intransitive, auxiliary sein) to arise, be incurred, to accumulate
    Synonym: entstehen
    Bei der Produktion fällt sehr viel Ausschuss an.
    A great amount of wastage arises during production.
    Die Firma trägt alle anfallenden Kosten.
    The company bears all costs incurred.
    Durch den hohen Krankenstand sind große Rückstände angefallen.
    Because of the high number of ill staff, a lot of backlog has accumulated.

Conjugation

Derived terms

References

  • Michael Robert, Karin Doerr (2002) Nazi-Deutsch/Nazi-German: An English lexicon of the language of the Third Reich, Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, →ISBN, page 65

Further reading

  • anfallen” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache
  • anfallen” in Uni Leipzig: Wortschatz-Lexikon
  • anfallen” in Duden online
  • anfallen” in OpenThesaurus.de

Swedish

Noun

anfallen

  1. definite plural of anfall

Participle

anfallen

  1. past participle of anfalla