kriegen

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See also: Kriegen

German

Etymology

From Middle High German kriegen (to war, to conquer property or land). Verbalisation of Krieg (war). Cognate to Bavarian kriagn, Dutch krijgen, Hunsrik krien.

Pronunciation

  • (Standard, Germany) IPA(key): /ˈkriːɡən/, ,
  • (southern Germany) IPA(key): /ˈkriəɡən/, ,
  • Rhymes: -iːɡən
  • Hyphenation: krie‧gen
  • (file)

Verb

kriegen (weak, third-person singular present kriegt, past tense kriegte, past participle gekriegt, auxiliary haben)

  1. (colloquial) to get
    Synonyms: bekommen, erhalten
  2. (colloquial) to catch, to come down with
  3. (colloquial) to get (something to a desired state)
    Wirst du es heute fertig kriegen?
    Will you get it ready today?
  4. (colloquial) to get (with the past participle form of a verb)
    Synonym: bekommen
    Hab ich geschenkt gekriegt.I got it as a present.
    Ich krieg's geschenkt.I get it for free.
  5. (dated, rare) to war
    Synonym: bekriegen

Usage notes

  • Kriegen is relatively infrequent in the formal standard language, which prefers bekommen or erhalten instead. However, kriegen is very frequent in colloquial German, where the verb often retains the vowel shortening that is occurring in local dialects in the second and third person singular of verbs. Thus, (du) kriegst is often pronounced /krɪ(ç)s(t)/, (er) kriegt may be /krɪkt/, /krɪç(t)/. These pronunciations are not used for the rare sense “to war”.

Conjugation

Derived terms

Further reading

German Low German

Alternative forms

Etymology

From Middle Low German krîgen. Verbalisation of krich (war). Compare German kriegen, Dutch krijgen.

Verb

kriegen (past singular kreeg, past participle kregen, auxiliary verb hebben)

  1. to get
  2. to catch
  3. to come down with

Conjugation