achten
German, verb
achten is spelled A-C-H-T-E-N (6 letters) and appears 35 times per million words in written German, the 2,396th most frequent German word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Achten is a German verb meaning “to care about, to pay attention to” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is also a strong genitive masculine/neuter singular of achte. With an umlaut, ächten is a different word: “to banish, ostracize, outlaw (expel someone from society and declare…”. With a capital, Achten is a different word: “gerund of achten”. On this page, Ächten is a different word: “gerund of ächten”. The German Wiktionary defines it as “auf etwas Acht geben, etwas Beachtung schenken”.
What does achten mean in English?
verb
- 1
to care about, to pay attention to
- 2
to keep an eye on
Ich achte auf meine Linie.
- 3
to respect
- 4
to pay attention to something
number
- 1
masculineneuterstrong genitive masculine/neuter singular
- 2
weak/mixed genitive/dative all-gender singular
- 3
masculinestrong/weak/mixed accusative masculine singular
- 4
strong dative plural
- 5
weak/mixed all-case plural
verb
- 1
to banish, ostracize, outlaw (expel someone from society and declare them unprotected by law)
- 2
to ostracize, shun (look down upon someone and refuse to associate with them)
- 3
to proscribe, outlaw, ban (declare something unacceptable)
noun
- 1
neutergerund of achten
noun
- 1
feminineplural of Acht
noun
- 1
neutergerund of ächten
Source: English Wiktionary, German section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How German dictionaries define it
verb: 1. auf etwas Acht geben, etwas Beachtung schenken 2. etwas/jemandem Respekt entgegenbringen; etwas/jemanden zu schätzen wissen, anerkennen 3. beobachten, Ausschau halten nach etwas 4. etwas/jemanden überwachen, auf etwas/jemanden aufpassen; aufpassen, dass nichts passiert
verb: 1. als unerwünscht erklären 2. verbannen, aus einer Gemeinschaft ausschließen
The definition in the German Wiktionary, in German.
Source: German Wiktionary, dump of September 1, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org.
Forms of achten
- achtet present singular third-person
- achtete past
- geachtet participle past
- haben auxiliary
- achtend participle present
- achte first-person indicative present
- achtest indicative present second-person
- achteten first-person indicative plural
- achtetest indicative preterite second-person
- achtetet indicative plural preterite
- acht imperative second-person singular
- habe geachtet first-person indicative multiword-construction
- haben geachtet first-person indicative multiword-construction
- achte! imperative singular
- achtet! imperative plural
- geachtet haben active infinitive perfect
- geachtet werden processual-passive infinitive present
- geachtet worden sein processual-passive infinitive perfect
Source: English Wiktionary and German Wiktionary (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
English words that translate to achten
Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.
How common is achten in German?
achten appears 35 times per million words in written German.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).