anstellen
German, verb
anstellen is spelled A-N-S-T-E-L-L-E-N (9 letters) and appears 8.9 times per million words in written German, the 7,736th most frequent German word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Anstellen is a German verb meaning “to queue, to line up” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). With a capital, Anstellen is a different word: “gerund of anstellen”. The German Wiktionary defines it as “einen Gegenstand an einen anderen anlehnen”.
What does anstellen mean in English?
verb
- 1
to queue, to line up
- 2
to hire, to appoint
- 3
to switch on, to power up, to enable
- 4
to get into, to be up to (trouble, mischief, etc.)
- 5
colloquialto behave
- 6
colloquialto perform
noun
- 1
neutergerund of anstellen
Source: English Wiktionary, German section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How German dictionaries define it
verb: 1. einen Gegenstand an einen anderen anlehnen 2. jemandem eine Arbeitsstelle geben 3. etwas vollbringen 4. bei bestimmten abstrakten Substantiven (immer im Plural) so viel wie tätigen, unternehmen, also die durch das Substantiv ausgedrückte Tätigkeit zur Ausführung bringen
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 anstellen
- stellt an present singular third-person
- stellte an past
- angestellt participle past
- haben auxiliary
- anstellend participle present
- anzustellen infinitive infinitive-zu
- stelle an first-person indicative present
- stellen an first-person indicative plural
- stellst an indicative present second-person
- stellest an second-person singular subjunctive
- stellet an plural second-person subjunctive
- stellten an first-person indicative plural
- stelltest an indicative preterite second-person
- stelltet an indicative plural preterite
- stell an! imperative singular
- stelle an! imperative singular
- stellt an! imperative plural
- angestellt haben active infinitive perfect
Source: English Wiktionary and German Wiktionary (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
English words that translate to anstellen
Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.
How common is anstellen in German?
anstellen appears 8.9 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).