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bauen

German, verb

bauen is spelled B-A-U-E-N (5 letters) and appears 65 times per million words in written German, the 1,326th most frequent German word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Bauen is a German verb meaning “to build, to construct” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). With a capital, Bauen is a different word: “gerund of bauen (“building”)”. The German Wiktionary defines it as “etwas errichten, herstellen (Gebäude, Straßen und Ähnliches)”.

What does bauen mean in English?

verb

  1. 1

    to build, to construct

    ein Haus bauen

  2. 2

    to rely

    Du kannst auf mich bauen.

  3. 3

    slangto roll (a joint)

    Baust du einen? Ich kann grad nicht mehr.

  4. 4

    informalto cause (something bad)

    Mist/Scheiße bauen

noun

as Bauen
  1. 1

    neutergerund of bauen (“building”)

noun

as Bauen
  1. 1

    masculinedative plural of Bau

Source: English Wiktionary, German section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).

How German dictionaries define it

verb: 1. etwas errichten, herstellen (Gebäude, Straßen und Ähnliches) 2. ein Gerät, einen Gegenstand herstellen 3. sein Eigenheim bauen^([1]) 4. Ausbesserungsarbeiten an Bauwerken vornehmen, ausführen

noun: 1. Erstellung eines Baus

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 bauen

  • baut present singular third-person
  • baute past
  • gebaut participle past
  • haben auxiliary
  • bauend participle present
  • baue first-person indicative present
  • baust indicative present second-person
  • bauest second-person singular subjunctive
  • bauet plural second-person subjunctive
  • bauten first-person indicative plural
  • bautest indicative preterite second-person
  • bautet indicative plural preterite
  • bau imperative second-person singular
  • habe gebaut first-person indicative multiword-construction
  • haben gebaut first-person indicative multiword-construction
  • baue! imperative singular
  • bau! imperative singular
  • baut! imperative plural

Source: English Wiktionary and German Wiktionary (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).

English words that translate to bauen

Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.

How common is bauen in German?

bauen appears 65 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).

What to look up after bauen