bedürfen
German, verb
bedürfen is spelled B-E-D-Ü-R-F-E-N (8 letters) and appears 3.6 times per million words in written German, the 15,594th most frequent German word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Bedürfen is a German verb meaning “to require, to need” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). With a capital, Bedürfen is a different word: “gerund of bedürfen”. The German Wiktionary defines it as “etwas benötigen, etwas brauchen, auf etwas angewiesen sein”.
What does bedürfen mean in English?
verb
- 1
to require, to need
Wir bedürfen eines starken Mannes.
noun
- 1
neutergerund of bedürfen
Source: English Wiktionary, German section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How German dictionaries define it
verb: 1. etwas benötigen, etwas brauchen, auf etwas angewiesen sein 2. etwas benötigen, etwas brauchen, auf etwas angewiesen sein
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 bedürfen
- bedarf present singular third-person
- bedurfte past
- bedurft participle past
- bedürfte past subjunctive
- haben auxiliary
- bedürfend participle present
- bedürfe first-person singular subjunctive
- bedarfst indicative present second-person
- bedürft indicative plural present
- bedürfest second-person singular subjunctive
- bedürfet plural second-person subjunctive
- bedurften first-person indicative plural
- bedürften first-person formal plural
- bedurftest indicative preterite second-person
- bedurftet indicative plural preterite
- bedürftest formal rare second-person
- bedürftet formal plural rare
- habe bedurft first-person indicative multiword-construction
Source: English Wiktionary and German Wiktionary (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
How common is bedürfen in German?
bedürfen appears 3.6 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).