behelfen
German, verb
behelfen is spelled B-E-H-E-L-F-E-N (8 letters) and appears about once in every 2 million words in written German, the 71,199th most frequent German word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Behelfen is a German verb meaning “to make do, to manage, to get by” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). With a capital, Behelfen is a different word: “gerund of behelfen”. The German Wiktionary defines it as “sich, notgedrungen, mit etwas als Ersatz begnügen”.
What does behelfen mean in English?
verb
- 1
to make do, to manage, to get by
Sie behelfen sich mit dem, was sie haben.
noun
- 1
neutergerund of behelfen
noun
- 1
masculinedative plural of Behelf
Source: English Wiktionary, German section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How German dictionaries define it
verb: 1. sich, notgedrungen, mit etwas als Ersatz begnügen
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 behelfen
- behilft present singular third-person
- behalf past
- beholfen participle past
- behülfe past subjunctive
- haben auxiliary
- 3 strong
- behelfend participle present
- behelfe first-person indicative present
- behilfst indicative present second-person
- behelft indicative plural present
- behelfest second-person singular subjunctive
- behelfet plural second-person subjunctive
- behalfen first-person indicative plural
- behülfen first-person formal plural
- behalfst indicative preterite second-person
- behalft indicative plural preterite
- behülfest formal rare second-person
- behülfst formal rare second-person
Source: English Wiktionary and German Wiktionary (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
How common is behelfen in German?
behelfen appears about once in every 2 million words in written German.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).