brauchen
German, verb
brauchen is spelled B-R-A-U-C-H-E-N (8 letters) and appears 145 times per million words in written German, the 604th most frequent German word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Brauchen is a German verb meaning “to need, to be in need of, to require” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). On this page, Bräuchen is a different word: “dative plural of Brauch”. The German Wiktionary defines it as “etwas brauchen”.
What does brauchen mean in English?
verb
- 1
to need, to be in need of, to require
Ich brauche deine Hilfe.
- 2
to need to, to have to
Du brauchst nicht auf mich (zu) warten.
noun
- 1
masculinedative plural of Brauch
Source: English Wiktionary, German section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How German dictionaries define it
verb: 1. etwas brauchen: 2. etwas benötigen, nötig haben 3. etwas verwenden, benutzen 4. mit erweitertem Infinitiv und begrenzt oder verneint:
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 brauchen
- braucht present singular third-person
- brauchte past
- gebraucht participle past
- bräuchte common past subjunctive
- haben auxiliary
- brauchend participle present
- brauche first-person indicative present
- brauchst indicative present second-person
- brauchest second-person singular subjunctive
- brauchet plural second-person subjunctive
- brauchten first-person indicative plural
- bräuchten common first-person plural
- brauchtest indicative preterite second-person
- brauchtet indicative plural preterite
- bräuchtest common second-person singular
- bräuchtet common plural second-person
- brauche! imperative singular
- brauch! imperative singular
Source: English Wiktionary and German Wiktionary (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
English words that translate to brauchen
Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.
How common is brauchen in German?
brauchen appears 145 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).