empfangen
German, verb
empfangen is spelled E-M-P-F-A-N-G-E-N (9 letters) and appears 20 times per million words in written German, the 3,888th most frequent German word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Empfangen is a German verb meaning “to receive (e.g. a present, a guest)” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). On this page, Empfängen is a different word: “dative plural of Empfang”. The German Wiktionary defines it as “etwas bekommen”.
What does empfangen mean in English?
verb
- 1
to receive (e.g. a present, a guest)
- 2
to welcome; to greet; to receive cordially
- 3
to conceive; to become pregnant (with)
noun
- 1
masculinedative plural of Empfang
Source: English Wiktionary, German section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How German dictionaries define it
verb: 1. etwas bekommen 2. Ankommenden begrüßen oder aufnehmen 3. schwanger werden
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 empfangen
- empfängt present singular third-person
- empfing past
- haben auxiliary
- 7 strong
- empfangend participle present
- empfange first-person indicative present
- empfängst indicative present second-person
- empfangt indicative plural present
- empfangest second-person singular subjunctive
- empfanget plural second-person subjunctive
- empfingen first-person indicative plural
- empfinge first-person formal rare
- empfingst indicative preterite second-person
- empfingt indicative plural preterite
- empfingest formal rare second-person
- empfinget formal plural rare
- empfang imperative second-person singular
- empfange! imperative singular
Source: English Wiktionary and German Wiktionary (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
English words that translate to empfangen
Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.
How common is empfangen in German?
empfangen appears 20 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).