gefallen
German, verb
gefallen is spelled G-E-F-A-L-L-E-N (8 letters) and appears 95 times per million words in written German, the 912th most frequent German word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Gefallen is a German verb meaning “to please; to appeal to [with dative ‘someone’] (idiomatically translated by English like with the dative object as the subject)” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is also a past participle of fallen. With a capital, Gefallen is a different word: “favor, favour (UK) (a deed in which help is voluntarily provided)”. The German Wiktionary defines it as “jemandem angenehm sein”.
What does gefallen mean in English?
verb
- 1
to please; to appeal to [with dative ‘someone’] (idiomatically translated by English like with the dative object as the subject)
Diese Hose gefällt mir.
adjective
- 1
fallen, dropped
verb
- 1
past participle of fallen
verb
- 1
past participle of gefallen
noun
- 1
masculinefavor, favour (UK) (a deed in which help is voluntarily provided)
noun
- 1
neutergerund of gefallen
Source: English Wiktionary, German section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How German dictionaries define it
adjective: 1. im Krieg durch Feindeinwirkung gestorben 2. Ansehen, (gesellschaftlichen) Status verloren habend
verb: 1. jemandem angenehm sein 2. sich (selbstverliebt) geben als
verb: 1. Partizip Perfekt des Verbs fallen
noun: 1. Handlung oder Unterlassung, mit der man jemand anderem uneigennützig einen Dienst erweist; etwas, was man nur einem anderen zuliebe tut, um ihn zu unterstützen
noun: 1. von Zuneigung und Sympathie oder von Billigung getragene positive Einstellung jemandem oder etwas gegenüber
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 gefallen
- gefällt present singular third-person
- gefiel past
- haben auxiliary
- 7 strong
- gefallend participle present
- gefalle first-person indicative present
- gefällst indicative present second-person
- gefallt indicative plural present
- gefallest second-person singular subjunctive
- gefallet plural second-person subjunctive
- gefielen first-person indicative plural
- gefiele first-person formal rare
- gefielst indicative preterite second-person
- gefielt indicative plural preterite
- gefielest formal rare second-person
- gefielet formal plural rare
- gefall imperative second-person singular
- gefallen haben active infinitive perfect
Source: English Wiktionary and German Wiktionary (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
English words that translate to gefallen
Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.
How common is gefallen in German?
gefallen appears 95 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).