hartzen
German, verb[ˈhaʁt͡sn̩]
hartzen is spelled H-A-R-T-Z-E-N (7 letters) and appears about once in every 11 million words in written German, the 182,294th most frequent German word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Hartzen is a German verb meaning “to live off welfare (i.e. Hartz IV)” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The German Wiktionary defines it as “von Arbeitslosengeld II (Hartz IV) leben”.
What does hartzen mean in English?
verb
- 1
colloquialto live off welfare (i.e. Hartz IV)
- 2
colloquialderogatoryto be lazy
Source: English Wiktionary, German section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How German dictionaries define it
verb: 1. von Arbeitslosengeld II (Hartz IV) leben 2. faul sein, nichts tun
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 hartzen
- hartzt present singular third-person
- hartzte past
- gehartzt participle past
- haben auxiliary
- hartzend participle present
- hartze first-person indicative present
- hartzest second-person singular subjunctive
- hartzet plural second-person subjunctive
- hartzten first-person indicative plural
- hartztest indicative preterite second-person
- hartztet indicative plural preterite
- hartz imperative second-person singular
- habe gehartzt first-person indicative multiword-construction
- haben gehartzt first-person indicative multiword-construction
- hartz! imperative singular
- hartze! imperative singular
- hartzt! imperative plural
- gehartzt haben active infinitive perfect
Source: English Wiktionary and German Wiktionary (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
How do you pronounce hartzen?
- [ˈhaʁt͡sn̩]
Sources: English Wiktionary, German Wiktionary (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026); recordings from Wikimedia Commons.
How common is hartzen in German?
hartzen appears about once in every 11 million words in written German.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).