knattern
German, verb
knattern is spelled K-N-A-T-T-E-R-N (8 letters) and appears about once in every 3 million words in written German, the 73,335th most frequent German word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Knattern is a German verb meaning “to rattle, chatter, clatter (make a quick series of banging noises, e.g. like the engine of a motorcycle)” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). With a capital, Knattern is a different word: “gerund of knattern”. The German Wiktionary defines it as “ein knallendes Geräusch stoßartig und in kurzen Intervallen erzeugen”.
What does knattern mean in English?
verb
- 1
to rattle, chatter, clatter (make a quick series of banging noises, e.g. like the engine of a motorcycle)
- 2
slangto shag, fuck (have sex)
noun
- 1
neutergerund of knattern
Source: English Wiktionary, German section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How German dictionaries define it
verb: 1. ein knallendes Geräusch stoßartig und in kurzen Intervallen erzeugen
noun: 1. knatterndes Geräusch
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 knattern
- knattert present singular third-person
- knatterte past
- geknattert participle past
- haben auxiliary
- knatternd participle present
- knattre first-person indicative present
- knattere first-person indicative present
- knatter first-person indicative present
- knatterst indicative present second-person
- knatterest second-person singular subjunctive
- knattrest second-person singular subjunctive
- knatteret plural second-person subjunctive
- knattret plural second-person subjunctive
- knatterten first-person indicative plural
- knattertest indicative preterite second-person
- knattertet indicative plural preterite
- knattere! imperative singular
- knatter! imperative singular
Source: English Wiktionary and German Wiktionary (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
How common is knattern in German?
knattern appears about once in every 3 million words in written German.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).