leidtun
German, verb
leidtun is spelled L-E-I-D-T-U-N (7 letters) and appears about once in every 6 million words in written German, the 120,168th most frequent German word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Leidtun is a German verb meaning “to regret, to be sorry (with the cause of the regret as the subject and the person feeling regret as the indirect object)” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). With a capital, Leidtun is a different word: “gerund of leidtun”. The German Wiktionary defines it as “bei jemandem Mitleid hervorrufen, von jemandem bedauert werden”.
What does leidtun mean in English?
verb
- 1
to regret, to be sorry (with the cause of the regret as the subject and the person feeling regret as the indirect object)
Es tut mir leid.
noun
- 1
neutergerund of leidtun
Source: English Wiktionary, German section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How German dictionaries define it
verb: 1. bei jemandem Mitleid hervorrufen, von jemandem bedauert 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 leidtun
- tut leid present singular third-person
- tat leid past
- leidgetan participle past
- täte leid past subjunctive
- haben auxiliary
- leidtuend participle present
- leidzutun infinitive infinitive-zu
- tue leid first-person indicative present
- tun leid first-person indicative plural
- tuen leid first-person plural subjunctive
- tust leid indicative present second-person
- tuest leid second-person singular subjunctive
- tuet leid plural second-person subjunctive
- taten leid first-person indicative plural
- täten leid first-person plural subjunctive
- tatest leid indicative preterite second-person
- tatst leid indicative preterite second-person
- tatet leid indicative plural preterite
Source: English Wiktionary and German Wiktionary (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
English words that translate to leidtun
Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.
How common is leidtun in German?
leidtun appears about once in every 6 million words in written German.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).