nachzahlen
German, verb
nachzahlen is spelled N-A-C-H-Z-A-H-L-E-N (10 letters) and appears about once in every 1 million words in written German, the 51,196th most frequent German word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Nachzahlen is a German verb meaning “to pay later, to pay back, to make a subsequent payment (of a charge or amount that was not paid in due time and/or not in full, e.g.…” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). With an umlaut, nachzählen is a different word: “to check, to count again (to repeat a count made by oneself or…”. The German Wiktionary defines it as “zu einem späteren Zeitpunkt bezahlen (weil bis zu dem Zeitpunkt die eigentlich fällige Zahlung noch nicht…”.
What does nachzahlen mean in English?
verb
- 1
to pay later, to pay back, to make a subsequent payment (of a charge or amount that was not paid in due time and/or not in full, e.g., taxes)
- 2
to make an additional payment
verb
- 1
to check, to count again (to repeat a count made by oneself or someone else to be more certain of its accuracy)
Source: English Wiktionary, German section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How German dictionaries define it
verb: 1. zum Erhalten von Informationen/zum (erneuten) Überprüfen die Anzahl/Summe von etwas feststellen
verb: 1. zu einem späteren Zeitpunkt bezahlen (weil bis zu dem Zeitpunkt die eigentlich fällige Zahlung noch nicht geleistet war)
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 nachzahlen
- zählt nach present singular third-person
- zählte nach past
- nachgezählt participle past
- haben auxiliary
- nachzählend participle present
- nachzuzählen infinitive infinitive-zu
- zähle nach first-person indicative present
- zählen nach first-person indicative plural
- zählst nach indicative present second-person
- zählest nach second-person singular subjunctive
- zählet nach plural second-person subjunctive
- zählten nach first-person indicative plural
- zähltest nach indicative preterite second-person
- zähltet nach indicative plural preterite
- zähl nach! imperative singular
- zähle nach! imperative singular
- zählt nach! imperative plural
- nachgezählt haben active infinitive perfect
Source: English Wiktionary and German Wiktionary (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
How common is nachzahlen in German?
nachzahlen appears about once in every 1 million words in written German.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).