passen
German, verb
passen is spelled P-A-S-S-E-N (6 letters) and appears 44 times per million words in written German, the 1,929th most frequent German word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Passen is a German verb meaning “to fit” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). On this page, Pässen is a different word: “dative plural of Pass”. The German Wiktionary defines it as “angemessen sein, sich eignen, harmonieren; gute Passform haben”.
What does passen mean in English?
verb
- 1
to fit
Diese Schuhe passen mir nicht.
- 2
to suit, to be suitable for [with dative ‘someone/something’] or
Ja, 13 Uhr passt mir gut.
- 3
to be alright, to be fine
Und, passt's? - Ja, passt schon.
- 4
to go with (to correspond or fit well with, to match)
Diese Schuhe passen gut zu meiner Jacke.
- 5
to match (e.g., a description)
Die Beschreibung passte genau auf meinen Onkel.
- 6
to pass
verb
- 1
to pass (to move the ball or puck to a teammate)
noun
- 1
masculinedative plural of Pass
Source: English Wiktionary, German section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How German dictionaries define it
verb: 1. angemessen sein, sich eignen, harmonieren; gute Passform haben 2. Konstruktion: jemandem passen recht sein, gefallen 3. darauf verzichten, etwas zu tun, anzusagen oder zu setzen, wenn man dazu an der Reihe ist 4. Ball über eine Distanz weitergeben
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 passen
- passt present singular third-person
- passte past
- gepasst participle past
- haben auxiliary
- passend participle present
- passe first-person indicative present
- passest second-person singular subjunctive
- passet plural second-person subjunctive
- passten first-person indicative plural
- passtest indicative preterite second-person
- passtet indicative plural preterite
- pass imperative second-person singular
- habe gepasst first-person indicative multiword-construction
- haben gepasst first-person indicative multiword-construction
- pass! imperative singular
- passe! imperative singular
- passt! imperative plural
- gepasst haben active infinitive perfect
Source: English Wiktionary and German Wiktionary (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
English words that translate to passen
Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.
How common is passen in German?
passen appears 44 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).