pfänden
German, verb
pfänden is spelled P-F-Ä-N-D-E-N (7 letters) and appears about once in every 4 million words in written German, the 95,383rd most frequent German word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Pfänden is a German verb meaning “to seize, impound” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). With a capital, Pfänden is a different word: “gerund of pfänden”. The German Wiktionary defines it as “als Sicherheit für eine ausstehende Schuld in Gewahrsam nehmen”.
What does pfänden mean in English?
verb
- 1
to seize, impound
noun
- 1
neutergerund of pfänden
Source: English Wiktionary, German section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How German dictionaries define it
verb: 1. als Sicherheit für eine ausstehende Schuld in Gewahrsam nehmen
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 pfänden
- pfändet present singular third-person
- pfändete past
- gepfändet participle past
- haben auxiliary
- pfändend participle present
- pfände first-person indicative present
- pfändest indicative present second-person
- pfändeten first-person indicative plural
- pfändetest indicative preterite second-person
- pfändetet indicative plural preterite
- pfänd imperative second-person singular
- habe gepfändet first-person indicative multiword-construction
- haben gepfändet first-person indicative multiword-construction
- pfänd! imperative singular
- pfände! imperative singular
- pfändet! imperative plural
- gepfändet haben active infinitive perfect
- gepfändet werden processual-passive infinitive present
Source: English Wiktionary and German Wiktionary (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
How common is pfänden in German?
pfänden appears about once in every 4 million words in written German.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).