pflegen
German, verb
pflegen is spelled P-F-L-E-G-E-N (7 letters) and appears 13 times per million words in written German, the 5,816th most frequent German word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Pflegen is a German verb meaning “to nurse; to care for someone in poor health” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). With a capital, Pflegen is a different word: “gerund of pflegen”. The German Wiktionary defines it as “sich sorgend um jemanden oder etwas kümmern (häufig um einen anvertrauten Menschen)”.
What does pflegen mean in English?
verb
- 1
to nurse; to care for someone in poor health
jemanden gesund pflegen
- 2
to take care of, to tend to, to maintain
sein Äußeres pflegen
- 3
archaic[with genitive ‘something/someone’]
- 4
to improve or care for something in an intellectual sense
- 5
to cultivate; to foster; to nurture; to maintain
Freundschaften pflegen
- 6
[with genitive ‘something’]
der Liebe pflegen
- 7
to carry out regularly
Umgang pflegen
- 8
to perform habitually; to be accustomed (to); to be in the habit (of)
Ich pflege zu laufen.
noun
- 1
neutergerund of pflegen
Source: English Wiktionary, German section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How German dictionaries define it
verb: 1. sich sorgend um jemanden oder etwas kümmern (häufig um einen anvertrauten Menschen) 2. zum Zweck der Erhaltung beziehungsweise Verbesserung eines Zustandes behandeln 3. sich aus innerer Neigung (mit etwas) beschäftigen 4. auf dem Laufenden halten
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 pflegen
- pflegt present singular third-person
- pflegte past
- gepflegt participle past
- haben auxiliary
- pflog past
- gepflogen participle past
- pflöge past subjunctive
- pflegend participle present
- pflege first-person indicative present
- pflegst indicative present second-person
- pflegest second-person singular subjunctive
- pfleget plural second-person subjunctive
- pflegten first-person indicative plural
- pflegtest indicative preterite second-person
- pflegtet indicative plural preterite
- pfleg imperative second-person singular
- pflege! imperative singular
- pfleg! imperative singular
Source: English Wiktionary and German Wiktionary (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
English words that translate to pflegen
Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.
How common is pflegen in German?
pflegen appears 13 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).