-te
German, suffix/tə/
-te is spelled T-E (2 letters) and appears 10 times per million words in written German, the 6,912th most frequent German word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). -te is a German feminine suffix meaning “forms the first-person and third-person singular of the past tense and past subjunctive of weak verbs and some irregular verbs” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).
What does -te mean in English?
suffix
- 1
forms the first-person and third-person singular of the past tense and past subjunctive of weak verbs and some irregular verbs
reisen (“to travel”) + -te → reiste (“[I] travelled; [he] travelled”)
suffix
- 1
femininerareforms nouns from adjectives
flau (“slack, windless”) + -te → Flaute (“slackness, stagnation”)
Source: English Wiktionary, German section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How German dictionaries define it
abbreviation: 1. Trennungsentschädigung 2. Abteilung Terrorismus 3. Technische Einheit(en) 4. Teileinheit(en)
The definition in the German Wiktionary, in German.
Source: German Wiktionary, dump of September 1, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org.
How do you pronounce -te?
- /tə/
Sources: English Wiktionary, German Wiktionary (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026); recordings from Wikimedia Commons.
English words that translate to -te
Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.
How common is -te in German?
-te appears 10 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).