treffen
German, verb
treffen is spelled T-R-E-F-F-E-N (7 letters) and appears 178 times per million words in written German, the 478th most frequent German word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Treffen is a German verb meaning “to meet; to encounter” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). With a capital, Treffen is a different word: “a meeting”. The German Wiktionary defines it as “jemandem begegnen”.
What does treffen mean in English?
verb
- 1
to meet; to encounter
Wir treffen uns morgen.
- 2
to hit; to strike
- 3
to affect; to concern
- 4
colloquialto hit the mark, to suit, to be convenient or fortunate
Das trifft sich schlecht.
- 5
to cause the action implied by an abstract noun to take place, thus making the sentence passive or less direct; to effect the action
Ich treffe eine Entscheidung.
noun
- 1
neutera meeting
- 2
archaicneuterbattle
noun
- 1
neutergerund of treffen
Source: English Wiktionary, German section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How German dictionaries define it
verb: 1. jemandem begegnen 2. jemandem unerwartet begegnen 3. einander begegnen, auch sich in Spiel oder Kampf gegenübertreten 4. auf etwas oder jemandem aufprallen, ein Ziel berühren
noun: 1. Zusammenkunft von Menschen oder Verbänden zu einem bestimmten Zweck 2. kleine Kampfhandlung 3. Wettkampf 4. selbständiger Truppenkörper bei der Treffentaktik
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 treffen
- trifft present singular third-person
- traf past
- getroffen participle past
- träfe past subjunctive
- haben auxiliary
- 4 strong
- treffend participle present
- treffe first-person indicative present
- triffst indicative present second-person
- trefft indicative plural present
- treffest second-person singular subjunctive
- treffet plural second-person subjunctive
- trafen first-person indicative plural
- träfen first-person formal plural
- trafst indicative preterite second-person
- traft indicative plural preterite
- träfest formal rare second-person
- träfst formal rare second-person
Source: English Wiktionary and German Wiktionary (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
English words that translate to treffen
Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.
How common is treffen in German?
treffen appears 178 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).