was
German, pronoun/vas/
was is spelled W-A-S (3 letters) and appears 3,090 times per million words in written German, the 46th most frequent German word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Was is a German pronoun meaning “what” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The German Wiktionary defines it as “sächliches Fragewort”.
What does was mean in English?
pronoun
- 1
what
Was machst du heute?
- 2
which; referring to the entire preceding clause
Sie tanzte gut, was er bewunderte.
- 3
that, which; referring to das, alles, etwas, nichts, and neuter substantival adjectives
Das ist alles, was ich weiß.
- 4
colloquialthat, which; referring to neuter singular nouns, instead of standard das
Siehst du das weiße Haus, was renoviert wird?
- 5
colloquialsomething, anything; instead of standard etwas
Ich hab was gefunden.
determiner
- 1
archaicwhat; what kind of
adverb
- 1
colloquialclipping of etwas: a bit, somewhat
Ich komm was später.
- 2
colloquialwhy, what for; often expressing a personal concern about the matter
Was bist du heute so stumm?
interjection
- 1
eh?, huh? (tag question)
Ganz schön kalt, was?
Source: English Wiktionary, German section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How German dictionaries define it
pronoun: 1. sächliches Fragewort 2. etwas 3. das sich auf ein Wort oder einen ganzen Satz beziehen kann
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 was
- wessen genitive singular
- wes archaic genitive singular
- wat alternative colloquial
Source: English Wiktionary and German Wiktionary (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
How do you pronounce was?
- standard /vas/
- /vaːs/
- [vas]
Sources: English Wiktionary, German Wiktionary (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026); recordings from Wikimedia Commons.
English words that translate to was
Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.
How common is was in German?
was appears 3,090 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).