German Word of the Day
passieren
/pas-SIE-ren/ • verb — 13th of May, 2026
Listen to pronunciation
Meaning: to happen; to occur
Examples
- Was ist passiert?
(What happened?) - Auf dem Weg zur Arbeit ist ein Unfall passiert.
(An accident happened on the way to work.) - Mir ist etwas Komisches passiert.
(Something strange happened to me.)
Synonyms
- geschehen
- vorkommen
Conjugation
| Person | Präsens | Präteritum |
|---|---|---|
| ich | passiere | passierte |
| du | passierst | passiertest |
| er/sie/es | passiert | passierte |
| wir | passieren | passierten |
| ihr | passiert | passiertet |
| sie/Sie | passieren | passierten |
See all 6 tenses of passieren →
Passieren is commonly used to talk about events that occur. In perfect tenses it usually takes the auxiliary sein (e.g., 'es ist passiert'). It is informal-to-neutral and often used in questions like 'Was ist passiert?'.
This entry was generated by an AI language model. Spotted a problem? Report it and we'll review it. Read about how we use AI or
Recent Words
| Date | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 2026-08-27 | hören | to hear; to listen |
| 2026-08-26 | jeweils | each time; in each case; respectively |
| 2026-08-25 | dürfen | to be allowed to; may |
| 2026-08-24 | begegnen | to meet or encounter someone, often by chance |
| 2026-08-23 | erfahren | to find out; to learn something new, usually as in... |
Receive these via email
Sign in to your free account to receive daily words via email.
Get a new word in your inbox every day!