See also: Fragen

German

edit

Etymology

edit

From Middle High German vrāgen, from Old High German frāgēn, frahēn/frāhēn, which is indirectly derived from Proto-West Germanic *frāgēn.[1]

Cognate with Saterland Frisian fräigje (to ask), Dutch vragen (to ask), English frain (to ask, inquire), Swedish fråga (to ask), Icelandic fregna (to hear of, learn about).

Pronunciation

edit
  • IPA(key): /ˈfʁaːɡən/, [ˈfʁaːɡŋ̩]
  • Audio:(file)
  • Audio:(file)
  • Audio:(file)
  • Rhymes: -aːɡn̩
  • Hyphenation: fra‧gen

Verb

edit

fragen (weak or mixed, third-person singular present fragt or (dialectal or colloquial) frägt, past tense fragte or (dialectal or colloquial) frug, past participle gefragt, past subjunctive fragte or (dialectal or colloquial) früge, auxiliary haben)

  1. (transitive) to ask [with accusative ‘someone’ and accusative ‘something’]
    Darf ich dich etwas fragen?
    May I ask you something?
  2. (transitive or intransitive) to ask for, to ask after [with nach ‘someone/something’]
  3. (reflexive) to wonder (literally, “to ask (oneself)”)
    Ich frage mich, wer mir helfen kann.
    I wonder who can help me.

Usage notes

edit
  • Generally, fragen has always been a weak verb. The strong forms of fragen are secondary and now obsolete in formal writing. They live on in dialects and colloquial varieties.

Conjugation

edit

Derived terms

edit

References

edit
  1. ^ Friedrich Kluge (1989) “Frage, fragen”, in Elmar Seebold, editor, Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache [Etymological Dictionary of the German Language] (in German), 22nd edition, Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, →ISBN

Further reading

edit
  • fragen” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache
  • fragen” in Uni Leipzig: Wortschatz-Lexikon
  • fragen” in Duden online
  • fragen” in OpenThesaurus.de

Swedish

edit

Noun

edit

fragen

  1. definite singular of frag

West Frisian

edit

Noun

edit

fragen

  1. plural of fraach