German

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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herein- +‎ legen

Pronunciation

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  • Audio:(file)

Verb

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hereinlegen (weak, third-person singular present legt herein, past tense legte herein, past participle hereingelegt, auxiliary haben)

  1. (transitive, literal) to lay down inside; to put [with in ‘into’]
  2. (transitive, colloquial) to trick; to pull someone's leg

Usage notes

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  • Traditionally, verb pairs starting with hin / her are semantically distinguished by the respective direction away from (hineinlegen) or towards (hereinlegen) the speaker. Depending on the verb, this distinction is sometimes lost in colloquial speech, possibly owing to the fact that both forms simplify to the same colloquial short form (reinlegen).

Conjugation

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Further reading

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