German

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Etymology

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From Middle High German wandern, from Old High German *wantarōn, from Proto-West Germanic *wandarōn.

Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key): /ˈvandɐn/
  • Hyphenation: wan‧dern
  • Audio (Germany):(file)
  • Audio (Austria):(file)

Verb

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wandern (weak, third-person singular present wandert, past tense wanderte, past participle gewandert, auxiliary sein or (rare) haben)

  1. (intransitive) to hike
    Ich war im Wald wandern, als ich das Reh sah.
    I was hiking in the woods when I saw the deer.
  2. (intransitive) to wander, to migrate, to move spontaneously, to end up (somewhere)
    Lassen Sie Ihren Gedanken einfach wandern.
    Just let your thoughts wander.
    Die Elektronen wandern zur Anode.
    The electrons migrate to the anode.
    Ich fürchte, du wirst in den Knast wandern.
    I'm afraid you'll end up in jail.

Usage notes

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  • The auxiliary is necessarily sein when a direction is given: Wir sind zum See gewandert. (We took a hike to the lake.) Without a direction, both auxiliaries are possible, but sein is still vastly predominant: In diesen Bergen sind/haben wir oft gewandert. (We used to take frequent hikes in these mountains.)

Conjugation

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Hyponyms

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Derived terms

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Descendants

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  • Silesian: wandrować

Further reading

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