beugen
Dutch
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈbøː.ɣə(n)/
Audio (file) - Hyphenation: beu‧gen
- Rhymes: -øːɣən
Inflection
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Derived terms
Etymology 2
See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.
German
Etymology
From Middle High German böugen, from Old High German bougen, from Proto-Germanic *baugijaną. In early modern German, almost fully merged with related biegen, which used to have the strong 2nd and 3rd persons singular du beugst, er beugt (compare similar archaic forms like du fleugst from fliegen). The later grammarians tried to distinguish the verbs again, though often in ways different from the (still vague) distinction that has now established itself.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈbɔʏ̯ɡən/
Audio (file)
Verb
beugen (weak, third-person singular present beugt, past tense beugte, past participle gebeugt, auxiliary haben)
- (transitive) to bend something, to bow something
- das Knie beugen ― to bend one’s knee
- das Recht beugen ― to bend the law
- (reflexive) to bend; to bend over; to bow
- Er beugt sich, um durch die Luke zu passen.
- He bends over to pass through the hatch.
- (reflexive, with dative, figurative) to give in to; to cease to resist or disagree
- Er musste sich der Mehrheit beugen.
- He had to give in to the majority.
- (transitive, grammar) to inflect; to decline, conjugate, etc.
- Fast alle deutschen Maskulina auf -e werden schwach gebeugt.
- Virtually all German masculines in -e are inflected according to the weak declension.
Usage notes
- The normal word for “to bend something” is biegen. Beugen is often used instead with body parts and in figurative senses.
- Reflexively, sich beugen is used of people meaning a slight bending of the body (see the example above). Sich biegen will only be used for more unusual ways of bending like those of a contortionist. With things, conversely, sich beugen is rare; it then typically means a slight bending due to gravity or weight.
- Sich beugen can also mean “to bow out of respect” and “to stoop down”, but the former is more commonly sich verbeugen, and the latter sich bücken.
Conjugation
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