glauben

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See also: Glauben

German

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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From Middle High German gelouben, gelöuben, from Old High German gilouben, from Proto-West Germanic *galaubijan, from Proto-Germanic *galaubijaną. The form with -au- is Upper German; it was reinforced by the related noun Glaube against the Central German variant with umlaut. Compare however gläubig and abergläubisch.

Cognate with Bavarian glaubn, glabn, Dutch geloven, Low German glöven, Gothic 𐌲𐌰𐌻𐌰𐌿𐌱𐌾𐌰𐌽 (galaubjan). Also related with English believe, which see.

Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key): /ˈɡlaʊ̯bən/, [ˈɡlaʊ̯.bm̩], [-bən]
  • Audio:(file)
  • Audio:(file)
  • Rhymes: -aʊ̯bn̩

Verb

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glauben (weak, third-person singular present glaubt, past tense glaubte, past participle geglaubt, auxiliary haben)

  1. (transitive) to believe something (to consider true)
    Glaubst du diese Geschichte?Do you believe this story?
  2. (intransitive) to believe in (to think something exists, or have confidence in someone’s ability) [with an (+ accusative) ‘someone/something’]
    Glaubst du an Engel?Do you believe in angels?
    Woran glaubst du?What do you believe in?
    Ich glaube an dich! Du kannst es schaffen!I believe in you! You can do it!
  3. (transitive or intransitive) to believe (to trust in someone's statement) [with dative ‘someone’ (optional) and accusative ‘something’]
    Niemand kann ihm glauben.No one can believe him.
    Das glaube ich dir nicht.
    I don’t believe what you’re saying.
    (literally, “I don’t believe you that.”)
  4. (intransitive) to think, to believe [with clause or dass (+ clause) or zu (+ infinitive) ‘that ...’]
    Glaubst du, das ist so richtig?Do you think this is right like this?
    Er glaubte, dass es auf dem Mars Kanäle gibt.
    He believed that there were canals on Mars.
    Ich glaube etwas zu hören.I think I hear something.
    Er glaubt zu wissen, wo deine Schlüssel sind.
    He believes he knows where your keys are.

Conjugation

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Synonyms

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Derived terms

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    • 1998, Erste Allgemeine Verunsicherung (lyrics and music), “3 Weiße Tauben”, in 3 Weiße Tauben:
      Drei weiße Tauben, die mussten dran glauben
      Three white doves, they needed to be eliminated

Further reading

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