S-Bahn

German

Etymology

Abbreviation of Stadtschnellbahn, from Stadt (“city”) + schnell (“fast”) + Bahn (“rail”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈɛsˌbaːn/

• Audio:

  (file)

Noun

S-Bahn f (genitive S-Bahn, plural S-Bahnen)

1. (chiefly in German-speaking countries and Copenhagen, Denmark) A commuter rail/metro system (generally overground) serving a metropolitan area or A train in such systems (S-train)

   Antonym: U-Bahn

Usage notes

• S-Bahn (abbreviation of Stadt-Schnellbahn) is not to be confused with
  • Stadtbahn, which is a tramway or light rail system with some parts built with subway standard but not fully converted to subway, in other European countries known as premetro, or
  • Straßenbahn, which is a street running tramway mainly within a city centre. (In densely populated areas one will have to take the S-Bahn to get to the next city, and then switch to the local Straßenbahn to arrive at one's final destination; note that some traffic regions do not use S-Bahnen, but have similar trains called, for example, Regionalbahn or Stadtbahn.

Declension

Declension of S-Bahn [feminine]

	singular			plural
	indef.	def.	noun	def.	noun
nominative	eine	die	S-Bahn	die	S-Bahnen
genitive	einer	der	S-Bahn	der	S-Bahnen
dative	einer	der	S-Bahn	den	S-Bahnen
accusative	eine	die	S-Bahn	die	S-Bahnen

Further reading

• “S-Bahn” in Duden online
• “S-Bahn” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache