fragen

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See also: Fragen

German

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Etymology

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From Middle High German vrāgen, from Old High German frāgēn, frahēn/frāhēn, which is indirectly derived from Proto-West Germanic *frāgēn.[1]

Cognate with Saterland Frisian fräigje (to ask), Dutch vragen (to ask), English frain (to ask, inquire), Swedish fråga (to ask), Icelandic fregna (to hear of, learn about).

Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key): /ˈfʁaːɡən/, [ˈfʁaːɡŋ̩]
  • Audio:(file)
  • Audio:(file)
  • Audio:(file)
  • Rhymes: -aːɡn̩
  • Hyphenation: fra‧gen

Verb

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fragen (weak or mixed, third-person singular present fragt or (dialectal or colloquial) frägt, past tense fragte or (dialectal or colloquial) frug, past participle gefragt, past subjunctive fragte or (dialectal or colloquial) früge, auxiliary haben)

  1. (transitive) to ask [with accusative ‘someone’ and accusative ‘something’]
    Darf ich dich etwas fragen?
    May I ask you something?
  2. (transitive or intransitive) to ask for, to ask after [with nach ‘someone/something’]
  3. (reflexive) to wonder (literally, “to ask (oneself)”)
    Ich frage mich, wer mir helfen kann.
    I wonder who can help me.

Usage notes

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  • Generally, fragen has always been a weak verb. The strong forms of fragen are secondary and now obsolete in formal writing. They live on in dialects and colloquial varieties.

Conjugation

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Derived terms

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References

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  1. ^ Friedrich Kluge (1989) “Frage, fragen”, in Elmar Seebold, editor, Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache [Etymological Dictionary of the German Language] (in German), 22nd edition, Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, →ISBN

Further reading

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

Swedish

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Noun

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fragen

  1. definite singular of frag

West Frisian

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Noun

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fragen

  1. plural of fraach