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German verb · CEFR A2

nennen

Meaning in English: to name, to call

Rank 2,171 of 5,000verbLevel A24 forms in the list
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Example

Wie wollt ihr das Baby nennen?

What are you going to call the baby?

Forms of nennen in the top 5,000

German verbs change their ending with the person and tense, and each form is counted on its own. These forms of nennen are also in the top 5,000:

genannt#1,294
called, named, mentionedB1

Alle haben ihn nur Max genannt.
Everyone just called him Max.

nennt#1,843
calls, namesB1

Meine Oma nennt mich immer noch Schatz.
My grandma still calls me darling.

nannte#3,262
named, calledB1

Sie nannte ihren Hund einfach Bello.
She simply called her dog Bello.

How common is nennen?

nennen is number 2,171 of the 5,000 most common German words. In the texts the list is counted from it appears 42 times per million words — about once every 24,000 words. Its most frequent form is genannt (#1,294).

Know every word down to this one and you recognise about 71% of the words in an ordinary German text. A2 means an elementary word, usually learned in the first year.

Next to it in the frequency list

  1. 2,167voranahead, forward
  2. 2,168die Kameracamera
  3. 2,169wesentlichenessential, main (inflected)
  4. 2,170die Maßnahmemeasure, step
  5. 2,171nennento name, to call
  6. 2,172Kriteriencriteria
  7. 2,173erzählento tell, to narrate
  8. 2,174engagierento get involved; to hire
  9. 2,175der Hunddog

In these word lists

Translations, levels and examples were written with AI help and are awaiting review by a native speaker — how the list was made.