sterben
Meaning in English: to die
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Test my vocabularyExample
Ohne Wasser sterben die Pflanzen schnell.
Without water the plants die quickly.
Forms of sterben 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 sterben are also in the top 5,000:
Ihr Großvater ist letztes Jahr gestorben.
Her grandfather died last year.
Ihr Großvater starb im letzten Winter.
Her grandfather died last winter.
How common is sterben?
sterben is number 3,062 of the 5,000 most common German words. In the texts the list is counted from it appears 28 times per million words — about once every 35,000 words. Its most frequent form is gestorben (#2,701).
Know every word down to this one and you recognise about 75% 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
- 3,058die Beschäftigungemployment, occupation, activity
- 3,059die Partnerschaftpartnership, relationship
- 3,060das Passwortpassword
- 3,061das Prinzipprinciple
- 3,062sterbento die
- 3,063Gerätendevices, appliances (dative pl.)
- 3,064hilfreichhelpful
- 3,065erschienenpublished, appeared
- 3,066OlympischenOlympic
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.