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GERMAN · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

da.

there

2 characters1 syllables approx.Deutsch language

Meaning & usage

adv/daː/[däː]
  1. there

    Wir fahren nach Hamburg. Meine Frau hat eine Freundin, die da wohnt.
  2. then; so; at that moment

    temporal
    Ich war gerade eingeschlafen, und da kam ein Anruf.
    Er hat immer weiter auf mich eingeschrien. Da bin ich einfach gegangen.
  3. replaces any pronominal adverb when the context is clear

    colloquial
  4. present, here, there (having arrived, being around in the topical location, regardless of whether this matches the speaker's position)

    Die Gäste sind noch nicht da.
Where this word comes from

From a merger of three interrelated adverbs: 1.) Middle High German dā, dār (“there, at that place”), from Old High German thār, dār, from Proto-West Germanic *þār. 2.) Middle High German dar, dare (“thither, to that place”), from Old High German thara, dara, from an extended form of the former. 3.) Middle High German dō, duo (“then, at that time”), from Old High German thō, dō, duo, from Proto-West Germanic *þō. The three forms were already sometimes intermingled in Old and Middle High German. The eventual loss of the distinction in modern German was reinforced by phonetic mergers in various dialects. Today, the senses of adverbs 1 and 3 are covered by da, while adverb 2 has been chiefly replaced with hin, dahin. The form dar- remains as a variant of da- before vowels and in some compound verbs (like darlegen, darbringen). Adverb 1 and 2 are cognate with Dutch daar, Low German dar, dor, English there, Swedish där, Yiddish דאָ (do). Adverb 3 is cognate with Dutch toen.

conj/daː/[däː]
  1. since; as; because; given that

    Da die Stelle mit häufigen Auslandskontakten verbunden ist, sind gute Fremdsprachenkenntnisse unerlässlich.
  2. when

    dated · literary
    Am Tag, da die Wahrheit offenbar wird, ist es zur Umkehr zu spät.
Where this word comes from

From a merger of three interrelated adverbs: 1.) Middle High German dā, dār (“there, at that place”), from Old High German thār, dār, from Proto-West Germanic *þār. 2.) Middle High German dar, dare (“thither, to that place”), from Old High German thara, dara, from an extended form of the former. 3.) Middle High German dō, duo (“then, at that time”), from Old High German thō, dō, duo, from Proto-West Germanic *þō. The three forms were already sometimes intermingled in Old and Middle High German. The eventual loss of the distinction in modern German was reinforced by phonetic mergers in various dialects. Today, the senses of adverbs 1 and 3 are covered by da, while adverb 2 has been chiefly replaced with hin, dahin. The form dar- remains as a variant of da- before vowels and in some compound verbs (like darlegen, darbringen). Adverb 1 and 2 are cognate with Dutch daar, Low German dar, dor, English there, Swedish där, Yiddish דאָ (do). Adverb 3 is cognate with Dutch toen.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.