sein.
forms the present perfect and past perfect tenses of certain verbs
Meaning & usage
forms the present perfect and past perfect tenses of certain verbs
Er ist alt geworden.
As a copulative verb: to be
Das ist schön.
Das ist ein Auto.
As a copulative verb: Used to indicate dates, times of day, time periods, etc., be
Es ist Freitag.
Es ist der 30. (dreißigste) April.
As a copulative verb: Used to indicate temperatures in degrees, be
Es sind 36 Grad.
Es ist 1 Grad.
As a copulative verb: Used to indicate ambient conditions such as temperature, weather, light, noise or air quality, be
Es ist kalt.
Ich lebe an der Nordseeküste, hier ist es immer kalt und es regnet.
As a copulative verb: there be
As a copulative verb: translated with to feel (to experience a condition)
Ist dir kalt?
Mir ist schlecht.
As a copulative verb: translated with to feel like, to be in the mood for
Uns ist nach einem Film zumute.
Mir ist nicht danach.
As an intransitive verb: to exist, be, be alive
Was nicht ist, kann noch werden.
Wenn ich nicht mehr bin, erbst du das Haus.
As an intransitive verb: to have the next turn (in a game, in a queue, etc.)
Du bist.
Du bist nach mir.
As an intransitive verb: to be "it"; to be the tagger in a game of tag
Du bist!
Ich bin nicht mehr.
Where this word comes from
Inherited from Middle High German sīn, from Old High German sīn (“to be”), from Proto-West Germanic *sīn, an analogical infinitive formed within the suppletive paradigm of “to be” from forms ultimately derived from Proto-Indo-European *h₁es- (“to be, exist”). It replaced the older infinitive wesan, from *wesaną (“to be, remain”). The paradigm is additionally suppleted with forms from *beuną (“to be, exist, become”). Cognate with Dutch zijn (“to be”), Low German sien (“to be”).
his
Daniel schickt seiner Schwester eine SMS.
Der Kater spielt oft mit seinen Spielsachen.
its (agreeing with a masculine or neuter noun)
der Mond und sein Licht
das Schaf und seine Lämmer
its (agreeing with a masculine or neuter noun) Used to express an approximate number, often with so.
Der kostet so seine zweihundert Euro.
one's
Man muss seinem Herzen folgen.
Where this word comes from
From Middle High German sein, sīn, from Old High German sīn, from Proto-West Germanic *sīn, from Proto-Germanic *sīnaz (“his own, her own, its own, their own”) (a reflexive possessive), from genitive of Proto-Indo-European *swé with denominative suffix Proto-Indo-European *-nós, equivalent to the genitive form of *se-. Cognate with Low German sien (“his, its”), Dutch zijn (“his, its”), Danish sin (“his, her, its, their”), Old English sīn (“his, its”).
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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.