wie.
how
Meaning & usage
how
Wie groß bist du?
Ich weiß nicht, wie die Katze hereingekommen ist.
Where this word comes from
From Middle High German wie, a merger of two interrelated forms: 1.) Old High German hwio, from older hwēo, from Proto-Germanic *hwaiwa; cognate with Gothic 𐍈𐌰𐌹𐍅𐌰 (ƕaiwa). 2.) Old High German hwē, hwie, from Proto-Germanic *hwē; cognate with Gothic 𐍈𐌴 (ƕē). The latter is a variant of Proto-Germanic *hwī, whence English why, and is further a fossilized instrumental case of *hwaz, *hwat (“who, what”). Form 1 is also related to this stem. Outside of High German the only direct modern cognate is Limburgish wie.
like
Freunde sind wie Sterne in der Nacht.
as
Wie ihr wisst, bin ich in Dortmund aufgewachsen.
Ich bin so schnell wie du.
than
Der Junge ist größer wie sein Vater.
when (referring to the past)
Ich hab ihn gesehen, wie ich in Köln war.
Wie ich zur Tür herauskomme, steht da mein alter Schulfreund.
Where this word comes from
From Middle High German wie, a merger of two interrelated forms: 1.) Old High German hwio, from older hwēo, from Proto-Germanic *hwaiwa; cognate with Gothic 𐍈𐌰𐌹𐍅𐌰 (ƕaiwa). 2.) Old High German hwē, hwie, from Proto-Germanic *hwē; cognate with Gothic 𐍈𐌴 (ƕē). The latter is a variant of Proto-Germanic *hwī, whence English why, and is further a fossilized instrumental case of *hwaz, *hwat (“who, what”). Form 1 is also related to this stem. Outside of High German the only direct modern cognate is Limburgish wie.
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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.