See also: Lehren

German

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Etymology

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From Middle High German lēren, from Old High German lēren, from Proto-West Germanic *laiʀijan, from Proto-Germanic *laizijaną, from *laizō (lore). Cognate with Low German lehren, Dutch leren, Afrikaans leer, Danish lære, Norwegian lære, Swedish lära. Related to lernen.

Pronunciation

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Verb

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lehren (weak, third-person singular present lehrt, past tense lehrte, past participle gelehrt, auxiliary haben)

  1. (transitive or intransitive) to teach (a class, a subject); to be a teacher
    Ich lehre Geschichte.I teach history.
    Sie lehrt an der Uni.She's a teacher at the university.
  2. (formal, transitive) to teach [with accusative ‘someone’ and accusative ‘something’]
    Meine Großmutter lehrte mich das Stricken.
    My grandmother taught me knitting.

Usage notes

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  • A more common word for sense 2, particularly in spoken German, is beibringen.
  • Traditional grammar requires lehren (unlike beibringen) to be used only with accusative objects, i.e. with a double accusative as in the example above. However, a dative construction is also heard now and then. Thus:
    • Meine Großmutter lehrte mir das Stricken.
      My grandmother taught me knitting.

Conjugation

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Derived terms

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Further reading

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  • lehren” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache
  • lehren” in Uni Leipzig: Wortschatz-Lexikon
  • lehren” in Duden online
  • lehren” in OpenThesaurus.de