German

Noun

Backen

1. plural of Backe
2. Substantivised form of backen.

German

Verb

backen ‎(third-person singular present backt or bäckt, past tense backte or buk, past participle gebacken or gebackt, past subjunctive backte or büke, auxiliary haben)

1. (transitive or intransitive) to bake; to roast

   Der Bäcker backt jeden Morgen 30 Laib Brot. — “The baker bakes 30 loaves of bread every morning.”

   Ist der Kuchen schon gebacken? — “Is the cake baked yet?”

2. (transitive or intransitive, colloquial) to fry
3. (transitive or intransitive, chiefly pottery) to fire

   Die Tonfigur muss mindestens zwei Stunden im Ofen backen. — “The clay piece must be fired in the oven for at least two hours.”

4. (intransitive) to stick together; to cake.

   Der Schnee backte gestern besser.

5. (transitive) to stick (something to something else).

Usage notes

The verb backen has weak forms (present: du backst, er backt; past: backte; past participle: gebackt) alongside strong forms (du bäckst, er bäckt; buk; gebacken). The contemporary usage is as follows:

• For the past participle, strong gebacken is the normal form.
• Otherwise both weak and strong forms are possible, with probably a certain prominence of the former. For the past tense in particular, the choice is left to personal preference, since neither backte nor buk are commonly heard in vernacular German, which, in several large areas, almost exclusively uses the perfect tense for this verb (and many others).
• Only weak forms are generally used in the sense of “to stick”, except for the past participle, which may be gebacken or gebackt.

Conjugation

Weak Conjugation

Strong Conjugation

Derived terms

Related terms

• bähen

Swedish

Noun

backen

1. definite singular of back
2. definite singular of backe