German

Verb

brauchen ‎(irregular, third-person singular simple present braucht, past tense brauchte, past participle gebraucht, past subjunctive bräuchte or brauchte, auxiliary haben)

1. to need, to be in need of

   Ich brauche deine Hilfe.‎

   I need your help.

2. to need to, to have to (in negation or with the adverb nur ‎(“just, only”))

   Du brauchst nicht auf mich (zu) warten.‎

   You don’t need to wait for me.

   Sie braucht mich nur an(zu)rufen.‎

   She just needs to call me.

Usage notes

• Traditionally, brauchen has been a weak verb in standard German with a regular past subjunctive brauchte. However, the irregular form bräuchte has since found its way from the dialects into the standard. It is already the only common form in spoken German^[1], and is gradually becoming dominant in writing as well (although some grammars may still discourage this usage).
• In colloquial German, the verb may be even further assimilated to modal verbs by taking a bare infinitive instead of a zu infinitive (du brauchst nicht schreien instead of standard du brauchst nicht zu schreien) and sometimes by taking an endingless third-person singular present (er brauch, instead of er braucht). Both of these are properties of modal verbs, cf. er soll gehen, er muss bleiben.

Conjugation

Derived terms

• gebrauchen

References

1. ↑ http://www.atlas-alltagssprache.de/r8-f4m-2/

Luxembourgish

Etymology

From Old High German brūhhan, from Proto-Germanic *brūkaną.

Verb

brauchen ‎(third-person singular present braucht, past participle gebraucht, past subjunctive bräicht or bréicht, auxiliary verb hunn)

1. to need