German

Noun

Lehren

1. plural of Lehre

German

Verb

lehren ‎(third-person singular simple 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 somebody something

   Meine Großmutter lehrte mich das Stricken.

   My grandmother taught me knitting.

Usage notes

• 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.

Conjugation

Derived terms

• Lehrbuch
• Lehre f
• Lehrer
• Lehrwerk

Related terms

• lernen