googeln

German

Alternative forms

Etymology

From Google +‎ -n or English google (verb) + -n. The sequence -le- was respelt -el- to allow for regular German conjugation.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈɡuːɡəln/, /ˈɡuːɡl̩n/
  • Audio (Germany (Berlin)):(file)

Verb

googeln (weak, third-person singular present googelt, past tense googelte, past participle gegoogelt, auxiliary haben)

  1. (transitive) to google

Usage notes

  • The spelling googeln is the correct version according to Duden, whereas Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache recognizes googeln as the predominant spelling and googlen as the less common spelling.
  • German verbs borrowed from English can optionally form the past participle (Partizip II) in -ed in two cases[1]
    1. The English verb ends in a silent ⟨e⟩:
      English like → German likengeliked (previously only gelikt)
    2. The verb's past participle is usually not inflected:
      English relax → German relaxenrelaxed (previously only relaxt)
  • But -ed- is not permitted when the participle is inflected, thus:
    meine gelikten Bilder (not meine *gelikeden Bilder)
    ein relaxter Abend (not ein *relaxeder Abend)

Conjugation

References

  1. ^ “1.8 Spezielle Laut-Buchstaben-Zuordnungen in Fremdwörtern”, in Amtliches Regelwerk des Rats für deutsche Rechtschreibung (in German), 2024, § 21 E2

Further reading

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