schalten

See also: schälten

German

Etymology

From Middle High German schalten, from Old High German scaltan; further etymology obscure. Cognate with Old Saxon skaldan (to push).[1]

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈʃaltən/, [ˈʃaltn̩], [ˈʃaltən]
  • Audio:(file)
  • Audio:(file)
  • Rhymes: -altən, -altn̩
  • Hyphenation: schal‧ten

Verb

schalten (weak or mixed, third-person singular present schaltet, past tense schaltete, past participle geschaltet or (regional) geschalten, auxiliary haben)

  1. to switch
  2. to shift gears
  3. (colloquial) to be on the ball (to be quick to understand and react to something sudden and/or unexpected)

Usage notes

  • The normal past past participle is geschaltet.
  • The strong form geschalten is used colloquially in some regions. It is rarely seen in writing, although it is the older form.

Conjugation

Derived terms

References

  1. ^ Friedrich Kluge (1995) “schalten”, in Elmar Seebold, editor, Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache [Etymological Dictionary of the German Language] (in German), 23rd edition, Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, →ISBN, page 711

Further reading

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