schwimmen

Etymology

From Middle High German swimmen, from Old High German swimman, from Proto-West Germanic *swimman, from Proto-Germanic *swimmaną. Compare Low German swimmen, Dutch zwemmen, English swim, Danish svømme.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈʃvɪmən/, [ˈʃʋɪ.mən], [-mn̩], [-mm̩]

• Audio:

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• Audio:

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• Audio (Austria):

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• Hyphenation: schwim‧men

Verb

schwimmen (class 3 strong, third-person singular present schwimmt, past tense schwamm or (chiefly informal) schwomm, past participle geschwommen, past subjunctive schwämme or schwömme, auxiliary sein or haben)

1. (intransitive) to swim (to use swimming motions to move in the water) [auxiliary sein]
2. (intransitive) to swim (for pleasure, as a sport, etc.) [auxiliary sein or haben]
3. (intransitive, transitive) to swim (a certain distance) [auxiliary haben or sein]
4. (intransitive) to transport by floating [auxiliary haben]
5. (intransitive) to float, to be floating [auxiliary haben or (more rarely) sein]
6. (intransitive) to float (somewhere), to move (somewhere) by floating [auxiliary sein]
7. (intransitive) to be doused or covered in liquid [auxiliary haben]
8. (intransitive) to be swimming in (money, etc.) [auxiliary haben]
9. (intransitive) to be moving in a blurry or indistinct fashion, to swim (in someone's vision) [auxiliary sein]
10. (intransitive, colloquial) to lose control (of a situation) [auxiliary haben]

Further reading

• “schwimmen” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache
• “schwimmen” in Uni Leipzig: Wortschatz-Lexikon
• “schwimmen” in Duden online
• “schwimmen” in OpenThesaurus.de
• schwimmen on the German Wikipedia.Wikipedia ^de