German

Noun

Stecken m ‎(genitive Steckens, plural Stecken)

1. stick

Declension

German

Verb

stecken ‎(class 4 strong, third-person singular simple present steckt, past tense steckte or stak, past participle gesteckt, past subjunctive steckte or stäke, auxiliary haben)

1. (transitive) to stick; to put; to insert
2. (transitive) to pin
3. (intransitive) to stick; to be stuck
4. (intransitive) to be (hiding)

   Nur seine Eltern und zwei gute Freunde wissen, dass er hinter der Seite steckt.‎ ― Only his parents and two good friends know he is hiding behind the side.

Usage notes

• Transitively, stecken has always been a weak verb.
• Intransitively, the past participle has also always been weak (gesteckt). The (secondarily developed) strong past tense forms were still used in formal writing until some time ago, but have now become archaic and even unintelligible to a good deal of native speakers. Hence, stecken is now a consistently weak verb in general usage.

Conjugation

Weak conjugation

Strong conjugation

Derived terms

• abstecken
• in der Zwickmühle stecken

Related terms

• Stecken
• Stecker