Abbiegen

Abbiegen is a German verb meaning to turn away from a straight course onto a different street or path. It is most commonly used in traffic contexts to describe turning at intersections or junctions, but it can also appear in general movement descriptions. The word is a separable-prefix verb formed from biegen with the prefix ab-, so in present tense it is spoken as ich biege rechts ab, du biegst links ab, er biegt ab, wir biegen ab, ihr biegt ab, sie biegen ab. In subordinate clauses the prefix can appear at the end, as in Wir sehen die Kreuzung, an der wir abbiegen müssen. For the perfect tense, the auxiliary is sein: Er ist rechts abgebogen.

Traffic usage: Abbiegen denotes turning from the current road onto another direction. Common expressions are rechts abbiegen (turn right) and links abbiegen (turn left). A U-turn is usually described with wenden or eine Wende machen. Traffic rules regulate when and how abbiegen is allowed, and prohibitions such as Abbiegen verboten or Linksabbiegen verboten are common. In Germany and many German-speaking countries, the Grünpfeil (green arrow) permits turning in a specified direction after stopping at a red signal if the way is clear and conditions are met.

General usage: Beyond driving, abbiegen can describe deviating from a planned route or path in a non-traffic context, though this sense is less common in everyday speech than the literal driving meaning. In navigation and maps, instructions often use the verb to specify when a turn should be taken.