Angefallen

Angefallen is the past participle of the German verb anfallen. The primary sense of anfallen is to attack or to assault someone or something. In ordinary usage, it describes a physical or aggressive action by one party toward another. For example: Der Hund hat den Mann angefallen. In the perfect tense the auxiliary is haben: Der Hund hat den Mann angefallen. In passive constructions, the action is expressed with wurde: Der Mann wurde von dem Hund angefallen.

In addition to literal attacks, anfallen is used in military or security contexts to describe an assault on a position or target, e.g., Die Truppen fallen die Stellung am Morgen an. The passive form is Die Stellung wurde von feindlichen Truppen angefallen. While there is a related noun Anfall, which means attack, seizure, or outbreak, angefallen itself is strictly the participial form of the verb.

Morphology and usage notes: angefallen is the standard past participle used with haben in finite tenses and wie passive with werden. It should not be confused with einfallen (to occur to someone) or auffallen (to stand out or to be noticeable); these verbs are etymologically distinct and have different meanings and participles.

Etymology: the prefix an- combined with fallen (to fall) conveys moving toward or onto a target, forming the core meaning of anfallen as to attack or assault. The word is common in news reports, police or military language, and in everyday descriptions of animal or human attacks.