Spüren

Spüren is a German verb meaning to feel, sense, or perceive, particularly in the sense of a direct bodily sensation or an inner awareness. It can refer to physical experiences such as touch, pain, temperature, or texture, as well as to emotional or situational perception, for example “Ich spüre seine Angst” or “Ich spüre, dass etwas nicht stimmt.”

Spüren is a regular (weak) verb and is not a separable-prefix verb. Typical conjugation in the present tense is: ich spüre, du spürst, er spürt, wir spüren, ihr spürt, sie spüren. Präteritum: ich spürte, du spürtest, er spürte, wir spürten, ihr spürtet, sie spürten. Participle II: gespürt. In use, the verb commonly takes a direct object in the accusative, as in “den Schmerz spüren,” “die Kälte spüren,” or in a broader sense “eine Veränderung spüren.”

In usage, spüren often emphasizes a more immediate, corporeal or visceral sensation, while fühlen can be broader and more applicable to emotional or mental states. Spüren also appears in compounds and related expressions, such as aufspüren (to locate or detect) or durchspüren in some contexts, though these differ in meaning and prefix from the base verb.

Examples include: “Ich spüre den Regen auf der Haut,” “Sie spürt den Druck der Erwartungen,” “Spürst du, wie kalt es geworden ist?” and “Er spürte, dass etwas nicht stimmte.”