danken

Danken is a German verb meaning to thank or to express gratitude. It is used to acknowledge a person’s help, favor, or kindness, and can be employed in formal or informal registers. The core construction takes a dative recipient, for example: ich danke dir (I thank you) or ich danke Ihnen (I thank you, formal).

Grammatical notes and common usages

Danken is a regular verb. Present tense forms include ich danke, du dankst, er/sie/es dankt, wir danken, ihr dankt, sie/Sie danken. The simple past is dankte, and the perfect tense is formed with haben: ich habe gedankt. The verb can pair with the preposition für to specify what is being thanked for: ich danke dir für deine Hilfe. The reflexive form bedankem sich is also common in the related expression sich bedanken: ich bedanke mich bei dir für deine Hilfe; ich bedanke mich für Ihre Unterstützung. In everyday speech, the short form danke is often used, and kein Dank nötig is a polite way to say “no thanks needed.” Responses to thanks commonly include gern geschehen or bitte.

Etymology and related terms

Danken derives from Germanic roots related to gratitude and gratitude nouns such as Dank. It has cognates in other Germanic languages, such as Dutch danken. The related noun Dank means gratitude or thanks, and the derived terms include Dankbarkeit (gratitude) and Danksagung (acknowledgment or thanksgiving).

See also

Dank (gratitude); bedankung (act of thanking); Danksagung (acknowledgment); Dankbarkeit (gratitude).