fällige

Fällige is the attributive form of the German adjective fällig, meaning due, payable or mature. It describes obligations, payments or deadlines that must be fulfilled at a specified time, typically defined by contract, law or business practice. The term is common in finance, accounting and legal language.

In practice, fällige is frequently used with nouns such as Rechnung (invoice), Forderung (claim or receivable), Verbindlichkeit (liability) or Zahlung (payment). Examples include die fällige Rechnung (the due invoice), eine fällige Forderung (a due claim), or fällige Zinszahlung (due interest payment). The word also pairs with the noun Fälligkeit, which denotes the moment or date when an obligation becomes due.

Grammatically, fällige is an attributive adjective form and inflects according to gender, number and case. With a definite article in feminine singular, one typically says die fällige Zahlung. In plural, die fälligen Forderungen is common. Without a definite article or in other combinations, other endings such as fällige, fälligen, or fälligem may be used depending on the syntactic context. In everyday usage, the form fällige is widely understood as the common stem of the phrase describing something that has reached its due date.

Related concepts include Fälligkeit, the concept of due date or maturity, and terms like Zahlungstermin (payment due date) and Fälligkeitsbonus (a penalty or incentive linked to timing). Together, these terms form a core vocabulary for describing obligations in financial and legal documents.