geschehen

Geschehen is a German verb meaning to happen or to occur. It is intransitive and commonly used in impersonal constructions such as Es geschieht (it happens) or Was ist geschehen? (what has happened?). In perfect tenses it takes the auxiliary sein: Es ist geschehen.

The verb is irregular and belongs to a class with stem changes in the present and imperfect tenses. The present form appears as geschieht, while the preterite is geschah. The past participle is geschehen, identical to the infinitive, and is used with sein to form the present perfect: Es ist geschehen.

Usage notes include a nuance in meaning and register. In everyday speech, synonyms like passieren or sich ereignen are common; passieren is more colloquial, while sich ereignen is somewhat formal. Geschehen often appears in writing, journalism, law, and philosophical or literary contexts, where it emphasizes the occurrence of events rather than causation.

The noun das Geschehen exists as a separate word meaning “the events” or “the happenings.” It is used in compounds and phrases such as das Weltgeschehen (world events), das Tagesgeschehen (daily events), or in descriptions of a scene or narrative: das Geschehen in der Stadt.

Examples: Es geschieht jeden Tag. (It happens every day.) Es ist geschehen. (It has happened / It has come to pass.) Was ist geschehen? (What happened?) Das Geschehen während der Konferenz wurde ausführlich berichtet.