Nachbar

German

Etymology

From Middle High German nāchgebūr(e), from Old High German nāhgibūr(o), from Proto-West Germanic *nāhwagabūrō, from Proto-Germanic *nēhwagabūrô (“neighbour”). Equivalent to nah, nach (“near, next, after”) + Bauer (“dweller, farmer”). The first component underwent pre-cluster shortening, the second was monophthongized from Early Modern German Baur (and then possibly associated with the unrelated suffix -bar).

Pronunciation
  • IPA(key): /ˈnaxbaːr/, [ˈnaχbaː(ɐ̯)], [-baːʁ], [-baːɾ] (standard)
    • Audio(file)
  • IPA(key): /ˈnaxbər/, [ˈnaχbɐ] (common variant)
  • IPA(key): /ˈnaːxbaːr/ (chiefly obsolete, still regionally in Switzerland)

Noun

Nachbar m (weak or mixed, genitive Nachbarn or (more informal) Nachbars, plural Nachbarn, feminine Nachbarin)

  1. neighbour

Usage notes
  • The word can be declined according to the weak or mixed group. Both ways are standard, but weak declension is more common in formal usage, mixed declension in colloquial usage.

Declension
Declension of Nachbar [masculine, weak // mixed]
singular plural
indef. def. noun def. noun
nominative ein der Nachbar die Nachbarn
genitive eines des Nachbarn, Nachbars1 der Nachbarn
dative einem dem Nachbarn, Nachbar den Nachbarn
accusative einen den Nachbarn, Nachbar die Nachbarn

1More informal.

Derived terms

Further reading
  • “Nachbar” in Duden online
  • “Nachbar” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache
  • “Nachbar” in Uni Leipzig: Wortschatz-Lexikon
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