Get the appGet the app
German frequency list

No. 409 in German

legte

"Legte" is the simple past tense of "legen," meaning "laid" or "put."

In a sentence

  • Er legte das Buch auf den Tisch.

    He placed the book on the table.

    In this sentence, 'legte' is the simple past tense of 'legen', meaning 'to place'. It refers to physically placing an object.

  • Sie legte großen Wert auf Pünktlichkeit.

    She placed great value on punctuality.

    Here, 'legte' is used metaphorically in the phrase 'großen Wert auf etwas legen', which translates literally as 'to place great value on something' and means to emphasize or value.

  • Der Hund legte sich unter den Baum.

    The dog lay down under the tree.

    In this example, 'legte' refers to the action of the dog lying down, as part of the reflexive verb 'sich legen', which means 'to lie down'.

Hear it in real podcasts

The recording above is a synthetic voice. Hear how people say “legte” in actual German podcasts.

Find “legte” in podcasts

Learn it from shows you like

LangTurbo plays German podcasts with a transcript and the English under every line. Tap a word like this one and it tells you what it means right there. For iPhone, iPad and Android.

Learning English?

LangTurbo plays real English podcasts with every line translated into Deutsch, and tells you what any word means in that sentence. For iPhone, iPad and Android.

German books and courses on Amazon (an affiliate link: a purchase through it supports this site).