brauchen: Full Conjugation and Usage | German Grammar

Brauchen ("to need") is one of the highest-frequency verbs in German — you reach for it dozens of times a day. As a plain verb it is perfectly regular and weak, governing a straightforward accusative object: Ich brauche einen Stift ("I need a pen"). But it also has a second life as a quasi-modal: combined with zu + infinitive, it expresses "(not) need to do something" and behaves almost like müssen. This dual nature, and one famous grammatical controversy about it, are what this page untangles.

Principal parts

Infinitive	Präteritum	Partizip II (auxiliary)
brauchen	brauchte	gebraucht (hat)

Read this as brauchen – brauchte – hat gebraucht. Stem brauch-, weak past brauchte, standard weak participle gebraucht, auxiliary haben. No vowel change. Do not confuse it with the strong-looking gebracht (from bringen) — gebraucht keeps the -au- and adds the regular -t.

Government: accusative object

As an ordinary transitive verb, brauchen takes a direct object in the accusative — the thing you need.

Ich brauche dringend einen Kaffee.

I urgently need a coffee. (einen Kaffee = accusative) (informal)

Brauchst du noch das Ladekabel, oder kann ich es mitnehmen?

Do you still need the charger, or can I take it? (das Ladekabel = accusative) (informal)

It can also take an abstract object — Zeit, Hilfe, Geld — or a duration of time ("to take, to require").

Wir brauchen mit dem Auto etwa zwei Stunden.

It takes us about two hours by car. (brauchen = to take/require time)

This is the construction that trips up learners. In the negative (with nicht, kein, nur, bloß, erst), brauchen combines with an infinitive to mean "(not) need to / only need to." Standard written German links them with zu:

Construction	Meaning
Du brauchst nicht zu kommen.	You don't need to come.
Du brauchst es ihm nur zu sagen.	You only need to tell him.
Sie braucht heute nicht zu arbeiten.	She doesn't need to work today.

Du brauchst nicht zu klingeln, die Tür ist offen.

You don't need to ring the bell, the door is open. (standard: brauchen + zu + infinitive)

Ihr braucht euch keine Sorgen zu machen.

You don't need to worry. (negative quasi-modal; reflexive object stays put)

Here lies the controversy. In spoken and colloquial German the zu is very often dropped, making brauchen look exactly like a true modal: Du brauchst nicht kommen. There is even a famous prescriptivist quip: „Wer ‚brauchen‘ ohne ‚zu‘ gebraucht, braucht ‚brauchen‘ gar nicht zu gebrauchen." — "Whoever uses brauchen without zu needn't use brauchen at all." The honest summary: dropping zu is extremely common in speech and increasingly tolerated, but in careful writing and exams you should keep the zu.

Du brauchst heute nicht zu kommen.

You don't need to come today. (formal/written — keeps zu)

Du brauchst heute nicht kommen.

You don't need to come today. (informal/spoken — zu dropped, very common)

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A clean rule of thumb: brauchen + infinitive only works in the negative or restrictive sense ("not need / only need"). For positive obligation — "you have to / must" — German does not use brauchen, it uses müssen. Du brauchst zu gehen for "you have to go" is wrong; say Du musst gehen. See müssen.

Präsens (present)

Person	Form
ich	brauche
du	brauchst
er / sie / es	braucht
wir	brauchen
ihr	braucht
sie / Sie	brauchen

Note that the er/sie/es-form is braucht — regular -t, no umlaut. This matters because true modals like müssen are irregular in the singular (muss), and learners sometimes "modal-ize" brauchen into a non-existent brauch. There is no such form; it is a normal weak verb in its conjugation.

Präteritum (simple past)

Person	Form
ich	brauchte
du	brauchtest
er / sie / es	brauchte
wir	brauchten
ihr	brauchtet
sie / Sie	brauchten

Because brauchen expresses a state of need, its Präteritum brauchte is fairly common in speech too — like other stative verbs, it resists the spoken preference for the Perfekt.

Als Student brauchte ich kaum Geld zum Leben.

As a student I needed hardly any money to live on. (Präteritum natural for a past state)

Perfekt (present perfect)

Built with the present of haben plus the participle gebraucht.

Person	Form
ich	habe gebraucht
du	hast gebraucht
er / sie / es	hat gebraucht
wir	haben gebraucht
ihr	habt gebraucht
sie / Sie	haben gebraucht

Für das Formular habe ich ewig gebraucht.

It took me forever to fill out that form. (brauchen für = to take time for; auxiliary haben) (informal)

When brauchen is used as a quasi-modal with an infinitive, the Perfekt typically takes the double-infinitive pattern, like the true modals: Das hätte ich nicht zu tun brauchen — though this is rare and bookish; speakers usually rephrase.

Konjunktiv II (would need)

The synthetic form is bräuchte — and note the umlaut ä, which distinguishes it from the Präteritum brauchte. This is unusual for a weak verb (weak verbs normally have no umlaut in Konjunktiv II) and is a relic of brauchen's modal-like behavior. Bräuchte is alive and well in everyday speech.

Person	Form
ich	bräuchte
du	bräuchtest
er / sie / es	bräuchte
wir	bräuchten
ihr	bräuchtet
sie / Sie	bräuchten

The würde-form (würde brauchen) also exists but is much less common — for brauchen, the synthetic bräuchte is the natural choice, much like müsste for müssen. See the würde-form.

Ich bräuchte mal deinen Rat — hast du kurz Zeit?

I could use your advice — do you have a moment? (bräuchte = polite, softened request) (informal)

Dafür bräuchten wir mindestens drei Leute.

We'd need at least three people for that.

Imperativ

Addressee	Form
du	brauch(e)
ihr	braucht
Sie	brauchen Sie

The imperative is uncommon (you rarely command someone "to need"), but it appears in reassurances: Brauchst dich nicht zu schämen (informal, "no need to be embarrassed").

Idioms and fixed expressions

Expression	English
Das brauche ich nicht.	I don't need that / I can do without that.
Wie man's braucht.	As needed / whatever works. (informal)
etwas dringend brauchen	to need something urgently
gebraucht (Adjektiv)	second-hand, used (ein gebrauchtes Auto)

The participle gebraucht also lives on as an adjective meaning "used / second-hand": ein gebrauchtes Auto ("a used car"). Don't confuse the verb brauchen ("to need") with its look-alike gebrauchen ("to make use of"), whose participle is also gebraucht — context disambiguates.

Den alten Drucker kann ich nicht mehr gebrauchen.

I have no use for the old printer anymore. (gebrauchen = to make use of, distinct from brauchen) (informal)

For the accusative object pattern, see accusative functions; for the infinitive-with-zu mechanics, see zu and modals; and for verb government generally, valency.

Common Mistakes

❌ Du brauchst zu gehen.

Incorrect — brauchen + infinitive only works in the negative/restrictive sense; for 'you have to go' use müssen.

✅ Du musst gehen.

You have to go.

❌ Ich brauche von deiner Hilfe.

Incorrect — brauchen takes a plain accusative object, no preposition.

✅ Ich brauche deine Hilfe.

I need your help.

❌ Er brauch heute nicht zu arbeiten.

Incorrect — brauchen is a regular weak verb; the er-form is braucht, not the modal-style brauch.

✅ Er braucht heute nicht zu arbeiten.

He doesn't need to work today.

❌ Ich brauchte mal deinen Rat.

Wrong tense for a polite request — use the umlauted Konjunktiv II bräuchte, not the past brauchte.

✅ Ich bräuchte mal deinen Rat.

I could use your advice. (informal, polite)

Key Takeaways

Principal parts: brauchen – brauchte – hat gebraucht (weak, haben).
As a plain verb it takes an accusative object: Ich brauche einen Stift.
As a quasi-modal it works only in the negative/restrictive sense: Du brauchst nicht zu kommen. For positive obligation, use müssen.
Written German keeps the zu; spoken German often drops it (Du brauchst nicht kommen).
Konjunktiv II is the umlauted bräuchte — your go-to polite-request form.

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