gelten: Full Conjugation and Usage

Gelten is one of those verbs that has no single English equivalent, which is exactly why it is worth mastering. Depending on its construction it means "to be valid / be in force", "to apply / hold true (for)", "to count / be worth", or "to be regarded / considered as". It is a strong verb with the e → i present shift and the run gelten – galt – gegolten. Its three signature patterns — gelten als (be considered as, + nominative), gelten für (apply to), and the impersonal es gilt, etwas zu tun (it is necessary / the task is to) — let you say things that otherwise force English speakers into clumsy paraphrases. This is a higher-register verb that signals real command of German; you will meet it constantly in newspapers, rules, contracts, and careful speech.

Principal parts

Read this as gelten – galt – hat gegolten. The vowel runs e → a → o, the same series as helfen – half – geholfen and werfen – warf – geworfen. The auxiliary is haben.

Präsens (present)

The signature is the e → i shift in the du- and er/sie/es-forms. Because the stem ends in -lt, the du-form contracts: du giltst (the linking -e- is dropped, leaving -ltst), and the er-form is simply gilt.

Präteritum (simple past)

The vowel shifts to a, giving the stem galt-. The ich- and er-forms take no ending.

Perfekt (present perfect)

Built with haben + the participle gegolten. In practice, gelten is most often heard in the present and Präteritum; the Perfekt appears mainly when stressing that something has (now) ceased to apply.

Plusquamperfekt (past perfect)

Past form of the auxiliary (hatte) + gegolten.

Futur I

werden + infinitive gelten.

Imperativ (commands)

Because gelten describes a state rather than a controllable action, its imperative is rare and mostly literary or figurative (e.g. Gilt! "Agreed! / It's a deal!" in some regional usage). The forms below exist grammatically but you will seldom produce them.

Konjunktiv II (would be valid / apply, hypothetical)

The synthetic Konjunktiv II form is gölte (also gälte); both are literary, and everyday speech uses the würde-form.

Government and usage

Gelten has four core uses, each with its own construction:

• etwas gilt — to be valid / in force / accepted: Der Ausweis gilt noch zwei Jahre. This is the impersonal "validity" sense, common with documents, tickets, rules, offers.
• gelten für — to apply to / hold for: Das gilt nicht nur für dich, sondern für alle.
• gelten als — to be regarded / considered as. Crucially, what follows als stands in the nominative, because gelten als equates two descriptions of the same subject (the same logic as sein and werden): Er gilt als Experte ("he is considered an expert"), not als Experten.
• es gilt, etwas zu tun — an impersonal idiom meaning "it is necessary / the task at hand is to …": Jetzt gilt es, ruhig zu bleiben ("now it's important to stay calm"). This is elevated but very useful.

A further nuance: jemandem / einer Sache gelten (dative) means "to be aimed at / intended for" — Sein Lob galt dem ganzen Team ("his praise was meant for the whole team"). And etwas gilt can mean "to count / be worth": Ein Mann, ein Wort — das gilt noch was ("a man's word still counts for something").

Common idioms and fixed expressions

Common Mistakes

Key Takeaways

• Principal parts: gelten – galt – hat gegolten (auxiliary haben; vowel run e – a – o).
• The e → i shift plus the -lt stem give the contracted du giltst, er gilt — learn gilt as a high-frequency standalone.
• Four core uses: etwas gilt (be valid), gelten für (apply to), gelten als + nominative (be regarded as), es gilt, etwas zu tun (it is necessary to).
• After gelten als the complement is nominative, never accusative.
• A higher-register verb: it makes your German sound precise in rules, news, and careful argument.