Wiederholen is the textbook example of a German verb where stress changes the meaning — and with it, the entire grammar. The everyday verb, the one you meet first, means "to repeat" (a word, a year of school, an exam) and is inseparable: the stress falls on the stem (wieder-HOL-en), so the prefix never splits, the participle takes no ge- (wiederholt), and zu goes before the whole word. There is also a far rarer, literal, separable verb WIEDER-holen — stress on wieder- — meaning "to fetch something back / get it again." Same spelling in the infinitive, opposite behaviour. Almost every time you say wiederholen, you mean the inseparable "repeat"; we lead with that and flag the rare twin at the end.
Principal parts (the common verb: "to repeat")
| Infinitive | Präteritum | Partizip II (auxiliary) |
|---|---|---|
| wiederholen | wiederholte | wiederholt (hat) |
Read this as wiederholen – wiederholte – hat wiederholt. It is a regular (weak) verb, so the past is stem + -te and the participle ends in -t. The key fact: the participle is wiederholt with no ge- — because the prefix is inseparable, exactly like besuchen → besucht or erklären → erklärt. The auxiliary is haben. See the stress test and dual prefixes for why stress is the deciding factor.
Präsens (present)
No stem change, and — because it is inseparable — the prefix does not move. The verb stays in one piece even in a main clause.
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| ich | wiederhole |
| du | wiederholst |
| er / sie / es | wiederholt |
| wir | wiederholen |
| ihr | wiederholt |
| sie / Sie | wiederholen |
Ich wiederhole vor jeder Prüfung den ganzen Stoff.
I review all the material before every exam. (the verb stays in one piece; informal)
Entschuldigung, könntest du das bitte wiederholen?
Sorry, could you repeat that please? (note: not 'das wieder holen'; informal/polite)
Präteritum (simple past)
Regular weak past: stem + -te- + endings. The prefix never detaches.
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| ich | wiederholte |
| du | wiederholtest |
| er / sie / es | wiederholte |
| wir | wiederholten |
| ihr | wiederholtet |
| sie / Sie | wiederholten |
Der Lehrer wiederholte die Frage, weil niemand zugehört hatte.
The teacher repeated the question because nobody had been listening. (written)
Perfekt (present perfect)
Present of haben + the participle wiederholt — note, no ge-.
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| ich | habe wiederholt |
| du | hast wiederholt |
| er / sie / es | hat wiederholt |
| wir | haben wiederholt |
| ihr | habt wiederholt |
| sie / Sie | haben wiederholt |
Ich habe die Vokabeln dreimal wiederholt und sie trotzdem vergessen.
I went over the vocabulary three times and forgot it anyway. (participle wiederholt, no ge-)
Imperativ (commands)
Regular weak imperative; the inseparable prefix stays attached.
| Addressee | Form |
|---|---|
| du | wiederhol(e)! |
| ihr | wiederholt! |
| Sie | wiederholen Sie! |
Wiederhol bitte langsam, ich habe es nicht verstanden.
Please repeat slowly, I didn't catch it. (informal du-command)
Konjunktiv II (would / hypothetical)
As a weak verb, the synthetic Konjunktiv II is identical to the Präteritum (wiederholte), so the würde-form is what keeps the hypothetical clearly marked.
| Person | würde-form | synthetic |
|---|---|---|
| ich | würde wiederholen | wiederholte |
| du | würdest wiederholen | wiederholtest |
| er / sie / es | würde wiederholen | wiederholte |
| wir | würden wiederholen | wiederholten |
| ihr | würdet wiederholen | wiederholtet |
| sie / Sie | würden wiederholen | wiederholten |
Ohne deine Hilfe würde ich denselben Fehler wahrscheinlich wieder wiederholen.
Without your help I'd probably make the same mistake all over again. (würde-form; inseparable, stays in one piece)
Usage and government
The common verb is simply etwas wiederholen — to repeat something, with a plain accusative object. In a school context it covers both "to revise/review" (go over again) and "to repeat" (a year, a class).
Sie muss das Schuljahr wiederholen.
She has to repeat the school year. (das Schuljahr = accusative)
A zu-infinitive places zu before the whole verb, because it is inseparable:
Es ist sinnlos, immer wieder dieselben Fehler zu wiederholen.
It's pointless to keep repeating the same mistakes. (zu wiederholen, not 'wieder-zu-holen')
A reflexive use, sich wiederholen, means "to repeat oneself" or, of events, "to recur / happen again":
Die Geschichte wiederholt sich.
History repeats itself. (a fixed saying; reflexive sich wiederholen)
The rare twin: separable WIEDER-holen ("to fetch back")
Now the trap. There is a second, much rarer verb spelled the same way in the infinitive but stressed on WIEDER-, meaning to physically get / fetch something back. Because the stress is on the prefix, this one is separable: it splits in the present (ich hole es wieder), takes -ge- in the participle (wiedergeholt), and inserts zu (wiederzuholen). It is literal and uncommon — you will mostly hear it spelled out as zurückholen in everyday speech — but it explains why stress, not spelling, decides separability.
| inseparable "repeat" | separable "fetch back" (rare) | |
|---|---|---|
| Stress | wieder-HOL-en | WIEDER-holen |
| Present (ich) | ich wiederhole | ich hole ... wieder |
| Participle | wiederholt | wiedergeholt |
| zu-infinitive | zu wiederholen | wiederzuholen |
| Meaning | to repeat / review | to fetch / get back |
Ich hole mir mein Buch wieder, das du mitgenommen hast.
I'm going to get back my book that you took. (rare separable WIEDER-holen — splits as 'hole ... wieder')
For 99% of situations, when you mean "again and again," you want the inseparable verb. See the base verb holen for the simple "to fetch."
Collocations and fixed expressions
| Expression | English |
|---|---|
| etwas wiederholen | to repeat / review something |
| eine Klasse / ein Jahr wiederholen | to repeat a grade / a year |
| sich wiederholen | to repeat oneself; (of events) to recur |
| zur Wiederholung | for review / to recap (the noun: die Wiederholung) |
| wiederholt (Adverb) | repeatedly, on several occasions |
Er hat sich wiederholt geweigert, die Wahrheit zu sagen.
He repeatedly refused to tell the truth. (wiederholt here is an adverb, 'repeatedly'; formal)
Common Mistakes
❌ Ich hole das gern wieder, wenn du es nicht verstanden hast.
Wrong verb for 'repeat' — splitting it this way means 'I'll fetch it back', not 'I'll repeat it'.
✅ Ich wiederhole das gern, wenn du es nicht verstanden hast.
I'm happy to repeat it if you didn't understand.
❌ Hast du die Vokabeln wiedergeholt?
Incorrect for 'repeat' — the inseparable verb has no ge- (that participle belongs to the rare 'fetch back' verb).
✅ Hast du die Vokabeln wiederholt?
Did you review the vocabulary?
❌ Es ist wichtig, den Stoff wiederzuholen.
Incorrect — the inseparable 'repeat' verb puts zu before the whole word.
✅ Es ist wichtig, den Stoff zu wiederholen.
It's important to review the material.
❌ Der Lehrer wiederholtete die Frage.
Incorrect — the weak past already has one -te-; the form is wiederholte, not a doubled 'wiederholtete'.
✅ Der Lehrer wiederholte die Frage.
The teacher repeated the question.
Key Takeaways
- Common verb ("to repeat"): wiederholen – wiederholte – hat wiederholt (weak, inseparable, stress on -HOL-, auxiliary haben).
- Inseparable: no split, no ge- (wiederholt), zu before the whole word (zu wiederholen).
- Government: etwas wiederholen — plain accusative; reflexive sich wiederholen = to repeat oneself / recur.
- The rare twin WIEDER-holen (stress on the prefix) is separable and means "to fetch back" (hole ... wieder, wiedergeholt) — stress, not spelling, decides.
- When in doubt, you almost always want the inseparable "repeat."
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Start learning German→Related Topics
- The Stress Test for SeparabilityB1 — Say the verb aloud and locate the stress: a stressed prefix means it separates, a stressed stem means it doesn't — the single reliable test that even disambiguates dual-prefix verbs.
- Prefixes That Can Be Both: durch-, über-, um-, unter-, wieder-B1 — Variable prefixes that are separable when literal and stressed, but inseparable when figurative — stress predicts both separability and meaning.
- Inseparable Prefix VerbsA2 — The eight prefixes that never split, never take ge-, and are stressed on the stem: be-, emp-, ent-, er-, ge-, miss-, ver-, zer-.
- holen: Full Conjugation and UsageA2 — Complete conjugation of the weak verb holen 'to fetch / go and get' across every tense, with the separable abholen, the inseparable wiederholen trap, the reflexive sich etwas holen, idioms, and the errors English speakers make.
- Participles of Separable and Inseparable VerbsB1 — Where the -ge- goes when a verb has a prefix: inside separable verbs, and nowhere in inseparable ones — predicted perfectly by stress.
- The Accusative CaseA1 — The accusative marks the direct object — and because only masculine articles visibly change, masculine 'den/einen' is the system's single biggest stumbling block.