verb
to kiss, to peck
B1
Means 'to kiss' or 'to peck' (a brief kiss). Used transitively: küssen + someone. Reflexive sich küssen denotes mutual action (to kiss each other). Uses auxiliary haben in the perfect (habe geküsst). Regular weak verb with no stem change; imperative forms include Küss! and Küsst!.
VOCABULARY.DETAILS.EXAMPLES
Nachdem das Paar sich heimlich küsste, gingen die Beteiligten auseinander, weil sie nicht entdeckt werden wollten.
After the couple kissed secretly, those involved went their separate ways because they did not want to be discovered.
Ich küsse meine Freundin.
I kiss my girlfriend.
Sie küsste das Baby kurz auf die Wange.
She gave the baby a quick peck on the cheek.
VOCABULARY.DETAILS.DETAILS_LABEL
VOCABULARY.DETAILS.MNEMONICS
Imagine two people touching lips gently — the universal image of a kiss
Sounds like 'coo-sen' → think of a soft 'coo' sound when kissing
VOCABULARY.DETAILS.NOTES
küssen can be used transitively (jemanden küssen) or reflexively in reciprocal contexts (sich küssen = to kiss each other). It's a regular weak verb and normally forms the perfect with 'haben'. Formal imperative (Sie) requires the pronoun 'Sie' in German and cannot be expressed without it; therefore the 'Sie' form in the imperative is marked as 'not applicable' in the conjugations.