verb
to collect, to gather
A2
To collect, to gather. Sammeln commonly means to collect items or to gather people and things. It is a regular weak verb, non reflexive, and uses haben for the perfect (hat gesammelt). No separable prefix or special preposition. Common everyday verb.
Examples
Ich sammle Briefmarken.
I collect stamps.
Ich habe viele Erfahrungen gesammelt.
I have gained a lot of experience.
Wir sammeln Briefmarken seit unserer Kindheit.
We've collected stamps since we were kids.
Details
Mnemonics
Picture a child putting stamps into a large 'sam' box labeled 'collectibles'
sounds like 'sam' + 'mell' — imagine Sam putting things in a mail (mell) box
Notes
Regular weak verb. Commonly used for collecting physical items and collecting data. Transitive in many uses. Formal imperative (Sie) is not represented here because it requires the pronoun 'Sie', and pronouns are disallowed in conjugation values.