landen
/ˈlandən/
To arrive on the ground after a flight in an aircraft is landen in German.
If you are describing the arrival of a train, you should use the more specific formal term einfahren instead.
Which one should you use?
While landen is used for aircraft, if you are referring to a train arriving at a station, use einfahren. The noun form of the action is die Landung, which means 'the landing'.
How does it change in a sentence?
As a verb of movement or change of state, landen uses the auxiliary verb sein (such as ist) rather than haben to form the perfect tense. For example, to say someone 'has landed', you would use ist gelandet. The past participle of the verb is gelandet.
How do you pronounce it?
/ˈlandən/
Did you know?
- Beyond aviation, landen is often used figuratively to describe ending up in an unexpected or unfortunate situation, such as in der Falle landen meaning 'to land in a trap'.
- In German, the verb landen is not a native High German word but was borrowed from Middle Low German.
- While English uses 'to land' for both aircraft and ships, using landen for a ship's arrival is far less common in modern German than its use for planes.
Examples in context
- Der Flug wird in Kürze landen.The flight will land shortly.
- Das Flugzeug ist sicher gelandet.The airplane landed safely.
- Das Flugzeug wird pünktlich landen.The plane will land on time.
- Wir konnten wegen des Sturms nicht landen.We could not land because of the storm.
- Die Maschine wird bald in Frankfurt landen.The aircraft will land in Frankfurt soon.
Example conversation
Julian and Julia are talking at the airport arrival gate.
- JulianWann wird der Flieger landen?When will the plane land?
- JuliaEr wird in zehn Minuten landen.It will land in ten minutes.
- JulianDann müssen wir uns beeilen.Then we must hurry.
- JuliaKeine Sorge, Julian, wir sind bereit.Don't worry, Julian, we are ready.
Sources
- Pronunciation: Wiktionary entry landen, CC BY-SA 4.0, dump of 2026-09-26.
- Word origins: Wiktionary entries landen, CC BY-SA 4.0.
