What do you call a Criminal in German?

It’s the person behind the crime scene, the subject of a police report, or the villain in a movie. In German, that’s der Verbrecher. This is your German word of the day, and it’s a powerful word you’ll hear in news stories, courtrooms, and thriller novels alike.

The noun Verbrecher means criminal, and it’s one of the 1000 most frequently used nouns in German. Whether used formally or emotionally, it points directly at someone who has broken the law - or, in some cases, betrayed a moral code.

It’s a masculine noun, so we say der Verbrecher (still puzzling over gender? Our fast and easy video lesson will finally make it click: Watch the 5-minute video lesson on German noun genders).

Pronunciation

Verbrecher is pronounced approximately [fer-BRECH-uh]; final -er is usually vocalized.

• Ver- is unstressed, approximately [fɛɐ̯] (a short e followed by a reduced r sound),

• brech has the ich sound after e, a light fricative made near the hard palate, not the Bach sound,

• er ends softly, like “uh”

• Stress is on the second syllable: ver-BRECH-er

It sounds sharp and serious-fitting for serious wrongdoing.

Example sentences:

Die Polizei hat den Verbrecher gefasst.The police caught the criminal.

Er gilt als gefährlicher Verbrecher.He is considered a dangerous criminal.

Nuance and usage tips

Verbrecher is a strong label for a criminal, especially someone seen as committing serious wrongdoing. It is not a neutral word for a suspect; use der Verdächtige or die Verdächtige for someone suspected of a crime. Theft, assault and fraud do not automatically count as Verbrechen in the narrow German legal sense.

Feminine form: die VerbrecherinPlural: die Verbrecher

Related words:

• Verbrechen - crime

• verbrecherisch - criminal (as an adjective)

• Krimineller / Kriminelle - criminal (more technical/neutral)

In police or legal settings, Verbrecher has a strong, accusatory tone. It can also be used more emotionally or dramatically in everyday speech.