21 December 2025
How do you say Competition in German?
Whether it’s a spelling bee, a startup pitch, or a cooking show, Germans call it a Wettbewerb. It’s the go-to word for any structured contest - where people or groups go head-to-head to win.
The noun Wettbewerb means competition, contest, or competitive event, and it’s one of the 1000 most frequently used nouns in German. It appears in economics, education, sports, and pop culture.
It’s a masculine noun, so we say der Wettbewerb.
Pronunciation
Wettbewerb is pronounced approximately [VET-buh-vehrp], with main stress on Wett-.
- Wett rhymes with “bet,”
- be is a soft, unstressed “buh,”
- werb sounds like “vehrp” - the final b is pronounced p,
- Stress is on the first syllable: VETT-bewerb
It’s long, firm, and official-sounding - just like a proper contest.
Example sentences:
- Sie hat beim Wettbewerb den ersten Platz gewonnen.She won first place in the competition.
- Der Wettbewerb unter den Firmen ist sehr hart.The competition among the companies is very tough.
Nuance and usage tips
Wettbewerb is related to competing or vying with others; wett- occurs in words such as
- Wettkampf. Bewerben can mean to apply, as in sich um eine Stelle bewerben, but the noun is not literally a bet plus a job application.
- Contests / events
- Schreibwettbewerb - writing contest
- Musikwettbewerb - music competition
- Sportwettbewerb - athletic competition
- Wettbewerbsjury - competition jury
- Business and economics
- Wettbewerbsfähigkeit - competitiveness
- Wettbewerbsvorteil - competitive advantage
- freier Wettbewerb - free market competition
- Wettbewerbsrecht - competition law / antitrust law
- Education / culture
- Bundeswettbewerb - national competition
- Jugend musiziert - a famous music competition for youth in Germany (and Jugend forscht for young scientists)
Related contrasts:
- Kooperation (cooperation) and
- Monopol (monopoly) can contrast with competition in particular contexts;
- Stillstand (stagnation) is not an exact opposite of Wettbewerb.
Grammatical case examples:
- Nominative:Der Wettbewerb beginnt um neun Uhr.The competition starts at nine o’clock.
- Accusative:Ich habe den Wettbewerb leider verloren.I unfortunately lost the competition.
- Dative:Mit dem Wettbewerb wächst auch der Druck.With the competition, the pressure also increases.
- Genitive:Wegen des Wettbewerbs arbeiten wir jetzt am Wochenende.Because of the competition, we’re working weekends now.
Masculine case pattern: der, den, dem, des
Word variations and language tidbits
Variation Station:
- Wettbewerbsteilnehmer - competitor / contestant
- Wettbewerbsbeitrag - competition entry
- Wettbewerbsbedingungen - competition rules
- Wettbewerbsdruck - competitive pressure
- Preiswettbewerb - price competition (economics)
- Wettbewerbsverzerrung - distortion of competition
Fun idiomatic note:Wettbewerb is used for organized contests and economic competition. For a casual race, a natural sentence is:
„Wer zuerst da ist, hat gewonnen!““First one there wins!”
📘 Duden entry: https://www.duden.de/rechtschreibung/Wettbewerb
🎥 Learn Wettbewerb and the rest of the top 1000 German nouns in our free online video course:Watch the 1000 German Nouns video course
Alternate translations note:For rivalry, Germans might say Rivalität. For game or contest, you might hear Spiel or Wettkampf. But for a structured, often judged competition - whether academic, artistic, athletic, or commercial - Wettbewerb is the word you want.Ready for more German words of the day? Do you know what Witz means? How about Werbung? Find out!
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