nutzen

See also: Nutzen and nützen

German

From Middle High German nutzen, nützen, from Old High German nuzzōn, -nuzzen (in ginuzzen), from Proto-Germanic *nutōną, *nutjōną, *nutjaną. Compare modern Nutzen (noun). The verb is originally restricted chiefly to Upper German and East Central German, the former preferring the form nutzen, the latter preferring nützen. By way of hypercorrection, nützen has now become a chiefly southern form. Low German and West Central German originally use other verbs, namely, brauchen for the transitive and batten for the intransitive function. These areas prefer nutzen in modern standard German.

nutzen (third-person singular simple present nutzt, past tense nutzte, past participle genutzt, auxiliary haben)

(transitive) to make use of; to deploy; to exploit; to harness; to take (the opportunity of)
Du solltest deine Talente nutzen.
You should make use of your talents.

Wenn sich ihnen so eine Gelegenheit bietet, dann nutzen sie die.
When such an opportunity offers itself to them, they’ll take it.
(transitive or intransitive, most often negated or in questions) to be useful, to be of use, to do good
Er hört mit der Diät auf, weil sie nichts nutzt.
He's stopping the diet because it is no use.

Was nutzt es schon, sich anzustrengen?
What is the use of making an effort anyway?
(transitive or intransitive, + dative) to benefit someone, to help, to do good to
Er hat sich überall angebiedert, aber das hat ihm auch nicht genutzt.
He curried favour with everybody, but that didn’t help him either.

There is a distinction between nutzen and benutzen. The former is used with opportunities or options, the latter is used with means or instruments. Sometimes this is just a matter of aspect. For example, “He uses the computer” can be phrased as Er benutzt den Computer (mere mechanical sense), or Er nutzt den Computer (implying that the computer is, in whatever way, an opportunity).

Conjugation of nutzen

Composed forms of nutzen