Buchhalter

German

Etymology

From Buch halten (“to keep the books”) +‎ -er. This verbal phrase is now rare. For some reason one usually says Buchhalter, but Buch führen. For the action noun both Buchhaltung and Buchführung are common. Further analysable as Buch (“book”) +‎ halten (“to hold”) +‎ -er (agent suffix).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈbuːxˌhaltər/, [ˈbuːxˌhal.tɐ], (casual or fast speech) /ˈbuːxaltər/

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

Buchhalter m (strong, genitive Buchhalters, plural Buchhalter, feminine Buchhalterin)

1. accountant, bookkeeper

   Synonym: (rare) Buchführer

Declension

Declension of Buchhalter [masculine, strong]

	singular			plural
	indef.	def.	noun	def.	noun
nominative	ein	der	Buchhalter	die	Buchhalter
genitive	eines	des	Buchhalters	der	Buchhalter
dative	einem	dem	Buchhalter	den	Buchhaltern
accusative	einen	den	Buchhalter	die	Buchhalter

Descendants

• → Polish: buchalter
• → Lithuanian: buhalteris
• → Russian: бухгалтер (buxgalter)
  • → Kazakh: бухгалтер (buxgalter), бұғалтыр (būğaltyr)
• → Ukrainian: бухгалтер (buxhalter)

Further reading

• “Buchhalter” in Duden online
• “Buchhalter” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache