tanken

'tanken' (to fuel up) is a regular verb. Here's how it's conjugated in the present tense:

ich tanke (I fuel up)
du tankst (you fuel up - informal singular)
er/sie/es tankt (he/she/it fuels up)
wir tanken (we fuel up)
ihr tankt (you fuel up - informal plural)
sie/Sie tanken (they/you fuel up - formal singular/plural)

The simple past (Präteritum) is 'tankte' (e.g., Ich tankte mein Auto – I fueled up my car). The conversational past (Perfekt) uses 'haben' as the auxiliary verb: 'habe getankt' (e.g., Ich habe mein Auto getankt – I have fueled up my car).

While its primary meaning is about fuel, 'tanken' can also be used figuratively for 'to recharge' or 'to take in' something, especially something positive like energy or sun. For example, 'Sonne tanken' means 'to soak up the sun'.

'tanken' generally means to fuel up. 'auftanken' often implies filling something completely, or specifically recharging, especially in the figurative sense (e.g., 'Energie auftanken' - to recharge one's energy).

The noun form is 'das Tanken', which is the act of fueling up. For example, 'Das Tanken ist teuer' (Fueling up is expensive).

You can ask: 'Wo kann ich tanken?' (Where can I fuel up?) or 'Wo ist die nächste Tankstelle?' (Where is the nearest gas station?)

• 'Das Auto tanken' (To fuel up the car)
• 'Voll tanken' (To fill up completely)
• 'Benzin tanken' (To get gasoline)
• 'Diesel tanken' (To get diesel)
• 'Energie tanken' (To recharge energy)

'tanken' is a regular (weak) verb. This means its past tense and past participle follow predictable patterns by adding '-te' and '-t' respectively, and it doesn't change its stem vowel.

The imperative forms are:
• (du) Tank! (Fuel up! - informal singular)
• (ihr) Tankt! (Fuel up! - informal plural)
• (Sie) Tanken Sie! (Fuel up! - formal singular/plural)

You can say: 'Ich muss tanken.' (I must fuel up.) or 'Ich muss mein Auto tanken.' (I must fuel up my car.)