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On buttons for English websites it is common to see the word "submit" which has the meaning of send. However the English word "submit" also has other connotations which might cause the word to be mistranslated.

An interpreter told me that it would be 

Bestätigen

But that seems to have a direct translation of "To confirm", is that even common to read on German websites?

Google translate says einreichen. Then when I looked it up on Collins, there are so many other words https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english-german/submit

But in the context of web forms, what would be a more common word, ideally equivalent meaning to submitting information through a mobile application?

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  • @IQV ok i just checked Hilti's website and it says "Senden" but Audi's website says "Absenden". What is the difference?
    – JGallardo
    Commented Aug 29, 2018 at 7:11
  • There are only subtle differences. You can use both.
    – IQV
    Commented Aug 29, 2018 at 7:13
  • One means "send", the other means "send off".
    – Michael Kay
    Commented Aug 29, 2018 at 17:30
  • What is the context? I like allo 's answer best because it addresses different actions that would allow using something more specific than the common "send data" label. Using "Submit" to delete an account is inappropriate, as well as using "Confirm" if you want to login somewhere or "Send" if you are about to pay an online store. So there are situations when "Bestätigen" is the best choice - but also situations when it's nothing but confusing to the user.
    – puck
    Commented Aug 6, 2019 at 3:59

4 Answers 4

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There are several possibilities. An often used word for this case is

Senden

Variations of this would be

Absenden
Abschicken
Übermitteln

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  • Ok so i found that Hilti and Bosch use "Senden" on their webforms so going with that. Thank you for the help.
    – JGallardo
    Commented Aug 29, 2018 at 7:18
  • Another common wording for such buttons in German versions of websites is simply "OK". Not the purest German expression, but broadly accepted. A little bit more casual would be "Los!", an equivalent to English "Go!".
    – Christian Geiselmann
    Commented Aug 29, 2018 at 8:59
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    @Christian: I have seen "Los!" too, but find it a little un-serious, a little too casual.
    – Rudy Velthuis
    Commented Aug 29, 2018 at 19:42
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    Mind that German law demands it to be explicitly “Kaufen” or “Verbindlich Bestellen”, etc., if submitting the form will cause such kind of transaction. It’s generally not a bad idea to rethink, what’s the purpose of the form and use a term describing exactly that, rather than using a technical term that just says that the form data will be submitted (sure, they will, but what for)…
    – Holger
    Commented Aug 30, 2018 at 9:01
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It strongly depends on the use of the form, the words could e.g. be ...

  • Speichern (save) [e.g. profile changes]
  • Absenden (send)
  • Bestätigen (confirm)
  • OK [e.g. to save and close a dialog]
  • Hochladen (upload) [e.g. when updating your profile picture]
  • Account löschen / Konto löschen (delete account)
  • Weiter (continue [on the next page]) and Abschließen (finish [the registration process])

and many more.

Note that often the anglizism Account is used instead of the translation Konto, which has a strong association with bank accounts. Konto is still used at some sites, but Account has a strong association with an account on some website, just like Mail always means E-Mail.

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  • 2
    There are of course cases where you would want to avoid "Send", e.g if the dialog is for adding an attachment to a mail message without actually sending the mail.
    – Michael Kay
    Commented Aug 29, 2018 at 17:32
  • Ok so the word i was given "Bestaetigen" is more about confirming?
    – JGallardo
    Commented Aug 29, 2018 at 17:44
  • For my example, the case would be that you enter your information to signup, then you click the button to submit your information.
    – JGallardo
    Commented Aug 29, 2018 at 17:45
  • I would go either with abschicken (send [information]) or something more specific like Account erstellen (create account). The anglizism account is quite common. The pure german version would be Konto erstellen, but Konto has a strong association with bank account. Nevertheless you still see it on different sites, so it is not bank account only.
    – allo
    Commented Aug 30, 2018 at 8:14
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    @DevSolar Thank you for the edit. I changed it a bit, because using the anglizism "Account" in web applications is quite common in web applications. But "Konto" isn't that rare, too.
    – allo
    Commented Aug 30, 2018 at 8:59
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"Bestätigen" typically is used for confirming some data that is about to be sent. Like an Email address, or the answer to a question. A general form really could use any wording suitable for the form. Like: "Zahlungspflichtige Bestellung", "Jetzt einsenden und 10% Rabatt sichern" or, in your case it could be a simple "Bestätigen" or "Abschicken" or even "Senden". It's really depending on the rest of the site. Formal or casual, "Sie" oder "Du"

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While being terse submit is completely context-unaware (as is your question) and I would not recommend it in many cases in English either.

It mostly depends on, whether this is the final form (e.g. subscribing to a mailing list) or whether another one (for confirmation, for entering further details) follows.

Only if this is the last form, Senden, Übertragen or Abschicken is a good match. If a further form follows I would either use Weiter or describe the functionality of the form which follows, e.g. Zur Bestätigung.

In general it is a better idea, to describe in the button what happens from the view of the user instead of focusing on the data-transmission aspect, which is of minor (if any) importance.

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