Bevölkerten

Bevölkerten is the simple past tense (Präteritum) of the German verb bevölkern, meaning to populate or settle a region with people. The form bevölkerten is used with subjects such as wir, ihr, or sie (we populated, you all populated, they populated) in narrative or historical text.

Etymology and meaning: bevölkern is built from the prefix be- combined with Volk (people) and a standard verb suffix. The word conveys the act of moving people into a territory and establishing a population there. It is closely related to the noun Bevölkerung (population) and to related verbs such as besiedeln, which can be used in similar contexts with slightly different nuances.

Usage and grammar: In modern prose, the present tense bevölkert is more common for ongoing population processes, while bevölkerten appears in historical or literary narration. The perfect tense is formed with haben: sie haben bevölkertet? or sie haben bevölkert? (the correct participle is bevölkert; the speaker may encounter older texts where form variations appear). As a narrative verb, bevölkerten is typically used to describe past population movements, such as migration, colonization, or settlement episodes.

Nuance and synonyms: Bevölkern emphasizes the act of bringing people to live in a region, whereas besiedeln focuses more on establishing habitation and order within a territory. In scholarly writing, bevölkerten may appear alongside terms like Kolonisierung, Migration und Siedlung, each highlighting different facets of population history.

See also: bevölkern, Bevölkerung, Besiedlung, Migration, Kolonisierung.