Fertigten

Fertigten is the simple past tense (Präteritum) form of the German verb fertigen, which means to manufacture, produce, or prepare. In addition to its industrial sense, fertigen can also be used in contexts that involve bringing something to completion or readiness. The form fertigten corresponds to the plural or polite subject in the past, as in sie fertigten (they manufactured) or Sie fertigten (you manufactured, formal).

Conjugation and related forms: fertigen is a weak verb. Its Präteritum endings for the main-person forms are ich fertigte, du fertigtest, er fertigte, wir fertigten, ihr fertichtet, sie fertigten. The past participle is gefertigt, used with auxiliary haben to form the perfect: er hat gefertigt. The passive voice can be expressed with wurde gefertigt. Related nouns include Fertigung (manufacturing), and the related adjective fertig (ready, finished), with the verb fertigstellen meaning to complete or finish.

Usage and nuance: fertigten appears primarily in narrative or formal writing, reporting past production or completion events. In contemporary spoken German, the Perfekt is more common, typically with ge fertigt: Die Firma hat 5.000 Autos gefertigt. When used, fertigten often sits in contexts describing production runs, fabrication of parts, or the completion of a task in the past. It is transitive and requires a direct object representing what was produced or completed.

Etymology and sense development: the verb derives from the adjective fertig (ready) and historically carried the sense of bringing something to completion. Over time, it broadened to encompass manufacturing and fabrication. Today fertigen covers both the act of making something and the broader notion of completing a preparation or production process.