Fingierte

Fingierte is the preterite (simple past) form of the German verb fingieren, which means to feign, simulate, or fabricate something. The word indicates that a claim, a document, an illness, or another condition was not genuine but created to deceive or mislead.

In usage, fingieren is common in discussions of deception, fraud, or manipulation. It can describe actions such as inventing an injury to gain sympathy, fabricating evidence, or presenting a false identity. The term is frequently found in journalism, law, and literary narrative to convey that something was supposed or pretended rather than real. The corresponding present or habitual sense is expressed with fingieren in the present tense (ich/du/er fingiert, wir fingieren, etc.).

Grammatically, fingierte appears as the simple past tense form for singular subjects (ich fingierte, er fingierte, sie fingierte). The plural forms are fingierten, as in wir fingierten, ihr fingierten, sie fingierten. The perfect tense is formed with haben: ich habe fingiert, er hat fingiert. This contrasts with other past-tense constructions that describe ongoing or completed acts in different contexts.

Etymologically, fingieren is related to the Germanic verb sense of shaping or forming something in appearance rather than in reality. It is cognate with the English feign, which ultimately derives from Latin fingere (to shape, to feign). The term is widely used across German-language sources to describe deliberate deception or imitation.

See also: vorgetäuscht, simulieren, täuschen.