Hielt

Hielt is the simple past tense (Präteritum) form of the German verb halten, meaning to hold, keep, or stop. It is used to describe a past action in which someone or something held or maintained something. An example is: Er hielt das Seil fest. The form is typically written in lowercase in ordinary prose, and the past participle of halten is gehalten, used with the auxiliary verb haben (Ich habe das Buch gehalten).

In German grammar, hielt specifically appears as the third-person singular past tense: er hielt. Other persons and moods employ different past-tense forms of halten (for example, ich hielt). The present-tense form is hält, not hielt, which is a common point of confusion for learners.

Hielt should also be distinguished from similarly spelled forms in other Germanic languages and from Dutch spellings. In Dutch, the corresponding past tense is usually hied or hield, depending on the construction, rather than hielt. The spelling hielt is not used in standard modern Dutch.

Aside from its grammatical use, hielt can appear in quotation-heavy or literary contexts to convey historical actions. It is not widely used as a standalone term outside of this verb form. In practice, learners and readers should recognize hielt as a standard German verb form tied to halten, and as a marker of past action in narrative German. See also halten and gehalten for related forms and usage.