Warteten

Warteten is the simple past tense (Präteritum) form of the German verb warten, which means to wait. In standard German, warteten is used to describe a waiting action that took place in the past. The form is specific to the first- and third-person plural in the past tense: wir warteten and sie warteten (and Sie warteten in the formal address). For the second-person singular and plural, the preterite forms are wartetest (du) and wartetet (ihr), while ist nur in combination with other persons.

In modern spoken German, the present perfect (Perfekt) is more common for past events, especially in everyday conversation. Thus you would more commonly hear Wir haben gewartet rather than Wir warteten, even when referring to a past wait about a completed event. Warteten is frequently found in written narratives, journalism, and formal speech, where the simple past conveys a straightforward, sequential past.

Conjugation at a glance:

- Infinitive: warten

- Present: ich warte, du wartest, er wartet, wir warten, ihr wartet, sie warten

- Präteritum: ich wartete, du wartetest, er wartete, wir warteten, ihr wartetet, sie warteten

- Past participle: gewartet

Etymology traces warten to Old High German wartan and related West Germanic forms; cognates appear in other Germanic languages, such as Dutch wachten. The word maintains its core meaning across these languages: to stay in expectation or to await something.

See also: related nouns such as Warte (watch, lookout) and the broader German verb family around warten.