ausgegangen

Ausgegangen is the past participle of the German verb ausgehen, and it serves as a participial form as well as an adjective in various contexts. The verb itself combines aus- (out) with gehen (to go), and the participle is used with different senses depending on the context.

The primary senses are: going out socially, extinguishing or dying out, and running out or being exhausted. In the social sense, ausgegangen refers to having gone out for the evening, as in Ich bin ausgegangen or Wir sind ausgegangen, meaning we went out to a bar, club, or restaurant. In the sense of extinguishing, it describes a candle, light, or fire that has gone out, for example Das Licht ist ausgegangen oder Die Kerze ist ausgegangen. In the sense of depletion, it can indicate that supplies or power have run out, such as Die Vorräte sind ausgegangen or Die Batterie ist ausgegangen, meaning the resources are exhausted or the battery died.

Usage notes: in perfect tenses the form typically uses the auxiliary sein, especially with intransitive meanings of going out or changing state, as in Die Lichter sind ausgegangen. When used in a more transactional sense or in certain regional or colloquial phrasing, it can appear with different auxiliaries, but the standard usage is with sein for the out-of-state senses. The exact meaning is determined by context and accompanying words.

In everyday German, ausgegangen is a common form across the outlined senses and conveys whether someone left a place, whether a light or flame has extinguished, or whether something has run out of energy, supply, or time.