bedingten

Bedingten is the simple past tense form of the German verb bedingen, which means to condition, entail, or require as a prerequisite. The verb is transitive and used to express that one thing causes or necessitates another.

In terms of grammar, bedingen belongs to the regular class of verbs with a strong stem change in the past tense. The Präteritum forms for the verb are: ich bedingte, du bedingtest, er bedingte, wir bedingten, ihr bedingtet, sie bedingten. Thus, bedingten specifically appears as the first-person plural and third-person plural past tense forms, and also as the past tense form for feminine or plural subjects in certain narratives.

The participle form of bedingen is bedungen, and it is used to form the perfect tenses with the auxiliary haben: Die Maßnahme hat bedungen, dass sich die Situation ändern würde. In everyday usage, however, speakers often prefer present or other tenses to express conditioning rather than relying on the Präteritum.

Usage notes and examples:

- Die Umstände bedingten eine Verzögerung. (The circumstances conditioned a delay.)

- Die neue Regel bedingte eine Anpassung der Abläufe. (The new rule required an adjustment of the procedures.)

- In the Präteritum kann man auch sagen: Wir bedingten unsere Zustimmung durch einen Kompromiss. (We conditioned our approval by a compromise.)

Relation to related terms: bedingen is related to bedingung, the noun meaning condition or prerequisite. The adjective bedingt means conditional or limited by certain conditions, and unbedingte means unconditional.

See also: bedingung, bedingen (etymology and usage), conditional in German grammar.