dehnten

Dehnten is the simple past tense (Präteritum) form of the German verb dehnen, which means to stretch, widen, or extend. It is used with plural subjects, for example: Wir dehnten das Seil, Sie dehnten die Grenzen. The same form also appears with the formal address Sie in past narrative contexts.

The verb dehnen can refer to physical stretching (muscles, fabrics, materials) as well as figurative stretching (time, space, or limits). In narrative or descriptive writing, dehnten conveys that an action of extending or enlarging was completed in the past.

Morphology and related forms: dehnen is a regular weak verb. Its present tense forms include ich dehne, du dehnst, er dehnt, wir dehnen, ihr dehnt, sie dehnen. The past participle is gedehnt and is used with the auxiliary haben: Wir haben das Seil gedehnt. The noun Dehnung, derived from the verb, denotes the act or result of stretching or dilation and is used in physics, mechanics, and everyday language.

Etymology and cognates: dehnen belongs to the Germanic language family and has cognates in other West Germanic languages that carry a similar meaning related to stretching or widening. The term Dehnung (noun) is commonly used to describe the process or degree of stretching, such as material deformation or linguistic widening in metaphorical uses.

See also: Dehnung, the noun corresponding to the act or result of stretching; related concepts include stretching, dilation, and expansion in various scientific and practical contexts.