dudé

Dudé is a Spanish verb form meaning "I doubted" or "I hesitated." It is the first-person singular past simple (pretérito indefinido) of the verb dudar, used to express doubt or hesitation about a situation in the past. It can introduce a direct or indirect statement of doubt, for example, "Dudé de su historia" or "Dudé si venía."

Pronunciation and origin: Dudé is pronounced [duˈde], with the stress on the second syllable. The verb dudar comes from the Latin dubitare, and related terms in Spanish include duda (doubt), dudoso (doubtful), and desconfiar.

Conjugation and behavior: As a regular -ar verb in the pretérito indefinido, its full paradigm is: yo dudé, tú dudaste, él dudó, nosotros dudamos, vosotros dudasteis, ellos dudaron. The accent on the yo form signals the standard stress pattern of this tense for -ar verbs.

Usage notes: Dudé is used to recount a past event characterized by doubt or hesitation. With nouns or pronouns, the construction is usually dudar de + [something], as in "dudar de su historia." When the content is a clause, speakers may say "dudé si..." or "dudé que..." followed by a subjunctive verb, though the latter may be less common in everyday speech. The form appears primarily in narrative prose and dialogue to convey skepticism or uncertainty in past actions.