ehrte

ehrte is the simple past tense form of the German verb ehren, meaning to honor or to respect. It is used with first-person singular subjects (ich ehrte) and third-person singular subjects (er/sie/es ehrte). The corresponding plural forms are wir ehrten, ihr ehrtet, sie ehrten. The past participle of ehren is geehrt, which is used with the auxiliary haben to form perfect tenses (ich habe geehrt).

Etymology and usage context: ehren is a standard, regular verb in German. ehrte, as a finite verb form, appears primarily in written narrative or formal contexts to describe a completed act of honoring someone or something. It is not a noun; the noun form is Ehre meaning honor. The imperative form for giving a plural command is Ehret, which is capitalized when used as a formal address or as part of a direct citation.

Transitivity and examples: ehren is transitive and takes a direct object. Examples: Er ehrte den Helden. (He honored the hero.) Wir ehrten die Verdienste der Forscher. (We honored the researchers’ achievements.) In contemporary spoken German, speakers often prefer the present perfect with haben (ich habe geehrt) in everyday narration, but ehrte remains common in literature and journalism.

See also: ehren, geehrt, Ehre. Note that while ehrte is a form of ehren, it does not function independently as a noun or a standalone term; its meaning is entirely tied to the verb’s sense of honoring or respecting.