erläuterte

Erläuterte is the simple past tense form of the German verb erläutern, meaning to explain, clarify, or elaborate. It denotes that someone explained something in the past. The infinitive erläutern is common in both spoken and written German, while the simple past form erläuterte is used primarily in narrative contexts and formal writing. The past participle is erläutert, used with haben to form the present perfect: hat erläutert.

Conjugation (representative): ich erläuterte, du erläutertest, er/sie/es erläuterte, wir erläuterten, ihr erläutertet, sie erläuterten.

Etymology: derived from erläu-ter n, with the prefix er- which in German often marks completion or a shift to a completed state in past tense contexts.

Usage: Erläuterte appears in news reports, academic texts, literature, and formal explanations, where the writer narrates how facts were clarified or how arguments were laid out. It is also used to describe steps in a process that have already been explained.

Examples: Der Referent erläuterte die Theorie. Der Bericht erläuterte die Hintergründe der Entscheidung.

See also: erläutern, Erläuterung, erörtern.

Notes: In everyday spoken German, speakers often use the perfect tense hat erläutert rather than the simple past erläuterte, especially in colloquial contexts, though both forms are correct in the appropriate registers.