erlaubten

Erlaubten is the simple past tense form of the German verb erlauben, which means to permit or to allow. In use, es is a regular verb with the prefix er-, and its present tense forms are: ich erlaube, du erlaubst, er erlaubt, wir erlauben, ihr erlaubt, sie/Sie erlauben. The corresponding preterite forms are: ich erlaubte, du erlaubtest, er erlaubte, wir erlaubten, ihr erlaubtet, sie/Sie erlaubten. Therefore, the form er-laub-ten appears in the first-person plural and in the third-person plural (as well as the formal you) in the past: Wir erlaubten den Gästen den Eintritt; Sie erlaubten mir den Zugang.

Erlauben is transitive: it takes a direct object for what is being permitted. For example, Der Veranstalter erlaubt den Besuchern das Filmen. Es ist erlaubt, hier zu parken means it is permitted to park here; Es wurde mir erlaubt, früher zu gehen expresses in the past that I was allowed to leave earlier (often used in passive constructions).

Related terms include die Erlaubnis, the noun meaning permission or authorization, and das Erlaubte, a more occasional nominalization referring to what is permitted. The word erlauben is common in legal, administrative, and everyday contexts, with meanings ranging from informal allowances to formal permissions. In everyday German, er erlaubt often appears in statements about what is allowed in a given setting, while the past tense form erlauten or erlaubten situates actions in the past narrative.