fasste

Fasste is the simple past tense (Präteritum) form of the German verb fassen. It is used in narrative narration to describe actions that were completed in the past. The form fasste appears for ich fasste and er/sie fasste in the Präteritum, and it shares the same spelling for these different subjects.

The core meanings of fassen include both literal and figurative senses. Literally, it can mean to grasp or seize something, as in Er fasste den Arm fest. Figuratively, it can mean to understand or comprehend, as in Sie fasste die Bedeutung des Textes. It can also denote forming or deciding something, for example Sie fasste den Entschluss, zu gehen. Additionally, fassen combines with prefixes or other words to produce common expressions such as zusammenfassen, meaning to summarize, as in Die Lehrerin fasste die Punkte zusammen.

Usage notes include that fasste is primarily a narrative past form. The past participle of fassen is gefasst, used with the auxiliary haben to form the present perfect: Ich habe den Arm gefasst. In written German, past tense often uses Präteritum, whereas spoken German prefers the Perfekt (habe gefasst). The verb is productive in phrases that combine with other words, such as zusammenfassen (to summarize) or sich etwas fassen (to conceive or take hold of something conceptually).

Fasste thus functions as a versatile past-tense form of fassen, appearing in a range of contexts from physical grasp to understanding, and in idiomatic expressions that describe summarizing or deciding.