fielen

Fielen is the simple past tense (Präteritum) form of the German verb fallen. It denotes past occurrences of falling, whether literal (someone or something falling) or figurative (prices or temperatures decreasing). The form is irregular and belongs to the class of strong verbs, showing a vowel change from a to i in the past tense.

Conjugation in Präteritum:

ich fiel, du fielst, er fiel, wir fielen, ihr fielt, sie fielen.

The past participle of fallen is gefallen, and German uses sein as the auxiliary in perfect tenses: Ich bin gefallen (I have fallen) or Der Baum ist gefallen (The tree has fallen). In many varieties of German, the Präteritum is more common in written language and formal narration, while the Perfekt (using ist gefallen) is often preferred in spoken language.

Etymology and cognates:

Fallen derives from Old High German fallan, with cognates in other Germanic languages such as Dutch vallen and English fall. The historical development reflects a common Germanic pattern of vowel alternation in past tenses.

Usage notes:

- The verb can describe physical descent, as in Er fiel von der Leiter (He fell from the ladder).

- It can describe declines, for example Die Temperaturen fielen im Winter deutlich (Temperatures fell noticeably in winter).

- In everyday speech, German speakers frequently use the Perfekt rather than Präteritum for past events: Er ist gefallen.

See also:

- fallen, the base verb meaning to fall

- gefallen, the past participle; also means to be pleasing in other contexts (das gefällt mir)