fragten

Fragten is the simple past tense (Präteritum) of the German verb fragen, meaning to ask. It indicates that an act of asking occurred in the past and is commonly used in written German and in narrative contexts. The standard conjugation in Präteritum for regular verbs is part of the stem frag-: ich fragte, du fragtest, er/sie/es fragte, wir fragten, ihr fragtet, sie/Sie fragten. Note that the second-person singular form is fragtest, while the plural forms use fragten or fragten with Sie for the formal you.

In usage, fragten typically appears in past-tense narration or reporting of events. It is often preferred in literature, journalism, or formal writing, while spoken German more frequently relies on the present perfect tense (haben gefragt) to describe past events. For example: Die Touristen fragten nach dem Weg. Die Lehrerin fragte, ob alle die Aufgabe verstanden hatten.

Fragten is not a noun and is not capitalized unless it begins a sentence. It should be distinguished from the hypothetical or nominal uses of similar-looking words in other languages. As with other German past-tense forms, regional speech patterns may affect its frequency and style, but its basic function remains the same: to state that someone asked something in the past.