gedauert

Gedauert is the past participle of the verb dauern and means that something lasted or took a certain amount of time. It is used with the auxiliary haben to form the perfect tense, for example: Es hat gedauert. The simple past is expressed with dauerte: Es dauerte zwei Stunden.

Usage and function: Gedauert describes the duration of a process, event, or action. It is typically accompanied by time expressions such as zwei Stunden, eine halbe Stunde, or eine Ewigkeit. In questions and statements one commonly asks “Wie lange hat es gedauert?” and answers with the duration, as in “Es hat zwei Stunden gedauert.” In subordinate clauses it can appear with bis or dass, for example: Es hat lange gedauert, bis wir fertig waren.

Etymology and grammar: Gedauert derives from the verb dauern, whose meaning is to last or to take time. The noun Dauer shares the same semantic field. The form gedauert reflects the typical German past participle pattern with the ge- prefix found in many weak-verb participles. Unlike some other verbs, dauern takes haben as its auxiliary in the perfect, not sein.

Variations and notes: Dauernd or andauernd are related terms used to express contiguity or repetition (for example, “eine andauernde Tätigkeit”), but they are not interchangeable with gedauert in every context. Gedauert is primarily a finite-participle form used in perfect constructions and in plain narration of duration. It is less commonly used as an attributive modifier and more often appears in clauses that state how long something took.