gekochten

Gekochten is a Dutch word that functions as a participial form related to the verb kopen, meaning to buy. The standard past participle of kopen is gekocht, which is used in compound tenses (for example, ik heb gekocht). Gekocht en gekocht(en) forms are pronounceable variants that appear primarily in attributive use before nouns, and they are not the primary form in modern standard Dutch when referring to a plural noun.

In practice, gekochte is the usual attributive form before a singular or plural noun in standard Dutch, while gekochten is rarely used and may be considered nonstandard or regional in some contexts. When the participle is used predicatively after a auxiliary verb (for example, zijn or worden) to describe the state of the object, the form gekocht is the correct choice (de goederen zijn gekocht).

Common usage focuses on the sense of “purchased” or “bought” for items or materials. The phrase de gekochte goederen is typical in contemporary Dutch to indicate goods that have been bought. Gekochten does appear in older texts or in specific dialects, but it is not the preferred form in standard contemporary usage.

Etymology traces gekochten back to the ge- prefix and the past-participle suffix common to Dutch verbs, forming a subordinate adjective meaning “bought.” Its prominence today rests mainly in referring to items that have been purchased, with koop-related vocabulary as the core semantic field.

See also: kopen, gekocht, past participles in Dutch, Dutch attributive adjectives.