gespielt

Gespielt is the past participle of the German verb spielen, which can mean to play a game or to perform/act. As a participle it is used with auxiliary haben to form the perfect tenses, for example: Ich habe Tennis gespielt, Wir haben Karten gespielt, Er hat Geige gespielt. It can also appear in other compound tenses with haben or in a passive construction with werden (Es wird gespielt; Es ist gespielt worden).

As an adjective, gespiel t can describe something that is performed, acted, or feigned. In this use, it often conveys that the action was not genuine or was staged. Examples include eine gespielte Rolle (a role played/acted) or ein gespieltes Lächeln (a feigned smile). In phrases like Das war nur gespielte Überraschung, gespielte indicates artificiality or pretense.

Phonology and orthography follow standard German rules: the prefix ge- attaches to the verb to form the participle, yielding gespielt [ɡəˈʃpiːlt]. The meaning shifts with context between literal playing (a game or instrument) and figurative or evaluative uses (acting, feigning).

Common collocations include spielen with instruments (Klavier spielen), with games (Kartenspiele spielen), or with roles in theater (eine Rolle spielen). The past participle gespielt appears in written language mainly in perfect forms or as an attributive adjective; in everyday speech, speakers typically use the finite verb forms of spielen with haben (habe gespielt, hast gespielt) to express completed action.

See also: spielen, Partizip Perfekt, feignedness in German adjectives.