klopfte

Klopfte is the simple past tense (Präteritum) form of the German verb klopfen, which means to knock or to rap lightly against a surface, or to produce a knocking sound. The verb is common in both physical knocking and in figurative uses such as tapping or beating a rhythm.

Etymology and form: Klopfen is a regular weak verb of Germanic origin. In the Präteritum the ending -te is added to the stem klopf-, yielding ich klopfte, du klopftest, er klopfte, wir klopften, ihr klopftet, sie klopften. The past participle is geklopft, used with haben to form the present perfect: ich habe geklopft, du hast geklopft, etc. In everyday speech, the Perfekt (hat geklopft) is more common than the Präteritum, especially in northern and spoken varieties, while the Präteritum remains frequent in written narration.

Usage: Klopfte is used to describe actions completed in the past. Common contexts include knocking on doors (Ich klopfte an die Tür), tapping on a surface (Er klopfte mit dem Finger gegen die Tischkante), or describing the rhythmic sound of objects (Die Uhr klopfte laut jede Stunde). The meaning can extend to non-literal knocking, such as an approach or insistence implied by a knocking sound in literary usage.

See also: klopfen, geklopft, Präteritum, Perfekt.