stemt

Stemt is a Dutch verb form that appears in several common uses of the verb stemmen. The core meaning is to cast a vote in a decision or election, but stemmen also carries senses related to tuning or adjusting settings.

In political or civic contexts, stemm is used to describe the act of voting. The present tense form stemt (third-person singular) is used with a singular subject: Hij stemt op een kandidaat. The infinitive is stemmen, the past tense is stemde, and the past participle is gestemd. The pronoun combinations follow standard Dutch conjugation: ik stem, jij stemt, hij stemt, wij stemmen, jullie stemmen, zij stemmen.

Beyond voting, stemmen can mean to tune or adjust something to a desired setting, especially in music or technical contexts. Common phrases include instrumenten stemmen (to tune instruments) and het geluid stemmen (to adjust the sound). In these uses, stemt appears in phrases like Hij stemt de klok, meaning he sets or tunes the clock, though afstemmen (to fine-tune) is a closely related, more precise term.

Etymology and related terms: stemt derives from stem/stem (voice, vote) in Dutch, reflecting the link between giving a voice and making a decision. Related words include stem (noun) meaning a voice or vote, stemmen (to vote or to tune), and afstemmen (to fine-tune or calibrate).

See also: stem (Dutch noun), stemmen, afstemmen.