wiederholten

Wiederholten is the simple past tense form of the German verb wiederholen, used with the subjects wir (we) and sie (they). The verb wiederholen means to repeat, to reiterate, or to perform again. In the present tense, the forms are ich wiederhole, du wiederholst, er/sie/es wiederholt, wir wiederholen, ihr wiederholt, sie wiederholen. The corresponding simple past forms are ich wiederholte, du wiederholtest, er/sie/es wiederholte, wir wiederholten, ihr wiederholtet, sie wiederholten. Therefore, wiederholten specifically marks the past actions by plural subjects or by multiple people.

Wiederholen is etymologically built from wieder- “again” and holen “to fetch,” with the sense shifting over time toward “to repeat.” The form wiederholten is thus a regular Präteritum conjugation, not the past participle. The past participle of wiederholen is wiederholt, which functions as a passive participle or as an adjective in compound constructions (for example: eine wiederholte Frage).

Usage notes and examples:

- Wir wiederholten die Schritte, um den Fehler zu finden. (We repeated the steps to find the error.)

- Sie wiederholten den Test, weil einige Ergebnisse unklar waren. (They repeated the test because some results were unclear.)

In casual spoken German, speakers often prefer the Perfekt (haben + wiederholt) for past narration, rather than the Präteritum form wiederholten.

See also: Wiederholen, Wiederholung, Perfekt.