wirkte

Wirke is the past tense form "wirkte" of the German verb wirken, which generally means to act, to have an effect, or to function. The verb can describe physical operation, influence, appearance, or impression. In wider usage, wirken can describe how something operates or what effect it produces, as well as how someone or something is perceived.

Conjugation and forms: wirken is a regular verb in its endings with some stem variation in the present indicative, e.g., ich wirke, du wirkst, er wirkt, wirke(n), ihr wirkt, sie wirken. The simple past (Präteritum) forms include ich wirkte, du wirktest, er wirkte, wirkte(n), ihr wirktet, sie wirkten. The past participle is gewirkt, and the perfect tense is formed with haben: er hat gewirkt. Other tenses follow standard patterns: future werde wirken, du wirst wirken, etc.

Usage notes: Wirken can take different complements depending on meaning. For physical or clinical sense: "ein Medikament wirkt schnell." For influence or impression: "die Werbung wirkte auf mich überzeugend" or "sein Vortrag wirkte glaubwürdig." In narrative writing, Präteritum (wirkte) is common, while in spoken German Perfekt is more frequent. The term can also pair with prepositions to indicate impact on entities, for example "auswirken" as in "misst sich negativ aus," though auswirken is a separable verb.

See also: Wirkungen, Wirkung, Wirkstoff, auswirken.