ziehenden

Ziehenden is the inflected form of the German present participle ziehen (to pull, to draw) when used as an attributive adjective in plural with a definite article. The base participle is ziehen, and the attributive adjective form is ziehend; in plural with a definite article it takes the ending -en, yielding die ziehenden. This form describes ongoing pulling or drawing actions, either literally or metaphorically.

Usage and examples:

- Die ziehenden Kräfte im System erzeugen eine Verzögerung. (The pulling/drawing forces in the system produce a delay.)

- Die ziehenden Wolken am Himmel kündigten einen Wandel des Wetters an. (The moving clouds, described poetically as pulling across the sky, foretold a weather change.)

- In compounds or phrase constructions, ziehend can function like any other attributive adjective: eine ziehende Kraft, die ziehenden Prozesse, etc.

Distinctions:

- The form ziehend is the base participle, while ziehenden is its declined attributive form in plural with a definite article.

- The related noun form das Ziehen denotes the act of pulling or drawing; der Ziehende (singular) or die Ziehenden (plural) can refer to a person or people who pull, but this nominal use is less common in everyday language.

In summary, ziehenden is a grammatical form rather than a separate concept, used to describe ongoing pulling or drawing in plural noun phrases when paired with a definite article. It illustrates how German participles can function adjectivally while agreeing with number, case, and definiteness.