From gritteln (“to irritate, bicker, rebuke, nitpick”, 17th c.), which is plausibly an iterative form of Middle Low German gretten (“to anger, irritate”). Compare Dutch greten (“to irritate, mock, laugh at”). These are cognate with Middle High German graz (“rage”). Variants with k- occur also in Dutch and Low German. They were reinforced, however, through influence of Kritik (“criticism”), kritisieren (“to criticise”), with which the German verb is generally associated.
kritteln (weak, third-person singular present krittelt, past tense krittelte, past participle gekrittelt, auxiliary haben)
| infinitive | kritteln | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| present participle | krittelnd | ||||
| past participle | gekrittelt | ||||
| auxiliary | haben | ||||
| indicative | subjunctive | ||||
| singular | plural | singular | plural | ||
| present | ich krittle ich krittele ich krittel |
wir kritteln | i | ich krittele ich krittle |
wir kritteln |
| du krittelst | ihr krittelt | du krittelest du krittlest |
ihr krittelet ihr krittlet | ||
| er krittelt | sie kritteln | er krittele er krittle |
sie kritteln | ||
| preterite | ich krittelte | wir krittelten | ii | ich krittelte1 | wir krittelten1 |
| du kritteltest | ihr kritteltet | du kritteltest1 | ihr kritteltet1 | ||
| er krittelte | sie krittelten | er krittelte1 | sie krittelten1 | ||
| imperative | krittle (du) krittel (du) krittele (du) |
krittelt (ihr) | |||
1Rare except in very formal contexts; alternative in würde normally preferred.