wurde

German

Alternative forms

• ward (archaic)
• wurd (colloquial)

Etymology

Formed by analogy with the plural wurden, from Middle High German wurden (singular wart). The verbs of this class normally generalise the singular vowel; as in sterben etc. we should thus expect werden, ward, warden, geworden. These forms are attested, but the plural usually retained the u-form and this -u- tended to be generalised to the singular. A possible reason is the a-forms’ phonetic similarity to war, waren. The final -e in wurde is unetymological; it goes back to a development in Early Modern German where -e was added to strong past tenses (after the subjunctive and/or by hypercorrection; hence archaic sahe, fande for sah, fand). It may have survived here by analogy with the fellow auxiliary hatte.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈvʊʁdə/

• Audio

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• Audio

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Verb

wurde

1. first/third-person singular preterite of werden

Usage notes

• Until the earlier 20th century, wurde was seen as a correct, but less formal byform of ward. The latter has since become archaic, however.

Old English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈwur.de/,

Verb

wurde

1. inflection of weorþan:
   1. second-person subjunctive singular
   2. preterite subjunctive singular

West Frisian

Etymology

From Old Frisian wertha.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈvødə/, /ˈvørə/

Verb

wurde

1. to become
2. to be (used to form the passive voice)

   Ik waard sjoen.

   I was seen.

Inflection

Further reading

• “wurde (I)”, in Wurdboek fan de Fryske taal (in Dutch), 2011