weissen
to whiten
- Past (Präteritum)
- weißte
- Past participle
- geweißt (haben)
Do not confuse this with 'wissen' (to know). This verb is weak and describes the act of painting something white or cleaning/bleaching it white. It is rarely used in the context of hair turning white; for hair, German typically uses 'grau werden' or 'ergrauen'. It is a regular weak verb using haben as the auxiliary for all perfect tenses. The stem remains consistent throughout the conjugation paradigm. Note the spelling involves the 'ß' character, which remains even in present-day orthography following the diphthong 'ei'. It is not to be confused with 'Weiß' as a noun or adjective adjective (white). It is rarely used in modern German outside of technical contexts related to lime-washing or whitewashing walls (kalken). No common compounds exist for this specific verb in general language usage as 'anweißen' or 'weißmachen' are typically expressed differently in standard German.
Conjugation
Past
- weißte
- past
Participle
- geweißt
- past participle
Infinitive
- weissen
- infinitive