The Simple Past (das Präteritum)

I. Theory

The German simple past, also known as das Imperfekt or das Präteritum, is used almost exclusively in narration and writing. When conveying the past in conversation, the Perfekt is preferred. For this reason, we usually do not find this form used with the second person forms du, ihr, or with the formal Sie.

Er sprach mit dem Barman. He spoke with the bartender. Der König und Königin tanzten zusammen. The king and queen danced together. Der alte Mann erzählte den Kindern die Geschichte. The old man told the children the story.

As you can see from the examples above, the Präteritum is a finite form and thus is formed with a conjugation rather than combining auxiliaries and participles.

II. Verbs often seen in Präteritum

Despite this tense being used mainly in writing, the following verbs are often found in the Präteritum, even in conversation: sein, haben, werden, wissen and modal verbs.

Examples of these verbs in oral conversation:

sein Weil ich gestern krank war, bin ich nicht zur Arbeit gegangen. Because I was sick yesterday, I didn’t go to work. wissen Wir wussten nicht, dass er umgezogen ist. We didn’t know that he moved. können Sie konnten das Projekt nicht bis Freitag fertigstellen. They were not able to finish the project until Friday. werden Da ihre Krankheit gestern schlimmer wurde, ist sie ins Krankenhaus gegangen. Because her illness got worse yesterday, she went to the hospital. haben Als Kind hatte ich einen Hund und eine Katze. As a child, I had a cat and a dog.

III. Formation

A. Regular verbs

For regular verbs, the following endings are added to the verb stem: -te, -test, -ten, -tet.

Spielen ich spielte du spieltest er spielte wir spielten ihr spieltet Sie spielten

B. Separable verbs

Just like in the present tense, the prefix of separable verbs breaks off im Präteritum.

Der Student las das Gedicht vor. The student read the poem aloud. Das Theaterstück fing um 21:00 an. The play began at 9PM.

C. Strong Verbs

Strong verbs display irregularities in their simple past forms. For this reason, it is advised to review the verb’s Präteritum and Perfekt forms when first encountering each strong verb. If you don’t know if a verb is irregular or not in the past tense, keep in mind that many English verbs that are irregular share a German counterpart (ie: think-thought/denken-dachte or swim-swam/schwimmen-schwamm). These forms are also indicated in the dictionary after the infinitive.

Here, we see some of the most common verbs and their simple past forms in the first/third person singular: kommen-kam, gehen-ging, sein-war, helfen-half, essen-aß, trinken-trank, lesen-las, fliegen-flog, geben-gab.

kommen Sie kam in das Zimmer. She came into the room. gehen Er ging durch das Dorf. He walked through the village. sein Die Prinzessin war im Schloss. The princess was in the castle.