Simple Past For Intermediate learners

What is the Simple Past Tense?

German has three main past tenses, and the simple past (Präteritum) is one of them. The two other tenses are the present perfect (Perfekt) and the past perfect (Plusquamperfekt). The simple past is mostly used for storytelling and talking about a sequence of events that are finished, and that's why it is used a lot in novels or news.

Usage

The simple past tense is used to describe actions and situations that occurred in the past. It can be listed as:

Narrating past events in stories

Reporting events

Past habits

Formal statements

Spoken German

Narrating past events in stories

To tell a story or describe a sequence of events in the past:

Example

Er öffnete die Tür und sah einen Fremden.

He opened the door and saw a stranger.

Reporting events

To report past events or news:

Example

Der Minister präsentierte den neuen Plan.

The minister presented the new plan.

Past habits

To describe habits or repeated actions in the past:

Example

Als Kind spielte ich hier jeden Tag.

As a child, I played here every day.

Das Unternehmen erreichte alle Ziele.

The company achieved all goals.

Formal statements

To present past events in a formal or official manner:

Example

Ich hatte keine Zeit und war müde.

I had no time and was tired.

Simple Past Tense Construction Rules

In order to conjugate verbs in this tense, you have to find the stem of the verb and add its specific ending to it. The ending of the verb is determined by the subject.

Verb Stem and Endings

The stem is derived from the infinitive form of the verb. In order to find the verb stem, you should remove the "en" from the end of the infinitive form of the verb.

Example

spielen

to play

spiel (verb stem) + (-en)

lesen

to read

les (verb stem) + (-en)

Formula for the Simple Past Tense

Verb stem + Personal ending
There are three main types of verbs:

Weak (regular) verbs

Strong verbs

Irregular verbs: sein and haben

Weak (regular) verbs

For regular verbs (also known as weak verbs), you only have to add the suitable ending to the stem. The stem remains unchanged.

The table below shows the endings for weak verbs:

Infinitive: spielen (to play) → spiel (stem)

	endings	spiel (stem)
ich	-te	spielte
du	-test	spieltest
er/sie/es	-te	spielte
wir	-ten	spielten
ihr	-tet	spieltet
sie	-tet	spielten
Sie	-tet	spielten

Example

Wir spielten Karten den ganzen Abend.

We played cards all evening.

Er kochte eine leckere Suppe.

He cooked a delicious soup.

Ich lernte Deutsch in der Schule.

I learned German in school.

Strong verbs

Conjugation for strong verbs is different from weak verbs, since they don't follow the same rules. The stem vowel usually changes in strong verbs.

Example

Ich gab ihm das Buch.

I gave him the book.

Infinitive: geben (to give)

Wir flogen im Sommer.

We flew in the summer.

Infinitive: fliegen (to fly)

Irregular verbs: "sein" and "haben"

"Sein" and "haben" are the two most important verbs in German. They are categorized as irregular verbs and their conjugations must be memorized.

The table below shows the conjugated form of "sein" and "haben":

	sein (to be)	haben (to have)
ich	war	hatte
du	warst	hattest
er/sie/es	war	hatte
wir	waren	hatten
ihr	wart	hattet
sie	waren	hatten
Sie	waren	hatten

Example

Er war mein bester Freund.

He was my best friend.

Sie waren nicht zu Hause.

They were not at home.

Du hattest immer gute Ideen.

You always had good ideas.

Wir hatten letztes Jahr ein rotes Auto.

We had a red car last year.

Sentence Structure

This section explains the word order rules in German sentences for the following:

Standard Statement

Yes/No Question

Negation

Standard Statement

In a standard statement, the conjugated verb always comes second.

Example

Ich lernte gestern Deutsch.

I learned German yesterday.

Er ging nach Hause.

He went home.

Yes/No Question

In yes/no questions, the verb belongs to the first position and is followed by the subject.

Example

Lerntest du Deutsch?

Did you learn German?

Hattet ihr Zeit?

Did you have time?

Negation

You can use "nicht" to negate verbs, adverbs, adjectives, and nouns that have a definite article (der, die, das). Where you place "nicht" depends on what you want to negate.

If you want to negate the main verb or the whole sentence: Place "nicht" at the end of the sentence.