The simple past tense in German is called Präteritum. This is just one of the forms of making expressions and references in the past. Präteritum is mostly used in writing of articles such as novels, newspapers, magazines etc. it can sometimes be used in spoken German but not by many. This form of past tense unlike the perfect or past participle tense does not make use of auxiliary verbs. The various verbs are simply conjugated in the Präteritum forms in the second position to the subject of that sentence in the standard SVO order.
It is considered inappropriate to use both Präteritum (simple past tense) and Perfect tense (past participle tense) in one sentence. Nevertheless, it is only possible to combine the Präteritum and perfect tense of the auxiliary verbs -haben and sein- in one sentence. The Präteritum of the various categories of verbs are shown below.
**Note that in English, the simple past form of the auxiliary verb “do” can also be used to make the simple past tense. In such instances, the present form of the main verb is used. Regardless, it is still the Präteritum in German. For example; “I did buy a new house” means the same as “I bought a new house”.
Präteritum of Hilfsverben
The Präteritum of the auxiliary verbs are a bit irregular but easy to learn and memorize. Study the pictures below…
Subjects | Sein (waren) | English meaning |
---|---|---|
Ich du er/sie/es wir ihr sie/Sie | war warst war waren wart waren | I was you were he/she/it was we were you (guys) were they/you were |
Subjects | Haben (hatten) | English meaning |
---|---|---|
Ich du er/sie/es wir ihr sie/Sie | hatte hattest hatte hatten hattet hatten | I had you had he/she/it had we had you (guys) had they/you had |
Subjects | Haben (hatten) | English meaning |
---|---|---|
Ich du er/sie/es wir ihr sie/Sie | wurde wurdest wurde wurden wurdet wurden | I would you would he/she/it would we would you (guys) would they/you would |
Subjects | Haben (hatten) | English meaning |
---|---|---|
Ich du er/sie/es wir ihr sie/Sie | tat tatest tat tan tatet tan | I did you did he/she/it did we did you (guys) did they/you did |
Usage;
- I was at home last night.—— ich war letzte Nacht zu Hause.
- He would go home soon.—— er wurde bald nach Hause gehen.
- Why didn’t you?—— warum tatest du nicht?
- We had our breakfast already.—— wir hatten schon unser Frühstück.
Regelmäßige Verben
To derive the Präteritum of weak verbs can be done in one of two ways;
- Cut off the prefix “ge-” from the perfect form of that verb and then attach the declension suffix from the table below to the rest of the stem.
- Conjugate the verb in its present tense to the third person subject (er/sie/es) and then add the declension suffix from the picture below.
Subject | Declension |
---|---|
ich du er/sie/es wir ihr sie/Sie | -e -est -e -en -et -en |
For Example: arbeiten

More examples:
Subjects | Kochen | Reisen | Arbeiten | Paddeln | Klettern |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
ich du er/sie/es wir ihr sie/Sie | kochte kochtest kochte kochten kochtet kochten | reiste reistest reiste reisten reistet reisten | arbeitete arbeitetest arbeitete arbeiteten arbeitetet arbeiteten | paddelte paddeltest paddelte paddelten paddeltet paddelten | kletterte klettertest klettertet kletterten klettertet kletterten |
English | cooked | travelled | worked | paddled | climbed |
Usage:
- We worked the entire night.—— wir arbeiteten die ganze Nacht.
- The child played with the toy today.—— das Kind spielte heute mit dem Spielzeug.
- I danced yesterday.—— ich tanzte gestern.
- The man didn’t brush his teeth.—— der Mann putzte seine Zähne nicht.
Unregelmäßige Verben
The Präteritum of strong verbs is irregular just like their perfect tense. They all have stem vowel changes that are completely different from their present tense. Unlike weak verbs, they are not first conjugated to the third person subject but instead the verb ending “en” is lost and the stem vowel and/or even some stem consonants are replaced with that of the Präteritum. The stem changes that take place in the Präteritum are shown below.
present tense vowel and consonant change from | Präteritum vowel and consonant change to |
---|---|
-e- -o- -ei- -ß -ss -a- -ä- -ü- -u-/-au- | -a-/-i-/-o- -a- -ie-/-i- -ss -ß -u-/-i -a- -o- -ie- |
**Note that the above stem-vowel changes are due to the position of the “stress” on the word.
Examples;
Präsens | Präteritum | English Past-participle |
---|---|---|
essen gehen lesen helfen bleiben finden fliegen fliehen fahren steigen laufen rufen singen bieten bitten fangen brechen fließen schließen laden nehmen schreiben sitzen stehen binden geben werden beißen sterben lassen stehlen | aß ging las half blieb fand flog floh fuhr stieg lief rief sang bot bat fing brach floss schloss lud nahm schrieb saß stand band gab wurde biss starb ließ stahl | ate went read helped stayed found flew fled drove stepped walked called sang bade requested caught broke flowed closed loaded took wrote sat stood bound gave became bit died let/left stole |
After making the necessary changes in the stem, the conjugating suffixes are then added to the various subjects as shown below:
Subject | Declension |
---|---|
ich du er/sie/es wir ihr sie/Sie | – -(e)st – -en -t -en |
Observe that the declension at du is an “e” in bracket. This indicates that it can sometimes be used with or without the “e”. When the stem ends with either “t, d, s or z”, “est” is used but when it involves any other stem ending, “st” is used instead. See illustration below.
Subjects | Schließen | Bieten | essen | gehen | nehmen |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
ich du er/sie/es wir ihr sie/Sie | schloss schlossest schloss schlossen schlosst schlossen | bot botest bot boten botet boten | aß aßest aß aßen aßt aßen | ging gingst ging gingen gingt gingen | nahm nahmst nahm nahmen nahmt nahmen |
English | closed | bade | ate | went | took |
Usage:
- They bade 50 percent.—— sie boten 50 Prozent.
- He closed the door.—— er schloss die Tür.
- John helped the old woman.—— John half der alten Frau.
- You ate two plates of rice.—— du aßest zwei Teller Reis.
Gemischte Verben
Mixed verbs form their Präteritum partly like weak verbs in that they are first conjugated to the third person and then like strong verbs by changing the various stem vowels to “-a” before the declension suffix from the weak verb table for Präteritum above is added or better still, cut off the prefix “-ge” from the perfect tense and add the respective conjunction vowels for perfect tense at the end of the stem.
*Note that all mixed verbs follow this pattern except “wissen” whose stem vowel changes to “-u” instead. See below…
Präsens | Präteritum | English Past-participle |
---|---|---|
wissen kennen rennen brennen bringen wenden nennen senden denken | wusst kannt rannt brannt bracht wandt nannt sandt dacht | knew knew ran burnt brought turned named sent thought |
Usage:
- I knew it!—— ich wusste es!
- She burnt her hand.—— sie brannte ihre Hand.
- They brought some Oranges.—— sie brachten etwas Orangen.
- You knew the man, why didn’t you say so earlier? Du kanntest den Mann, warum sagtest du es nicht früher?
Trennbare Verben
The Präteritum of these verbs are of the three listed above. They are formed based on the category of the root verb which can either be weak, strong or mixed and without the prefix “-ge”. While these verbs are being conjugated to the subject in the Präteritum, the prefixes but first be cut out and then taken to the end of the sentence after everything else has been written. See examples below.
Präsens | Präteritum | English Past-participle |
---|---|---|
ausmachen ansteigen nachsuchen zumachen stattfinden losmachen anziehen anbieten abfahren mitkommen beibringen mitbringen mitnehmen aufräumen zudecken hinsetzen weitermachen fortfahren nachdenken auswählen ausschreiben zurückkommen weggehen | macht…aus stieg…an sucht…nach macht…zu fand…statt macht…los zog…an bot…an fuhr…ab kam…mit bracht…bei bracht…mit nahm…mit räumt…auf deckt…zu saß…hin macht…weiter fuhr…fort dacht…nach wählt…aus schrieb…aus kam…zurück ging…weg | put off stepped on searched closed took place loosened dressed up offered departed came along instilled brought with took with tidied(up) tucked in sat down continued drove off reflected picked out wrote out came back went away |
Usage:
- The woman brought her children along.—— die Frau brachte ihre Kinder mit.
- Anna did not tidy up the room.—— Anna räumte das Zimmer nicht auf.
- You (people) came back yesterday.—— ihr kamt gestern zurück.
Untrennbare Verben
Since these verbs can’t be separated from their prefixes, the Präteritum is formed with them attached to the prefixes. They procedure is quite similar to the separable verb in that those with weak root verbs are converted to Präteritum like weak verbs and likewise the strong and mixed verbs. See examples below.
Präsens | Präteritum | English Past-participle |
---|---|---|
verlieren erkennen empfehlen entdecken bedanken gefallen gehören besprechen unterhalten versprechen unterschreiben unterbrechen missbrauchen entscheiden verheiraten erholen erleben genesen verbrauchen zerschneiden erscheinen erneuern erinnern gedenken | verlor erkannt empfahl entdeckt bedacht gefiel gehört besprach unterhaltet versprach unterschrieb unterbrach missbraucht entschied verheiratet erholt erlebt genas verbraucht zerschnitt erscheint erneuert erinnert gedacht | lost recognized recommended discovered gratified pleased with belonged to discussed gist/chatted promised signed interrupted abused decided married off recovered experience recovered consumed pieced emerged renewed remembered commemorated |
Usage:
- My aunt promised to buy toys for us.—— meine Tante versprach, uns Spielzeugen zu kaufen.
- Sandra lost her cellphone last week at the central train station.—— Sandra verlor letzte Woche am Hauptbahnhof ihr Handy.
- I just signed the two-year contract.—— ich unterschrieb gerade den Zweijahresvertrag.
Modal verbs
To derive the Präteritum of modal verbs, every umlaut is first replaced with the non-umlaut form of that letter and then the verb end “-en” is replaced with “-t” before the declension suffix is added to the various subjects during conjugation except “mögen” whose stem-end rather changes to “-ch”. See the description below…
*Note that the declension suffix from weak verb above should be used.
Präsens | Präteritum | English Past-participle |
---|---|---|
können sollen dürfen mögen wollen müssen | konnt- sollt- durft- mocht- wollt- musst- | could/ was able to should/ was supposed to was allowed/ permitted to liked to wanted to had to |
Usage;
- Unfortunately I couldn’t travel to France anymore.—— leider, konnte ich nicht mehr nach Frankreich reisen.
- We were not allowed to go out.—— wir durften nicht raus(gehen).
- You were not supposed to call me.—— du solltest mich nicht anrufen.
- She liked to sing.—— sie mochte singen.