Updated on October 7, 2024
How to use the Präteritum in German
The Präteritum is a way to express past tense in German. In form and function, the Präteritum has some similarities to the English simple past tense. Both consist of one word that refers to an event that started and ended in the past. But while in English it’s perfectly normal to use different past tenses interchangeably when speaking or writing, the same can’t be said for German. The Präteritum is reserved mostly for writing, while other past tense forms are more commonly used for speaking. But don’t worry. We have broken it all down into bite-sized little steps for you.
The German Präteritum is one of three past tenses in German. Together with Perfekt and Plusquamperfekt, the Präteritum helps German speakers talk about past events. As a reference, English also has three very similar past tense forms: simple past, present perfect, past perfect.
In English, the simple past is used to describe completed actions in a time before now. This is also known as preterite or imperfect. The present perfect is used for actions that started in the past but are still continuing now. The past perfect is used to refer to actions that happened up to a certain point of time in the past.
Now, based on the example above, you may be thinking that the German Präteritum works in pretty much the same way as the English simple past. . But, as you’ll learn below, the rules on when to use the Präteritum (or simple past) can be quite different in German.
In theory, the differences between the German Präteritum and Perfekt are the same differences between the English simple past and present perfect. After all, both the Präteritum and Perfekt tenses can be used to refer to past events, finished or not. But in practice they can’t actually be used interchangeably. The German perfect tense (Perfekt) is mainly used in spoken language, while the German simple past (Präteritum) is more or less restricted to the written language of newspapers and books.
You would also use the Präteritum when telling a story. This has the effect of transporting the listener to another place and time as if they were reading a book.
In other words, as in this line from a nursery rhyme, you would write:
But telling your friend about your adventures yesterday you would say:
Both describe the same event that started and ended in the past. In the written form, we use the Präteritum, in a conversation we use the Perfekt to refer to it.
To sum it up, the rule of thumb is to use the Präteritum when writing and the Perfekt when speaking. Exception: The auxiliary verbs haben (to have) and sein (to be), the modal verbs können (can, to be able to), müssen (must, have to), sollen (shall), dürfen (may, to be allowed to), mögen (to like) and wollen (want) are usually used in the Präteritum even in spoken language. The same applies to some common verbs, some of them describing the state of something. Here are some examples of German words that prefer the imperfect tense even in spoken language:
Now let’s learn how to form the Präteritum.. To do that, we have to differentiate between weak verbs, strong verbs and mixed verbs. We’ll need to look at some special cases, too.
Weak verbs are verbs that are conjugated in a regular way. They are the regular verbs. To form the Präteritum for these regular verbs, you add the following endings to the stem to form the Präteritum:
ich: -te
du: -test
er, sie, es: -te
wir: -ten
ihr: -tet
Sie: -ten
Sie -ten
Let’s look at some examples:
sagen – to say
ich sag-te
du sag-test
er/sie/es sag-te
Sie sag-ten
wir sag-ten
ihr sag-tet
sie sag-ten
Sie sag-ten
lernen – to learn
ich lern-te
du lern-test
er/sie/es lern-te
Sie lern-ten
wir lern-ten
ihr lern-tet
sie lern-ten
Sie lern-ten
machen – to make
ich mach-te
du mach-test
er/sie/es mach-te
Sie mach-ten
wir mach-ten
ihr mach-tet
sie mach-ten
Sie mach-ten
Strong verbs are irregular verbs. They are called irregular because their stem-vowel changes in one or more tenses. In the Präteritum, they take the same endings as the modal verbs in the present tense. Mixed verbs have a stem-vowel change just like the strong, irregular verbs, but in the past tense use the same endings as the weak, regular verbs.
sehen – to see (strong verb)
ich sehe – sah (minus the e)
du siehst – sahst
er/sie/es sieht – sah (minus the t)
Sie sehen – sahen
wir sehen – sahen
ihr seht – saht
sie sehen – sahen
Sie sehen – sahen
denken – to think (mixed verb)
ich denke – dach-te
du denkst – dach-test
er/sie/es denkt – dach-te
Sie denken – dach-ten
wir denken – dach-ten
ihr denkt – dach-tet
sie denken – dach-ten
Sie denken – dach-ten
If the stem of the verb ends on -d or -t, we insert an extra -e before endings beginning with -t or -st:
landen – to land (weak verb)
ich land-e-te
du land-e-test
er/sie/es land-e-te
Sie land-e-ten
wir land-e-ten
ihr land-e-tet
sie land-e-ten
Sie land-e-ten
finden– to find (strong verb)
ich and
du fand-est
er/sie/es and
Sie fanden
wir fanden
ihr fand-e-t
sie fanden
Sie fanden
If the stem of a strong verb ends on -s/ß/z, we need to take away the s of the ending or insert an extra -e in the forms that end with -st or -t:
lesen – to read (strong verb)
ich las
du last/lasest
er/sie/es las
Sie lasen
wir lasen
ihr last/laset
sie lasen
Sie lasen
And then there is the irregular Präteritum of the frequently used verbs sein (to be) and haben (to have):
sein – to be
ich war
du warst
er/sie/es war
Sie waren
wir waren
ihr wart
sie waren
Sie waren
haben– to have
ich hatte
du hattest
er/sie/es hatte
Sie hatten
wir hatten
ihr hattet
sie hatten
Sie hatten
With so many rules and irregularities, the forms of the German Präteritum might be a lot to take in. It gets easier though if you memorize the Präteritum for German verbs in your vocabulary list. And when writing, you can always use a grammar checker to see if you got it right. Reading will expose you to a lot of Präteritum forms and can help even beginners boost their confidence using the German simple past.
The German Präteritum is mainly used in written language as in newspapers or books. Therefore, reading is a good way to practice the German simple past. The more you see the different forms of weak, strong and mixed verbs in the Präteritum, the easier it will get to form them yourself. Another way to master the Imperfekt is to memorize the right form while learning vocabulary.
