GrammarB1· Prüfungsvorbereitung
Das Präteritum
The simple past: the past of written stories
Kartoffel · your teacher
Hi! Let's look at this one together — step by step, no rush.
6 parts · about 7 min
1What & when
In one line
In one lineRegular verbs add -te: machte. Most irregular verbs change the stem, with no -te: fuhr.
1
Before
Wir sind mit dem Zug nach Leipzig gefahren.
Watch the sentence change …
A strong verb: two words in the , one in the . fahren changes its stem to fuhr, and wir adds -en.
„Wir fuhren mit dem Zug nach Leipzig.“ — We went to Leipzig by train.
Kartoffel
First, what is it?
The is German's one-word past, like English 'went' or 'arrived': fuhr, kam … an, dachte, wartete. You already say war, hatte and musste. Stories, news reports and exam texts use it for most verbs. So you need to recognise them all, and to tell a short story yourself.
Kartoffel
And when do you need it? More often than you'd think:
PrüfungsvorbereitungYou need it whenever you read or write a story. Think of a newspaper report, a novel, an exam text or a story on the radio: Am Morgen der Prüfung klingelte mein Wecker nicht. When you talk, Germans use the for most verbs: Ich bin zu spät aufgewacht. But war, hatte and the (musste, konnte) are in speech too.
Tap to answer