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Lesson 29: Simple past Präteritum

Vocabulary: News and media

Completing this lesson will add to your overall progress:

VocabularyA1+0.8%A2+3%B1+2%B2+0.5%
GrammarA1+1%A2+3%B1+4%

How to work with this lesson

  1. Read the rule — understand the logic (5 minutes)
  2. Translate the exercises in writing — check against the key
  3. Say it out loud — slowly, consciously, analyzing every verb form
  4. Speed up — run the matrix until it flies out on autopilot

You've mastered Perfekt — the past tense for conversation. Now we add Präteritum — the language of newspapers, books and fairy tales. Crack this and German written texts stop looking like a wall of strange forms.

Part 1: Why German has two past tenses

German has two pasts. Each owns its territory:

  • Perfekt — spoken language. Chatting with a friend → Perfekt.
  • Präteritum — written language. Newspapers, novels, fairy tales, reports.

Open a newspaper — Präteritum. Open your mouth — Perfekt.

Exception: sein (war), haben (hatte) and modals (konnte, musste, wollte) use Präteritum even in conversation. "Ich habe gehabt" sounds clunky even to Germans.

English mirror: This split is similar to the difference between "I did" (simple past) and "I have done" (present perfect) — except in English you can use either in casual speech. In German, Perfekt dominates spoken language so completely that Präteritum sounds bookish when you say it out loud. Outside of sein/haben/modals.

Part 2: The main hack — two verb types, two patterns

Lock in this formula:

Regular = stem + TE. Irregular = new stem, no TE.

machen → machte (suffix -te = regular). gehen → ging (stem changed, no -te = irregular). See -te → regular. No -te → irregular. Two camps, no exceptions.

English mirror: Regular German verbs add -te = English regular verbs add -ed (worked, loved). Irregular German verbs change the vowel = English irregular verbs change the vowel (sing → sang, drink → drank, write → wrote). Same Germanic system, just different spellings.

Part 3: Conjugating regular verbs

Take the stem, glue on -te, add the personal ending:

Personmachenarbeiten
ichmachtearbeitete
dumachtestarbeitetest
er/sie/esmachtearbeitete
wirmachtenarbeiteten
ihrmachtetarbeitetet
sie/Siemachtenarbeiteten

Three things:

  1. Ich = er/sie/es — both have no ending after -te. Two for the price of one.
  2. Wir = sie/Sie — both -ten.
  3. Stems ending in -t, -d (arbeiten, reden) get a buffer -e-: arbeitete, redete (otherwise unpronounceable).

Trap! Don't confuse Präteritum with Partizip II. "Er machte" (Präteritum) is NOT "Er hat gemacht" (Perfekt). Two different tenses, same meaning, different territories (writing vs speech).

Part 4: Conjugating irregular verbs

Irregular verbs change the root vowel. No -te suffix:

Persongehen → gingsprechen → sprach
ichgingsprach
dugingstsprachst
er/sie/esgingsprach
wirgingensprachen
ihrgingtspracht
sie/Siegingensprachen

Again: ich = er/sie/es (no ending), wir = sie/Sie (-en).

Key irregular verbs — group them by vowel pattern:

PatternInfinitiv → PräteritumEnglish mirror
ei → ieschreiben → schrieb, bleiben → bliebwrite → wrote
e → asprechen → sprach, geben → gab, lesen → lasspeak → spoke
a → ufahren → fuhr—
e → a (others)sehen → sah, kommen → kam, nehmen → nahmsee → saw, come → came
specialgehen → ging, finden → fand, stehen → standgo → went, find → found, stand → stood

Anchor: Memorize three verbs from a group — you know ten. ei→ie is the biggest group.

Part 5: When Perfekt, when Präteritum — the map

SituationTenseExample
ConversationPerfektIch habe einen Film gesehen
Newspaper / bookPräteritumDer Präsident sprach vor dem Parlament
sein, haben, modals — everywherePräteritumIch war müde. Ich konnte nicht kommen

Trap! A German would never say Ich bin müde gewesen. They say Ich war müde. For sein and haben — Präteritum even in speech.

Next up: Lesson 30 — Countries and travel. Ich fahre nach / in die. You'll learn why "to Germany" is nach Deutschland, "to France" is nach Frankreich, but "to Switzerland" is in die Schweiz. There's a logic, and it's simple.

Lesson 29: Simple past Präteritum · Deutsch · Glottos Matrix