Understanding Past Tenses in German

Overview

• German has three past tenses:
  • Perfect (Present Perfect): most common, learned at A1 level.
  • Präteritum (Simple Past): learned at A2 level.
  • Plusquamperfekt (Past Perfect): learned at B1 level, not commonly used.
• Focus of this session: Präteritum (Simple Past).
• Perfect is mainly used for spoken German.
• Präteritum is used for written German (e.g., newspapers, books).

Important Verbs in Präteritum

• Some verbs are used in spoken German despite being in Präteritum, such as:
  • sein (to be) and haben (to have).
  • Six modal verbs also used in spoken form.

Building Präteritum for Regular Verbs

• Example verb: kaufen (to buy).
• Start with the present tense conjugation.
• Add the Präteritum ending (e.g., add -te).
• Verb stem remains consistent across tenses, add indicative endings for Tenses.
• Tip: First and third person singular/plural have the same conjugation.

Special Cases in Regular Verbs

• Verbs ending with -t or -d need an extra -e- for pronunciation.
• Example: arbeiten (to work), warten (to wait).

Irregular Verbs in Präteritum

• Example verb: bringen (to bring).
• Present tense can appear regular, check Präteritum for irregularity.
• Irregular verbs often have vowel changes in their Präteritum form.
• Tip: Learn irregular verb forms by heart, maintain a list.

Examples and Exception Handling

• Separable verbs keep their prefixes in subordinate clauses.
• Example sentences provided for practice.

Homework

• Write responses to: "What did you do yesterday?" using Präteritum.

Resources

• For further learning, access resources on perfect tense or various German tenses on the recommended website.