Simple Past Tense

We use the German tense Präteritum (simple past) for stories and reports in the past, especially in written language.

Simple Past Tense: Usage

Rule 1: Präteritum, also called Imperfekt, is used when to talk about a completed event in the past or facts/conditions that were true in the past. We typically use it to tell stories or report past event in written German.

In spoken German, it's common to use the perfect tense instead.

Simpler Past Tense: Conjugations

Rule 2: To conjugate regular verbs in the present tense, we take the verb stem (by removing the -en ending) and add the following endings: -te, -test, -te, -ten, -tet, -ten

Here's an example with the verb "spielen" (to play):

Rule 3: The conjugated verb will always stand in second position in affirmative sentences in the present tense.

Simple Past with Haben and Sein

Rule 4: We rarely use the simple past in spoken language, except when it comes to verbs "sein" and "haben". We will always use them in the Präteritum to talk about facts and conditions in the past.

These two verbs are irregular: