German Past Tense of Regular Verbs

Learn how to conjugate verbs in the past tense

German flag  Austrian flag  Swiss flag  Liechenstein flag

Need more German? Try the German courses at Udemy, the videos with subtitles and translations at Yabla German and FluentU, the audio and video lessons at GermanPod101.com, and the German Interlinear book with English translations

Learn German phrases, vocabulary, and grammar online for free with audio recordings by native speakers - ielanguages.com Buy German Language Tutorial as a PDF e-book! German Language Tutorial includes a vocabulary and grammar review of the German language, with German realia photos taken in Germany and Austria so you can see how the language is used in real life. The PDF e-book and 127 mp3s recorded by two native speakers (most of which are not online) are available for immediate download with FREE lifetime updates. Thank you for supporting ielanguages.com! Download the first ten pages of German Language Tutorial (including the table of contents).

Buy German Language Tutorial


If you'd like to download the mp3s, please purchase German Language Tutorial.

German Past Tense

In English, this tense corresponds to I did, you saw, he cried, etc. and is used less often in spoken German than the present perfect tense. It is used more often in writing to tell a sequence of past events.  Nevertheless, even in conversational German, sein, haben, werden, wissen and the modal verbs are preferred in the simple past tense than in the present perfect tense. In addition, the simple past tense is commonly used in clauses that begin with als (when).

All regular verbs add these endings to their original stems:

-te -ten
-test -tet
-te -ten

 

Verb stems ending in -d or -t, add an -e before all endings for ease of pronunciation.


Simple Past of sein, haben & werden
sein haben werden
ich war hatte wurde
du warst hattest wurdest
er, sie, es war hatte wurde
wir waren hatten wurden
ihr wart hattet wurdet
sie waren hatten wurden


For the modal verbs, drop the umlaut found in the infinitive before adding the endings.  Mögen changes the g to ch as well.

Simple Past of Modals
können müssen dürfen sollen wollen mögen
ich konnte mußte durfte sollte wollte mochte
du konntest mußtest durftest solltest wolltest mochtest
er, sie, es konnte mußte durfte sollte wollte mochte
wir konnten mußten durften sollten wollten mochten
ihr konntet mußtet durftet solltet wolltet mochtet
sie konnten mußten durften sollten wollten mochten


The following verbs are called mixed verbs because although they have an irregular stem, they still use the imperfect endings for regular verbs.  These are the same stems that are used in the present perfect tense as well.

Simple Past of Mixed Verbs
wissen bringen denken kennen brennen nennen rennen wenden
ich wußte brachte dachte kannte brannte nannte rannte wandte
du wußtest brachtest dachtest kanntest branntest nanntest ranntest wandtest
er, sie, es wußte brachte dachte kannte brannte nannte rannte wandte
wir wußten brachten dachten kannten brannten nannten rannten wandten
ihr wußtet brachtet dachtet kanntet branntet nanntet ranntet wandtet
sie wußten brachten dachten kannten brannten nannten rannten wandten

 


 

German Phrases, Vocabulary and Grammar with free audio



Buy ielanguages.com language tutorials

If you enjoy the tutorials, then please consider buying French, Informal French, Italian, Spanish, German, Swedish, or Dutch Language Tutorials as a PDF e-book with free mp3s and free lifetime updates.

Buy French Tutorial

Buy Informal French

Both French e-books

Buy Italian Tutorial

Buy Spanish Tutorial

Buy German Tutorial

Buy Swedish Tutorial

Buy Dutch Tutorial





Please consider sending a donation of any amount to help support ielanguages.com. Thank you!

Donate




Return to top of page






Learn languages with videos and subtitles at FluentU

FluentU offers authentic videos in French, Spanish, German, English, Chinese and Japanese. Learn from captions and translations and enjoy access to ALL languages!

Learn languages with videos and subtitles at Yabla

Learn Spanish, French, German, Italian, Mandarin Chinese and English with authentic videos by Yabla that include subtitles and translations.



Learn languages by reading Interlinear Books

Learn to read languages with interlinear bilingual books that include the original language and an English translation below in a smaller font.

Udemy Language Learning Courses

Hundreds of free and paid online language learning video courses at Udemy. By native speakers and experts, from Arabic to Zulu.






© | About | Disclaimer | Privacy Policy