Simple past tense
The simple past tense, sometimes called the narrative past, is used to relate a sequence of events. It appears primarily in written German, e.g., in newspapers, novels, etc.
Ich kam, ich sah, ich siegte.
Der Morgen war schön, aber es regnete am Nachmittag.
Der Politiker versprach viel, und machte wenig. |
I came, I saw, I conquered.
The morning was beautiful, but it rained in the afternoon.
The politician promised a lot, but did little. |
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Regular verbs form the simple past by inserting an -(e)t- tense marker between the verb stem and the personal ending.
Personal pronouns
| ich kaufte |
wir kauften |
| du kauftest |
ihr kauftet |
Sie kauften |
|
er kaufte
sie kaufte
es kaufte |
sie kauften |
Verbs whose stem ends in -d, -t, or a consonant combination such as -gn use the -e- as part of the tense marker. Example: ich arbeitete.
Regular verbs with altered stem
Some regular verbs form the simple past by inserting the -(e)t- tense marker between an altered verb stem and the personal ending.
Personal pronouns
| ich dachte |
wir dachten |
| du dachtest |
ihr dachtet |
Sie dachten |
|
er dachte
sie dachte
es dachte |
sie dachten |
The simple past forms for the regular verbs with altered stem may be found in the list of principal parts of verbs.
The modal auxiliary verbs form their past tense by inserting the -t- tense marker between a stem without an Umlaut and the personal ending.
dürfen
können
mögen
müssen
sollen
wollen
| durfte
konnte
mochte
musste
sollte
wollte
| was permitted to
was able to, could
liked to
had to
was supposed to
wanted to |
|
Irregular verbs form the simple past by using a verb stem unique to each verb. The personal endings differ slightly from those of the regular verbs in the simple past.
Personal pronouns
| ich sang |
wir sangen |
| du sangst |
ihr sangt |
Sie sangen |
|
er sang
sie sang
es sang |
sie sangen |