Lesson 14: Verbs in the Simple Past Tense
14.1 How to Recognize the Präteritum
Often, a verb in the Präteritum is short, sometimes the main vowel changes, and sometimes it ends with a consonant.The two verbs German learners learn first in the Präteritum are sein and haben. Sein in the Präteritum is war and means was; haben in the Präteritum is hatte and means had.
war:
| ich war | wir waren |
| du warst | ihr wart |
| er/sie/es war | sie/Sie waren |
Here, the verb form is short, the main vowel changes, and it ends with a consonant.
hatte:
| ich hatte | wir hatten |
| du hattest | ihr hattet |
| er/sie/es hatte | sie/Sie hatten |
Here, the verb form has a regular length, the main vowel stays the same, and most of the conjugated forms end with a consonant. However, the conjugation is a bit different from haben.
14.2 Verbs Commonly Used in the Präteritum
Here is a list of the other verbs commonly used in the Präteritum. Verb | Präteritum | Translation |
| werden | wurde | became |
| geben | gab | gave |
| wissen | wusste | knew |
| denken | dachte | thought |
| gehen | ging | went |
| fahren | fuhr | drove |
| bringen | brachte | brought |
| lassen | ließ | let |
| finden | fand | found |
Almost all the Modalv