Language/German/Grammar/Past-Tense-—-Part-2-—-Simple-Past
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How to form the simple past (regular verbs)
To form the simple past, you take the verb stem and add the endings as follows:
| Pronoun | Ending |
|---|---|
| ich | -te |
| du | -test |
| er/sie/es | -te |
| wir | -ten |
| ihr | -tet |
| sie | -ten |
Example: kaufen (to buy)
| Present Tense | Simple Past | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Pronoun | Verb | Pronoun | Participle |
| ich | kaufe | ich | kaufte |
| du | kaufst | du | kauftest |
| er/sie/es | kauft | er/sie/es | kaufte |
| wir | kaufen | wir | kauften |
| ihr | kauft | ihr | kauftet |
| sie | kaufen | sie | kauften |
Specifics
For verbs whose stem ends in ""d"" or ""t"", an ""e"" is inserted before the ending. The simple reason for this is that otherwise the words would not be easy to pronounce. (For the same reason, by the way, an ""e"" is inserted before some endings in the present tense).
Example: reden (to talk)
| Present Tense | Simple Past | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Pronoun | Verb | Pronoun | Participle |
| ich | rede | ich | redete |
| du | redest | du | redetest |
| er/sie/es | redet | er/sie/es | redete |
| wir | reden | wir | redeten |
| ihr | redet | ihr | redetet |
| sie | reden | sie | redeten |
The ""e"" is also inserted in verbs whose stem ends in a consonant + ""m"" or ""n"". However, this does not apply to the stem endings ""lm"", ""mm"", ""rm"", ""ln"", ""nn"", ""rn"". So in fact there are only a few important verbs that are affected by this at all.
Examples: atmen (to breathe) --> ich atmete; rechnen (to calculate) --> ich rechnete; widmen (to dedicate) --> ich widmete
Irregular Verbs
Besides the infinitive, dictionaries also give (at least for the irregular verbs) the 1st person singular and the past participle. It is important that you always learn these three forms. If you know the 1st person singular in the simple past, then the irregular verbs will behave regularly again.
There are two types of irregular verbs.
Type 1 only changes the verb stem. The endings of the simple past remain the same as with regular verbs.
Example: rennen (to ran), rannte, gerannt
| Present Tense | Simple Past | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Pronoun | Verb | Pronoun | Participle |
| ich | renne | ich | rannte |
| du | rennst | du | ranntest |
| er/sie/es | rennt | er/sie/es | rannte |
| wir | rennen | wir | rannten |
| ihr | rennt | ihr | ranntet |
| sie | rennen | sie | rannten |
The second type is called ""strong verbs"". Here the stem changes and the endings are partly dropped or correspond to the present endings.
Endings of irregular verbs in the simple past:
| Pronoun | Ending |
|---|---|
| ich | -- |
| du | -st |
| er/sie/es | -- |
| wir | -en |
| ihr | -t |
| sie | -en |
Example: fahren (to drive), fuhr, gefahren
| Present Tense | Simple Past | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Pronoun | Verb | Pronoun | Participle |
| ich | fahre | ich | fuhr |
| du | fährst | du | fuhrst |
| er/sie/es | fährt | er/sie/es | fuhr |
| wir | fahren | wir | fuhren |
| ihr | fahrt | ihr | fuhrt |
| sie | fahren | sie | fuhren |
How to use the simple past
With the exception of the verbs ""haben"", ""sein"", ""denken"", ""finden"" and the modal verbs (dürfen, können, mögen, müssen, sollen, wollen) the simple past is not used at all in spoken German. In the written language, the simple past is used for literary texts and forms the narrative tense."