Präteritum (full paradigm)

The Präteritum is German's simple past tense. It expresses a completed action or state in the past using a single verb form — no auxiliary needed. German has three verb classes in the Präteritum: weak verbs, which add a -te- suffix to the stem; strong verbs, which change the stem vowel (ablaut) and take no suffix; and mixed verbs, which combine both strategies — a stem-vowel change and a -te- suffix. In all three classes, the 1st and 3rd person singular share the same form and carry no personal ending.

• Written narrative. The Präteritum is the default tense in novels, news reports, and formal writing. When telling a story on paper, use it throughout rather than the Perfekt.

• Modal and auxiliary verbs in speech. Even in everyday conversation, war, hatte, wollte, konnte, musste, durfte, sollte are strongly preferred over their Perfekt equivalents. Learn these forms first.

• Spoken narrative in northern Germany. In northern and central German dialects the Präteritum is common in speech as well. In southern Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, the Perfekt dominates in conversation.

• seit + Präteritum. When describing a state that had already been going on for some time at a past reference point, combine seit with the Präteritum: Er wohnte seit 2010 in Köln (He had been living in Cologne since 2010 — and still was at that past moment).

Weak verbs add -te- to the infinitive stem, then the personal endings below. If the stem ends in -t or -d (or certain consonant clusters), a linking -e- is inserted before the suffix: arbeit- → arbeitete.

Strong verbs change the stem vowel (ablaut) and add personal endings directly — no -te- suffix. The 1sg and 3sg have no ending at all. The ablaut vowel must be memorised per verb.

Mixed verbs change the stem vowel and add -te-. Common examples: bringen → brachte, denken → dachte, wissen → wusste, kennen → kannte, nennen → nannte. They take the same personal endings as weak verbs.

• Regularising strong verbs. Strong verbs change their stem vowel; they do not add -te. «*er kommte» and «*sie gehte» are not German. The correct forms are er kam and sie ging. Memorise the ablaut form of each strong verb as part of its dictionary entry.

• Adding -t to the 3rd person singular. The 3sg of strong verbs is the bare ablaut stem — no ending. «*er kamt» is wrong; the correct form is er kam. The -t ending belongs to the present tense, not the Präteritum.

• Mixing ablaut and -te. A verb is either strong (ablaut only) or weak/mixed (-te). Never combine both for a purely strong verb: «*ich kamte» and «*er schriebte» are both wrong. The correct forms are ich kam and er schrieb.

• Dropping the linking -e- after -t/-d stems. When a weak verb's stem ends in -t or -d, a linking -e- is required for pronunciation. «*er arbeitte» omits it; the correct form is er arbeitete. The same applies to verbs like reden → redete, warten → wartete.