Präteritum — written past

What is the Präteritum?

The Präteritum is the simple past: ich spielte, ich ging — one word, no helper verb. It is the main past tense in stories, books and news.

When you use it

• Reading novels, fairy tales and news reports.
• Writing a story or a report.
• In speech, sein, haben and modal verbs are especially common in Präteritum: war, hatte, musste.

Pattern

weak: stem + te + ending · strong: new stem

What changes

the stem (strong verbs) or the -te- (weak verbs) shows the past; the ending shows the person

Examples

• Ich **war** müde. — I was tired.
• Er **ging** nach Hause. — He went home.
• Wir **spielten** Fußball. — We played football.

Remember: Perfekt for talking, Präteritum for telling a story.

Watch out: Präteritum and Perfekt usually mean the same thing — the difference is mostly style (written vs spoken), not time.

Compare with: Perfekt — spoken past.