Präteritum of Mixed Verbs | German Grammar

A handful of German verbs play by both rulebooks at once. Like strong verbs, they change their stem vowel in the past. Like weak verbs, they add the -te- endings. These are the mixed verbs (gemischte Verben), and they form a tight, closed group you can learn in a single sitting. The good news: nearly all of them shift their vowel to -a-, so one pattern covers most of the set.

What "mixed" means

Recall the two main classes:

Weak verbs keep the stem vowel and add -te-: machen → machte, spielen → spielte.
Strong verbs change the stem vowel and add no -te-: gehen → ging, kommen → kam.

Mixed verbs combine the change of the strong class with the ending of the weak class:

bringen → brachte (vowel changed to -a- AND -te added)

So bringen is neither brang (that would be fully strong) nor bringte (fully weak). It is brachte — and that double mechanism is exactly what the name "mixed" captures.

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Mixed = strong vowel change + weak ending. Think "brachte": the a is the strong part, the -te is the weak part.

The endings: identical to weak verbs

Because mixed verbs use the weak ending set, the ich and er/sie/es forms are again identical — but this time they end in -te, not zero:

Person	Ending	bringen → brachte
ich	-te	ich brachte
du	-test	du brachtest
er/sie/es	-te	er brachte
wir	-ten	wir brachten
ihr	-tet	ihr brachtet
sie/Sie	-ten	sie brachten

So the ich = er rule still holds (ich brachte, er brachte) — but here the shared form ends in -te, exactly as it does for ordinary weak verbs like machte.

Ich brachte ihr Blumen mit, weil sie Geburtstag hatte.

I brought her flowers because it was her birthday. (neutral)

Er dachte lange nach, bevor er antwortete.

He thought for a long time before he answered. (neutral)

The mixed-verb table

This is essentially the entire group. Notice how the participle column runs in parallel: the same verbs that change to -a- in the Präteritum show the same vowel in the participle (brachte / gebracht, dachte / gedacht). Learning the two columns together reinforces both at once.

Infinitive	Meaning	Präteritum (ich/er)	Participle
bringen	to bring	brachte	gebracht
denken	to think	dachte	gedacht
kennen	to know (be familiar with)	kannte	gekannt
nennen	to name, call	nannte	genannt
brennen	to burn	brannte	gebrannt
rennen	to run	rannte	gerannt
wissen	to know (a fact)	wusste	gewusst

The pattern that covers almost the whole group

Here is the insight competitors skip: six of the seven core mixed verbs shift their vowel to -a- in the past — brachte, dachte, kannte, nannte, brannte, rannte. If you internalise "mixed verbs go to -a- and take -te," you have correctly handled the entire -enn- family (kennen, nennen, brennen, rennen) plus bringen and denken in one move.

The single outlier is wissen → wusste, which goes to -u- rather than -a-. Treat it as the one exception to remember. (The closely related modal mögen → mochte, also a vowel-change-plus-te verb, behaves the same way but is usually taught with the modals — see Präteritum of sein, haben, and modals.)

Ich kannte ihn schon aus der Schulzeit.

I had known him since school days. (neutral)

Niemand wusste, wie spät es war.

Nobody knew what time it was. (note the -u- in wusste)

Die Kinder rannten über die Wiese, und im Garten brannte ein Feuer.

The children ran across the meadow, and a fire was burning in the garden. (narrative, both verbs to -a-)

A short narrative

Mixed verbs are common in storytelling because denken, wissen, kennen and bringen describe the inner life and movements of characters:

Sie dachte an ihre Kindheit zurück. Damals kannte sie jeden im Dorf, und an Sonntagen brachte ihre Großmutter immer frisches Brot.

She thought back to her childhood. Back then she knew everyone in the village, and on Sundays her grandmother always brought fresh bread. (literary narration)

kennen vs. wissen — same class, different meaning

Both kennen and wissen translate as English "to know," and both are mixed verbs, but they are not interchangeable: kennen means to be acquainted with a person, place, or thing, while wissen means to know a fact. Their past tenses follow the mixed pattern but with different vowels — kannte (-a-) versus wusste (-u-). For the meaning distinction, see kennen vs. wissen.

Common mistakes

❌ Ich denkte den ganzen Tag an dich.

Incorrect — treating denken as fully weak; the vowel must change.

✅ Ich dachte den ganzen Tag an dich.

I thought about you all day. (vowel → a, plus -te)

❌ Er brang mir einen Kaffee.

Incorrect — treating bringen as fully strong; mixed verbs still need -te.

✅ Er brachte mir einen Kaffee.

He brought me a coffee. (brachte = a + -te)

❌ Wir kennten die Stadt gut.

Incorrect — no vowel change; this should shift to -a-.

✅ Wir kannten die Stadt gut.

We knew the city well. (kannte + -en)

❌ Sie wisste die Antwort nicht.

Incorrect — wissen shifts to -u-, not keeping -i-.

✅ Sie wusste die Antwort nicht.

She didn't know the answer. (the -u- outlier)

❌ Niemand nennte das Kind beim Namen.

Incorrect — nennen is mixed and shifts to -a-.

✅ Niemand nannte das Kind beim Namen.

Nobody called the child by name. (nannte)

Key takeaways

Mixed verbs change the stem vowel (like strong verbs) and add -te (like weak verbs).
The ich and er forms are identical and end in -te (ich brachte, er brachte).
Six of the seven core members shift to -a- (brachte, dachte, kannte, nannte, brannte, rannte).
The one common outlier is wissen → wusste (-u-).
The participle shows the same vowel as the Präteritum (brachte/gebracht), so learn them together — see mixed participles.

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